Bad Waitress
Design, illustration & photography
Album design, set design, and photography for the Bad Waitress No Taste album campaign.
Inspired by the DIY style of 1970s punk design, this campaign features gritty textures, a mix of bold text and scratchy hand-written text, and photocopied images.
The cover of No Taste features an image of a woman* with a red “blood” splatter overlayed on it, paired with the album title and band name styled in Avenir Next Condensed. The letters were individually placed to mimic a manual/mechanical look, and the splatter was added for a pop of colour. To finish off the cover, the entire design (minus the splatter) was run through a halftone/photocopy effect action on Photoshop, and topped with a DIYed gritty/shoe scuff texture.
*The image of the woman on the front cover, as well as the collage of the band on the back cover were done by Lydia Lazarus. All design and other images, including the addition of the blood splatter and texture overlay on the cover were done by me.
On the insert, the text was entirely hand-lettered in a scratchy all-caps style. Scribbled out mistakes were left in to further emphasize the DIY punk look. To finish off the insert, a ripped paper border consisting of a collage of roses was added to match the jacket artwork. Like the cover art, the insert was run through the halftone/photocopy action to add grit and texture.
The vinyl labels were based on classic labels often seen on records throughout the mid-20th century, featuring a horizontal rectangle through the centre of the label noting the album side, band name, tracklist, record label logo, and copyright flanking the rectangle on either side. To grunge up this classic look, the perfect rectangle was replaced with a strip of ripped paper; the text for the band name and tracklist were individually placed to appear slightly misaligned; and a blood splatter was added in reference to the cover.
The majority of the back cover features a collage of the band (by Lydia Lazarus). A ripped piece of black paper was added on the right side for contrast and to serve as a background for the album tracklist and copyright. Just as with the front cover, the letters in the song titles were individually placed to create a manual look, and then the entire design was put through the halftone/photocopy effect.
Some close ups to see the details on the insert, vinyl labels, and back cover.
Product photos were created for use on socials to advertise the album. A diner theme was chosen to match the band’s single “Strawberry Milkshake”. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic and budget restrictions, finding a diner to use for the photos was not an option, so a diner scene was created from scratch.
The tiles were made out of construction paper, and the table was created with several layers of cardboard, paint, duct tape, and a piece of glass on top. To avoid a melting milkshake, a milkshake prop was made out of flour, water, and food colouring, with shaving cream “whipped cream” on top. To complete the diner look, salt and pepper shakers, as well as a coffee stained diner menu were added.
On the left, an image of the diner set up. A lot of editing went it to creating the final product images, including cloning out the extra glass on the corner of the table, and changing the wall colour.
On the right is a full image of the menu for the fake Delusions of Grandeur Diner (named after the Bad Waitress song of the same name) created for the shoot.