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ETHEL CAIN
This personal project was a deep dive into the world of Preacher’s Daughter, the concept album by Ethel Cain. The goal was to create an alternative artwork based on my own interpretation of the album’s haunting themes—spirituality, religious trauma, loss, and the dark descent of its protagonist.
The design process started organically while immersing myself in the music, absorbing the album’s intricate storytelling and southern gothic atmosphere. The final artwork depicts a silhouetted woman dancing with a devilish figure against a stark grey sky, capturing the album’s eerie and tragic undertones. Three large, inverted crosses hover above them, reinforcing the themes of corrupted faith and doom.
For typography, I paired an ornate gothic display font with a clean Swiss sans serif, balancing the album’s raw, emotional depth with a structured design aesthetic. The tracklist is styled like a movie poster credit roll—both a nod to the cinematic quality of the album’s storytelling and a visual cue that foreshadows its grim narrative.
Beyond the main artwork, I also adapted the design into a cassette layout. The packaging plays with contrasts—at first glance, it appears innocent and delicate, but upon closer inspection, it subtly hints at the horror within the album’s story. The project was a personal exploration of how music, visuals, and narrative can intertwine to create an immersive experience.
