Nature Of | The Mean | Album Design

Abstract

This record design uses a colour scheme and layout that reflects the way the lyrics fit seamlessly with the music. However, when you closer into it, the meaning is uncomfortable, much like the lyrics in The Mean. The dinosaur represents the idea that life is always changing and moving on. Even though we have Paleontologists dedicated to uncovering what life was like during the time of the dinosaur’s, there is not a way for them to know what life before us was really like and how it felt. That’s how it will be for us. All the moments expressed in this album become oddly poetic and valuable when you realize that in even 70 years, 20 years, or even a week’s time, the small moments will be slowly forgotten. For this reason, the dinosaur is placed upside down. It makes you stop and question the meaning behind it. The sky in the album is there as it represents so many different things to each of us. In a way it holds all of our secrets. Moving to the inside sleeve, the lyrics are placed in a way so that a person holding the record for the first time might not understand that they are reading the lyrics and become hooked. The line from the lyrics on the black and white side of the sleeve catches the viewer off guard because of the juxtaposition of an orderly, modern layout with the startling statement.

Faculty Mentor: Constanza Pacher

Department: Design Studies