Leaving Laurel — when the quiet comes Album

Briefing

—

Ben Chadwick from Anjunbeats and Anjunadeep reached out about working on the artwork for Leaving Laurel's 'when the quiet comes' album after seeing some of the flower pressing process pictures I was sharing on my Instagram Story.

Together, we worked on photographing the pressed and dried flowers I had been collecting over the last year using a scanner. 

Research & Development

—

Inspired by the beauty persisting in death through pressing and preserving these flowers, they were a perfect visual accompaniment to the album.

We explored shooting the flowers by hand or by lumen printing and ended up using scanography to capture the flowers in high detail, leaving the lid open to create a dark background where all the tiny details and imperfections would be preserved. 

A Secret Place

—

Finding a 'secret place' amongst the new growth during early spring in Stirlingshire & Loch Lomond, Scotland, I set out to film a series of music videos to accompany the 3 lead singles from the album.

Using hiking trails as a start off point, I used local maps to find walkable paths and explored just off the marks to find spots which captured this 'quiet listening' feeling we wanted to capture. Imagine a soft gaze as life moved on around you, you'd sit still and just listen, watch. 

Music Videos

—

Scattering and positioning dried flowers and petals in the foreground gave a sense of depth and haziness to the video. Some other ideas included returning some of the original flowers used in the pressing and scanning of the artwork to where they were picked and letting them blow away in the wind.

Creating A Story

—

I wanted to build a story between each of the singles, just as the album does. As a musically cathartic release and acceptance, a lot of the tracks build in intensity and have a soft ending as we seamlessly drift into the next. 

Heavily inspired by the idea of a flower breaking down and dissolving over time, once again returning to the earth; I wanted to start the music videos with signs of life and death, tension and release. There are a few moments where we drift effortlessly as the music lets go and we take a deep breath, and we visually connect with that.

I reflected feelings of letting go and holding on with the editing. Some sections of the video are rigid and structured, creating a routine stuck in contemplation and unaware of direction, with others holding on just a little bit too long to a particular scene, giving you a sense of desire to move on, but still lost in the beauty of the moment. 

Yellow Tulip Project

—

As part of the campaign, I did a bespoke yellow tulip pressing used in an A3 poster where proceeds would go towards the Yellow Tulip Project. A campaign held close to the hearts of Leaving Laurel and the team, aimed at helping to reduce the stigma around mental illness. 

Outcome

—

Hosted on the Leaving Laurel and Anjunadeep YouTube channel, the album and singles received over 101 thousand views on YouTube, and 228 thousand streams on Spotify in the first year.

Anjunadeep has a blog where I go into detail about the flower picking and pressing process there.

Images via. Anjunadeep store.