Richard Edwards — (Ask Me About My) New Mood!
“New Mood!”, the 2022 album released by Richard Edwards marks the 6th album we’ve collaborated on between his solo work and that of his band, Margot & The Nuclear So and So’s (if memory recalls). A few singles/45s and what nots scattered in-between also. I’ve a few artists I love working with when approached— and Richard is one of them. To this day, we’ve never met, we’re separated by states and county lines, responsibilities to our circles of life, and if anything, I believe we’ve entertained one or two phone calls in 12 years. For all of technology and social media’s terrible ways with human behaviors, we found the silver lining in it to make work happen while the rest of society falls apart sharing misspelled memes and tiktok dancing tips. Weird time to be alive and clearly aware of social media’s influence with the moral decay of humanity. RE messaged in early 2021 about “New Mood!” coming down the pipeline. He’d commissioned a black and white portrait/sketch by Alistair Little, UK based illustrator. That helped set the direction. Knowing time was of the essence to produce anything more, I explained to him how my hilarious day job and time-limiting family duties might prevent me from taking the project to the colorful place it needed to be to work with Little’s portrait and representing his album to its best. Having time to myself for more than a half hour to be alone with my thoughts and hands and ideas, and not at work, is a once a month activity if I’m lucky these days. RE pitched the idea of having my son, anything we might have laying around, paintings, drawings etc., that he has produced to work into the project that could save me time. The solution and path cleared open. Otis, age six, produced the painting—amongst a series of—used throughout to anchor the album art. RE also hinted during one of our messaging strings that he loves the simplistic, bold design approach to John and Yoko’s “War Is Over! (If You Want It)”. As do I. I worked that idea/approach and execution into the design process— and to his and my satisfaction we reached the end zone on another fun collaboration with zero stress, no egos, for the love of music.
ClientRichard EdwardsServicesBranding, Direction and DesignYear2022Linkrichardcharlesedwards.com
