Irish musician Conor Doherty’s approached me to design the artwork for his debut album, The Savage and the Tender. The album’s title is a line from the Robert Burns poem, Now Westlin Winds. In the album notes, Conor sees the song as, ‘A beautiful juxtaposition of the themes of man’s destruction of the environment and his need for romantic love’.
Burn’s descriptions of native birds inhabiting the Scottish Highlands runs throughout and the bird’s skull imagery evokes both the savagery and fragility of the environment. The hand drawn type adds a sense of organic desolation that complements the lyrics to this classic song.
