Fresh From The Field: Anitya – The Lyric Book – By Alexandra ‘Severely’ Dawson
When Tom Scott described Anitya as ‘his first daughter’, designer Alexandra ‘Severely’ Dawson responded with a lyric book that feels intimate, feminine and strong — layered with collage, childhood drawings and thoughtful type.
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The brief
The brief for this project was to design an A5 lyric book for Tom Scott’s newest album, Anitya. The aim was to create a tactile, intimate companion piece that visually echoed the album’s themes while still functioning as a clean, readable collection of lyrics. Although there weren’t any strict limitations, I introduced a creative constraint of my own. I wanted to build the foundation of each spread through hand-cut collage, before moving into digital layout.
The design response
Using old magazines, and old drawings of mine to create textured, analogue compositions, I turned the unreleased album on and spent a whole day ripping, pasting, and scanning – which was almost meditative. I felt very fortunate to be creating artwork for such a personal and beautiful album.
There was definitely an element of planning within this process – some of the layouts I loved, didn’t make the cut. I had to balance the handmade elements with the precision needed for print. I also digitally adorned some of the spreads with personal imagery from Tom, as well as drawings he made as a child.
Selecting the right typefaces for this project was also something that took a lot of thought. Tom once described this album to me as ‘his first daughter’, so I knew I needed the titles to feel feminine, but also, with enough weight to say ‘I have a story to tell’. I think working within this self-imposed constraint ultimately pushed the project into a more experimental and meaningful direction. The book was printed in 148gsm Mohawk Eggshell.
The design team
https://www.futureghosts.nz/
@sever.ely
@_futureghosts
The client team
Tom Scott
@tomscottygb
https://www.yearsgoneby.net/
