In 2014, following the enormous popular success of "Turning Page," featured in Twilight: Breaking Dawn Pt. 1, and the landmark first installment of his conceptual Atlas series, Ryan was commissioned to compose a cover of “The Safety Dance” by Men Without Hats to be used in an episode of The Carrie Diaries. At the time, I was a long-time fan and new member of Ryan's small design team, and he asked me to put together comps for the single.

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For his more conceptual projects like Yearbook and Atlas, Ryan had always collaborated with fine artists for painted covers, and for this single I knew I wanted to establish something different. In one, I experimented with using a variation of my own handwriting on a thematic image. Ryan immediately loved it and chose it for release. Little did I know that one cover would turn into 29 further commissions from shows like Grey's Anatomy and The Vampire Diaries, and the handwriting/image combo would serve as the template for all the rest, giving the Covers project just enough of a handmade feel to stand alongside the rest of Ryan's discography.

We had a ton of fun creating this first set of covers, as Ryan would toss out a few adjectives to describe the tone of his version of each song and I would write out the title numerous times in my sketchbook. At the time, Unsplash was a brand new resource and I leaned heavily into their fledgling library for imagery. The covers for Total Eclipse of the Heart and All Through the Night even garnered a spot on Unsplash's first year in review. We continued the trend for the next six years, and over time the covers became brighter in color and more saturated, which aided in rounding out the whole collection.

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For the compilations, Covers Vol. 1-3, Ryan had the idea to use some of his own photography—he's an avid traveler and loves taking photos of aerial landscapes—so I blended a few of his shots together and we established a theme that carries through each volume. Ryan also loves beautiful physical media, and I had the opportunity to expand the Covers brand into vinyl and CD releases.

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The Covers project was a huge success for Ryan, introducing him to many new fans. The songs have been heard by countless people over the years, with "Chasing Cars" (Snow Patrol)*, "Already Gone" (Kelly Clarkson), and "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" (The Proclaimers) gaining over half a billion streams together and every other track clocking in at over a million streams each on Spotify alone. It's an incredible honor to have worked with Ryan on such a long-form project, and I'm grateful for the years of collaboration!

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If you're an artist looking to build your brand in a substantive and holistic way, I'd love to hear about your music—book a discovery session and I can help set you up.

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* An anecdote: Ryan was commissioned for the "Chasing Cars" cover on a CRAZY short turnaround (I think it was around 24 hours to complete the track), and he called me wondering if we could get a cover done while he was working on it. 30 minutes later, we had a final cover—and that song has over 150 million streams. Love it.