HAPPY PILL ACADEMY ‘…and then to black’ ep

Record cover and Poster Art

(thehappypillacademy.bandcamp.com)

The Happy Pill Academy is from London in the United States of Britain. It is a one-person endeavour but that one person maintains a healthy relationship with the other, largely imaginary, members of the band.

The title track is about someone close to you passing away over a considerable amount of time. There are four bonus tracks. What a deliciously dark bargain. Have a listen to the track below.

• Illustration

• Poster design

• Art direction

Process

Through various chats with Matt (the client), we were about to pull out some key thoughts and words. ‘The Happy Pill Academy’ sounds like a band or off people or collective, but is in fact just Matt. He sings, plays all the instruments and produces all the tracks. The idea that he had ‘virtual’ band mates became a strong idea, and once I saw the video for a previous track he had done, the leap to an ‘imaginary’ band was easy. Making them ‘Pill Heads’ was an easy take especially with the name of the band.

Below are the sketches I worked. Classic band Pose. The location taken from pervious ‘THPA’ promotional imagery. And feedback from Matt.

Extras

The album artwork really leant itself to the promotional images and marketing such as posters and social banners, which I created using the logo work of THPA’s previous graphic designer.