Forest Henderson: You're Out of the Band!

So I have some friends in a pretty incredible band, Forest Henderson. They asked me to design the cover art for their album, "You're Out of the Band!" and requested that it resemble Salvador Dali's painting, "Les Elephants"... which, happily, Dali happens to be one of my favorite artists from one of my favorite art movements.

Originally, we were simply going to use the layout of the painting, a desert scape, replace the elephants with big speakers and a tiny stage between them with no band, just instruments. I wasn't terribly happy with how it was turning out, so I decided to try something a little different and developed what we would come to know as "The Speaker Creature". Basically just speakers with long legs, a la the Elephants in Dali's painting. They're actually pretty eerie looking, I think, and are ridden by the initials of Forest Henderson, "F" and "H". On the side of the speakers would be the rest of each word, "orest" and "enderson". The Speaker Creatures sort of became the indirect mascot of their band, which was releiving because I was afraid of what their reaction would be to them.

They had asked that a plane be flying by in the distance spelling out in smoke, "You're out of the band!", a plane didn't quiet fit with the atmosphere and so we went with a crow carrying a sign with the title written on it. For the inside of the cover, I had the creatures collapsed and dead over the stage with the "E-N-D" speakers being the only visible speakers left amongst the rubble.

I personally think HR Geiger should look into making a painting with the Speaker Creatures, or have them fight a Predator... or Arnold Schwarzenegger... mmm, epic.

You're out of the band!
~ Mark