Graphic Design Archives – Herm the Younger

11th October 2024

Release Day: Inspired

Today marks the release of Ben Mwanga's debut ten-track album, Inspired. I was trusted with the design of the main album cover, which set the aesthetic for the whole project.

The album cover follows a classic layout with an intimate portrait in the centre and beautiful typography. This is a reflection of the music, which is poetic and steeped in emotion.

More insight into this collaboration will follow as the project is revealed.

credits

Commissioned by Ben Mwanga
Designed by Herm the Younger
Photography by René Fitzek

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Published by Herm the Younger in Album Cover, Graphic Design

3rd September 2024

Release Day: All These Moments Will Be Lost

I'm honoured to share the artwork I created for Ontzieling's debut EP, which releases this Thursday. Limited edition vinyl copies are available now.

About the Album

Step into the haunting soundscape of a dystopian future with Ontzieling's debut 'All These Moments Will Be Lost'. This record with Blade Runner-esque qualities is a blend of ambient and experimental music, meticulously crafted to immerse you in the eerie ambience of a crumbling metropolis. Each track is a journey through desolate streets, abandoned buildings, and the haunting echoes of a society that once was. 'All These Moments Will be Lost' captures the essence of isolation, decay, and the ghostly remnants of human existence.

The artwork is created by Herm the Younger:

“We are faced with a scene that could be in a future era or at the beginning of the world. An epic scene, balanced in the frame and dissolving with time. Even the significant moment captured here is slipping into obscurity and will soon be forgotten.”

‘Ontzieling’ is an ambient project by Michael Paap, a music producer hailing from the city of Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The project meticulously explores the realm of soundscapes, dark versus light, drone, noise and lo-fi, seamlessly weaving them together with the modular synthesizer. Each composition is an unfiltered glimpse into a moment, a live creation captured in one continuous take. The project’s essence lies in embracing the present, record, unplug and move forward.

credits

Commissioned by Michael Paap
Designed by Herm the Younger
Released by Esc.rec

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Published by Herm the Younger in Album Cover, Graphic Design, Vinyl Record

8th May 2024

Voice of the Wild

I'm pleased to reveal the cover I designed for Voice of the Wild by Million Moons, the first single from their second full-length album.

The album is heavily inspired by Antarctic voyages of days gone by and tells the story of a doomed polar expedition. After digging deep into public archives, I found the remarkable photography of Frank Hurley (1885–1962), an adventurer and photographer present on those same missions.

The covers mix historic photos from Antarctic missions with icy palettes and beautiful typography

From the official press release:

“Herm the Younger created the album artwork, collaging archival photographs from Antarctic expeditions to create a haunting landscape that conveys the beauty and isolation these explorers encountered.”

The main album artwork and covers for all seven tracks will be released with the album on July 5th.

Cover art for the second single: *Endure, Overcome*

The full case study is now live:
I May Be Some Time

Credits

Patron
Million Moons

Art Direction
Herm the Younger

Photography
Frank Hurley

Published by Herm the Younger in Album Cover, Graphic Design

8th March 2024

Featured on Semplice.com

I was honoured to be featured this week in the Semplice Showcase. To everyone coming from there, welcome and I hope you enjoy exploring my work.

You are encouraged to download the artwork you love, save it to your mood boards, and reach out directly if you have ideas for collaboration.

I've built several websites using Semplice since 2018. The plugin allows deep (but simple) customisation, it's a one-time payment, and their support team personally help you when you have questions.

It's a lovely feeling to find a well-designed, functional, and affordable tool. Semplice is exactly that. I highly recommend it for building design portfolios and other websites that need a special touch.

Learn more about Semplice →

Special thanks to Tobias van Schneider and the Semplice team for featuring my work.

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Published by Herm the Younger in Graphic Design, Milestones, Website

1st March 2024

Break (Work in Progress)

New artwork – entitled Break – coming soon.

Published by Herm the Younger in Art, Graphic Design, Illustration, Work In Progress

2nd February 2024

Album Cover Options

When working on an album cover, I always present two or three design options. Not only does this allow the musician to choose the best artwork, but it pushes us to explore several directions which interpret the music and brief in different ways.

Seen below are a selection of these from past projects:

From here, the favourite design is chosen and either finalised or refined further into the finished artwork. Work carries on patiently until something truly special is arrived at. That's what makes the difference.

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If you have a design project you'd like to work on, please reach out:
h@hermtheyounger.com

I would love to hear from you.

Published by Herm the Younger in Album Cover, Graphic Design, Process

7th October 2023

Coming Soon: VSO

I had the special opportunity to design both the inside and outside of Mike Futcher's first novel. The book, called Void Station One, will be released on November 1^st with a case study showing the artwork we created in detail.

Published by Herm the Younger in Book Cover, Graphic Design

15th July 2023

Impermanence

I was honoured to design the cover for Casey Well's debut album Impermanence, complete with CD packaging and a wealth of original artwork. This project is the culmination of several years of creative collaboration between myself and Wells.

Five singles* that I designed artwork for appear on the album. Never before printed, they are woven through the booklet where they accompany the lyrics of each song.

A full case study for this project will follow when the album is released.

*These singles are: Keep It Coming ⬩ Moving On ⬩ Brand New Age ⬩ TMB ⬩ Archives

Credits

Patron
Casey Wells

Design
Herm the Younger

Published by Herm the Younger in Album Cover, Graphic Design

3rd November 2022

Downwards

I'm pleased to reveal the cover I designed for Downwards, the 2021 single by Pallasades.

The cover was developed in tandem with World II and III. After a thousand changes and refinements, it became what you see here: layers and layers of chaos and disorder.

Credits

Patron
Pallasades

Design
Herm the Younger

Published by Herm the Younger in Album Cover, Graphic Design

10th May 2022

eBook Cover

I designed the cover for Johan Qin's recently published eBook, How To Think Like A Talented Creator. Johan was seeking a design that would provide a strong visual presence for his text. Something original, captivating, and formal.

Custom logotype for the author's personal branding.

Design Notes

The final cover is comprised of three components:

typography

The book's title is set in Caslon, an old English typeface which has been used in books for centuries. The serifs of this font and the classical layout add formality to the design, a key part of the brief.

background

The background comes from a much larger artwork of mine, A Sudden Vision. This ethereal backdrop was changed in every graphic to avoid its use becoming repetitive.

border

The border adds subtle decoration and frames the cover. As Johan noted, it also "makes it look like a reflective mirror, so the reader is getting an accurate reflection of themselves as a creator".

Quotes

Several key quotes were selected from the text and made into graphics. These feature throughout the book and were also used for promotion.

Every one of the 40+ quotes has a uniquely textured background. This ensures that each one is interesting in its own right, worth reading, and avoids the visual pollution caused by using the same assets over and over again.

Conclusion

By working closely with the author I was able to design a cover that sets the tone for the content and quality of the book, and the graphics which helped him to promote it.

Credits

Patron
Johan Qin

Art Direction
Herm the Younger

Published by Herm the Younger in Graphic Design, Typography