Sam Burchfield

Album art designed for indie Americana artist Sam Burchfield, including the 2020 release Graveyard Flower and the 2022 release Scoundrel. The Graveyard Flower art was also used for merch designs including apparel, hats, and pins.

Scoundrel explores a darker side to Burchfield’s songwriting, with murder ballads covering themes such as lust, greed, and betrayal. Appropriately, the cover features real life 1800s-era Appalachian bootlegger Sam Burchfield posing with gun in hand.

The front cover is mirrored in the inside jacket, this time with the artist Sam Burchfield. Drawing parallels with the bootlegger, Burchfield sits with a hat covering his long hair and a guitar in his lap at the same angle as the rifle. His face is hidden, his identity obscured as if he could be a different version of the man on the cover.

The Graveyard Flower cover features a skeleton illustration holding a flower, re-contextualized into offering the flower to itself from outside the frame. Its pose can be interpreted as anguish or euphoria, and the red flower is positioned in the location of a heart, symbolizing self-love and self-acceptance.

The night sky on the back cover and inner jacket evokes the vastness of space and is a reminder to appreciate the short time we have.