Overview: Two limited-edition 7-inch reissues for Suicide Squeeze Records, each with original alternate artwork. Screenprinted, small run (1,000 pressings each), designed to be collector's items. I've been an Elliott Smith fan for a long time, so this was a special project for me.

Challenge: Elliott Smith's work has a specific register: quiet and intimate music, a distressed and handmade aesthetic. Screenprinting adds constraints: non-overlapping color layers, a limited palette, some built-in imprecision. The challenge was translating his visual language into that medium.

Solution: I designed to the constraints rather than around them. The limited palette wasn't a compromise; it shaped the visual language. I held the medium in mind while generating ideas, looking for imagery that would translate into simple sillhouettes. The black balloon, for instance, came directly from the lyric "I'm floating in a black balloon." But the image stuck because it was also a perfect screenprinting subject: a simple, contained form that could live in a single color layer. From there, I separated the artwork into non-overlapping layers, chose spot colors carefully, and added textures to give the artwork depth.