Nite Bike
Nite Bike is a band formed by myself and three friends. Having no prior aesthetic for our band, I wanted to create album art that would represent the name and style of Nite Bike. The name for the album was pitched by one of my friends and I just loved how simple and funny it sounded. It also gave me an idea for what kind of design and theme the album would have.
I had the idea of placing a light bulb on the front cover but I wanted to make it different somehow. So instead of the traditional light bulb image, I created the spiral design of the newer CFL light bulbs. It’s a familiar shape that has an electric feel to it. Connecting the light bulb to the cat’s tail on the back cover was kind of a happy accident that came about as I was designing the front. I liked how it connected the front and back which then gave me an idea about how to tie the entire design of the album art together.
Originally, I wanted the foldout to feature a lot of different images sprouting from the blue line that originated on the cover. But after some thought, it would go against the simple design of the front and back. Instead I went with a simpler design. This foldout image was a Ferris wheel and I enlarged it until it looked more abstract.
The design for the records is where I got to play with the cat imagery. I liked the idea of a design that would work with the way a record spins on the turntable. Then I split the cat image into two cats for the second side of the record.
For the sleeve insert, I went with a bike on the back since I hadn’t included any bike imagery despite the name of the band being Nite Bike. A bike just seemed too obvious and I wanted to bury it a bit in the album design. On the front of the insert, I just did a simple text and square design to contrast the more complex shapes on the album cover.
This is an example of what the lyrics pages would look like. It’s a simple design that keeps the focus on the words. Again, I used a blue line at the bottom of the pages to mirror the way the album front cover connects to the back.