The Light of Day EP, as Casey describes it, "takes you on a journey through the valley of despair and up to the mountain of praise while taking all the roads in between." Visually, Casey wanted to feature photography of himself for the first time in his artistic career as well as nod to his influences.

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Casey draws inspiration from a variety of places, including his faith and his history fronting punk and post-hardcore bands as well as leading worship, and we considered these facets alongside the varied styles of the songs on the EP in our discussion of the cover. He hired Nani Williams to shoot for the cover and the resulting photos set the tone: aesthetics that are equal parts gritty, authentic, and personal.

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After exploring numerous comps, we settled on a cover that combines a dramatic photo of Casey and restrained typography. This cover establishes a brand system that incorporates Neue Plak and Caslon with a limited color palette that nods to Casey's affinity for vintage albums.

As a vinyl collector himself, Casey knew early in the production of the EP that he wanted the physical release to center around a 12" vinyl version. I began packaging design with this vinyl version, subtly expanding the brand system in ways that nod to the artwork of some of Casey's personal influences (some from which I also draw unashamed visual inspiration from—My Epic's Behold, As Cities Burn's Come Now Sleep, and August Burns Red's discography in particular). For the CD version, I worked out an alternate version of the back cover to include another of Nani's incredible photos (a fun "limited edition" idea for the physical music collectors among Casey's audience).

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For the merch to accompany the EP release, I combined line illustration, the existing type system, a vintage baseball tee-inspired script (a favorite style of Casey's), and texture to create two shirt designs and some other pieces. These shirts were incentives alongside the physical packaging and extras in the Indiegogo campaign that Casey used to fund part of the EP's production. Finally, I worked the design system into a couple of Instagram posts to promote the EP release show in the fall of 2020.

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When I have the opportunity to partner with an artist, I love getting to think through and execute solutions for a whole suite of physical products like this—and the fact that Casey is a close friend of mine made this project uniquely special. It's even better that the songs are great.

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Listen to the EP here: Light of Day
Vinyl copies available at Yellow Racket Records