Deepening The River is a jazz suite by saxophonist Paul Towndrow, originally commissioned for the Glasgow Festival in 2018. It premiered at The Merchants House of Glasgow and had a follow-up performance at Celtic Connections in 2019. The suite was only meant to be performed twice, but one listener loved it so much they offered to fund a full recording.
I’d been designing posters and flyers for Paul for years, so I was thrilled when he asked me to create the album artwork. This was my first time designing for a complex folded digipak, equal parts nerve-wracking and exciting, but I couldn’t wait to dive in.
Paul already had a striking cover photo chosen, along with professional images from the recording session to feature inside. Since the title refers to Glasgow’s River Clyde, he wanted to use an old map of the river as a visual timeline for the suite, with time stamps marking which musicians were improvising at key moments.
I sourced an 18th-century map of Glasgow from the National Library of Scotland (dated 1792) and paired it with a classic serif typeface that matched the period feel.
Original map of old Glasgow (left) and map as it appears in the album artwork (right)
Original photograph for cover (left) and final cover (right)
The map also ran subtly in the background of the booklet pages. I originally pitched a collage of overlapping photos with torn edges, but Paul preferred a cleaner look so we placed them in a simple grid and toned everything sepia to harmonise with the map.
Paul also wanted the names of every musician featured in the recording on the cover, so I supplied a few layout options to get the right balance. On top of the creative work, I had to follow precise print guidelines, building the booklet in printer’s pairs and fitting the digipak art into an InDesign template. In the end, we were both delighted with how it turned out. A project that felt every bit as special as the music itself.
Final front and back cover artwork
Section of final map artwork
Alternate cover options
Double page spreads from album booklet