Logo

Adobe Illustrator

CONCEPT: The name Forging Reverie is meant as an expression of the artistic process—literally, "forging" (i.e. culling, crafting, sculpting) "reverie" (i.e. inspiration, rumination, musing) into songcraft. The contrasting tones of the two words reflect the band's habit of pairing aggressive energy with ethereal melodic vignettes. Throughout the design, this dichotomy is echoed with intention by sharp, angular forms juxtaposed with flowing curves.

LETTERING: The letterforms were designed entirely without the use of typefaces, drawn to represent two contrasting type styles—rigid, serifed "Forging" over fluid, sans-serif "Reverie." In both words, the letters alternate in size, inspired by musical rhythm.

EMBLEM: The minimal "FR Emblem"—comprising just the "FR" initials and the "flame/water" line-art to their left—was designed to optionally stand on its own.

BRUSHSTROKE: A blue, hand-painted adaptation of the logo was created during the album art photo shoot for the bands LP Motion Canvas. (See below)

Motion Canvas LP artwork
& product art

Photography, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator
White body makeup, acrylic paint

Portrait photography by Chehalis Hegner with consultation from Arthur Ganson
Body paint assistance from Tonya White and Bethany Myers
Additional album art models: Derek Heidemann, Justin Newton, Sean Gregoire, and Ryan Kinghorn

PROJECT: The artwork for the LP Motion Canvas is the result of ambitious planning, collaboration, and budgeting. The final artwork selected for the cover, alongside several alternates, was composed before all of the materials were brought together.

CONCEPT: The "motion canvas" concept is illustrated by painting the band members white, as if part of a "living canvas," with the logo painted by hand onto the fabric above. The white "canvas" backdrop is actually a giant patchwork of burlap, chosen for its affordability and thicker, more visible texture, in lieu of actual canvas' finer grain.

LETTERING: The album title is spelled in the foreground with beams of light apparently cast by an old-fashioned projector, held by guitarist Derek Heidemann. This effect was created using a technique called light painting; individual letter forms were separately photographed, using long-exposures and drawing with a flashlight in a dark room, then collaged together digitally.

On-Disc Artwork
& Hand-Built Packaging

Photography, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator
Acrylic Paint

Process assistance from Derek Heidemann

SLEEVE FRONT: These simple DIY sleeves were decorated by laying them all out in a grid and spattering them in a "Pollockian" all-over pattern, resulting in a unique design on each.

SLEEVE BACK: The backs of the sleeves bear the basic liner-notes, arranged and printed on a custom label, then adhered by hand.

LIMITED RUN: To top it off, only 100 of these were made, each hand-numbered on a backside corner. The result is an inexpensive, do-it-yourself, labor of love, wherein each unit is unique.

ON-DISC: The on-disc artwork is an arrangement of the hand-painted Forging Reverie logo above a radially distorted treatment of the light-painted album title, over a real canvas texture photographed separately.

Motion Canvas LP Poster

Photography, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator
White body makeup, acrylic paint

Portrait photography by Chehalis Hegner with consultation from Arthur Ganson
Body paint assistance from Tonya White and Bethany Myers
Additional album art models: Derek Heidemann, Justin Newton, Sean Gregoire, and Ryan Kinghorn

The Motion Canvas poster was designed to celebrate the release of the album, using alternative images that didn't make their way into the album art design. A print of the poster was included in the bundle with physical disc purchases of the album.

Digital Album Booklet

Photography, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator
White body makeup, acrylic paint

Portrait photography by Chehalis Hegner Arthur Ganson
Body paint assistance from Tonya White and Bethany Myers
Additional album art models: Derek Heidemann, Justin Newton, Sean Gregoire, and Ryan Kinghorn

Taking advantage of the alternative album art images, this rich digital album booklet was designed to carry the lyrics and album production notes in a digital format, to be included as a PDF with digital downloads of Motion Canvas.

Motion Graphics

Photography, Adobe Photoshop

Portrait photography by Chehalis Hegner with consultation from Arthur Ganson
Body paint assistance from Tonya White and Bethany Myers
Additional album art models: Derek Heidemann, Justin Newton, Sean Gregoire, and Ryan Kinghorn

PROJECT: These motion graphics (or "cinemagraphs") were created for the title banner of Forging Reverie's website for the Motion Canvas release; the two images would alternate every several seconds on the site (see video below). In one animation the band's logo appears to be "painted" in the air, and in the other beams of light cast from the projector appear to "shimmer" as they spell the album title in the foreground—effects intended to create a feeling of depth and "life," evoking curiosity about the album's concept.

PROCESS: The animations were created frame by frame, using Adobe Photoshop—working backwards, erasing pieces of the painted logo, each frame—and drawing each beam of light from the projector and then adjusting its opacity, manually, for each frame.

Website

Photography, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Wordpress, HTML & CSS

PROCESS: Forging Reverie's official website was built using Wordpress. Starting with the foundation of a highly-flexible, blank Wordpress theme called Thematic, great control was achieved in styling a unique website from the template.

CONCEPT: The site was designed alongside the release of the band's album Motion Canvas, so the aesthetic of the site is based on the same imagery as the album art. Site content is displayed on a giant, blank canvas, with the band members above, painted all white, as if, themselves, part of a living canvas.

DIY Apparel

Shirts: Spray-bottle Bleach & Stencil
Hoodies: Hand-operated Silkscreen & Stencil

Process assistance from Derek Heidemann, Sean Gregoire, and Ryan Kinghorn
Additional apparel models: Tonya White and Christina Wilson

THE GOAL: Budget merchandise with an “indie” appeal.
Two custom methods for branding fabric by hand were invented, using stencils of Forging Reverie's “FR emblem." A side benefit of both techniques is that each piece results in a unique iteration of the design.

SHIRTS: Bleach is sprayed through the stencil onto the garment. Excess bleach from the stencil is dripped and spattered onto the shirt, creating a unique pattern on each.

HOODIES: The stencil is taped to a silkscreen in order to print each logo by hand. The black hoodies get an intentionally misaligned double print of yellow over orange, while the white get an extra unique spattering of blue, similar to that of the shirts.