Awol One & Factor – The Landmark
Fake Four Inc., 2011

CD & VINYL

This is the third album cover i’ve designed for this super rap duo. Recently I’ve done a couple of big-ass road trips from the bottom of Texas up to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada (where Factor lives and I used to) and then loop around to the West Coast stopping all over — including L.A. (where Awol is from) — before coming back down to Texas. So when the guys told me they wanted something with wings on the cover, my first thought went to my 2001 Toyota Echo and all the bugs it has smashed while driving between these places. So I got out my old Biology 101 dissection kit and picked up winged insects from the engine compartment of the car. It was actually pretty hard to find bugs that were still in one piece or that were not so dried out that they’d just crumble when trying to lift them. I had just replaced the car battery a couple of days prior and when doing so I regrettably cleaned out at least a half dozen dead moths from the sides of the battery tray… unbelievably I couldn’t find a single moth anywhere else in the car. Still, I managed a decent selection that I think represents fairly well for both Saskatoon and Los Angeles.

Factor – Lawson Graham
Fake Four Inc., 2010

CD & Vinyl

Ron Contour (aka Moka Only) & Factor – Saffron
Fake Four Inc., 2010

Keeping with the album title, I used a Saffron flower as my inspiration for this one.

Awol One & Factor – Owl Hours
Fake Four Inc., 2009 CD

This cover was a collaboration with artist Nicole Foran. I didn’t want the “Owl” reference to beat you over the head with obviousness, so a Snowy Owl image was used, which is an excerpt from a Mixed Media (Linocut, Acrylic Paint, Marker) print of Nicole’s. I wanted a timeless feel with the type and also added subtle reference to wings with the tilde characters (~) that encapsulate the title.

Myka 9 – 1969
Fake Four Inc., 2009

Lazerus-Pit did the cover illustration for this one and I did the type and the rest of the layout.

Factor – Chandelier
Fake Four Inc. / Hue, 2008 CD

This album came out in two formats, a digipak version in North America on Fake Four Inc. and a jewel case version in Japan on Hue Records. More info can be found here.

The design was playing on the title, I wanted to give the impression of light without being so literal as to put an actual chandelier on the cover. The images are all out-of-focus photographs of July 4th fireworks I took at the end of a Cincinnati Reds baseball game.

Epic – Aging is what friends do together
Hand’Solo Records, 2008 CD

Joe Dub & Factor – Live in 75
Side Road Records, 2007

Def3 & Moka Only – Dog River
Ship Records, 2007

Awol One & Factor – Only Death Can Kill You
Side Road Records, 2007 CD + Vinyl LP