Honduran / Street Eagles (2014)
One of the best things about Portland in the early 2000s was the overwhelming amount of creative people roaming the rainy streets. I was lucky enough to be thrown into the scene of musicians, artists, and genuinely interesting people. When Honduran asked me to do the album art and sleeve design for their final release before disbanding, I jumped at the opportunity to once again work with one of my favorite hardcore punk bands. Not only had the members become close friends over years of working on their various music projects, but they had become one of my favorite acts in the extreme Northwest music scene.
When starting to conceptualize what the album would look like, I began working closely with the band’s members, as well as their record label, Eolian Records, also based in Portland. I had done a lot of work for Eolian before, with underground punk and noise artists like Rabbits, Acre, Under Mountains, and a ton more. We discussed breaking away from the standard LP jacket and packages that I had become bored with in my decades of collecting them. After sharing the name of the record with me, the ideas almost instantly sparked…
Street Eagles sounded like the name for some grungy punks roaming the streets spraying paint on whatever they deemed appropriate. Or like a rough-and-tumble gang looking for a brawl. I immediately thought of the 1979 film, The Warriors, and the movie poster’s iconic, dripping, spray painted logo. Thin Lizzy’s Bad Reputation was another huge influence, drawing from the gravitas and playful ego added to the humble musicians. I decided to give Honduran the same treatment, hand-cutting stencils of the band members’ faces on the rear cover. After photographing and importing the spray painted logo into Photoshop, halftone filters were added and the layout was completed for the custom, handmade, tri-fold jacket. To round the package out, we reached out to friends — and screen printers extraordinaire — Seizure Palace, whose work made the project feel complete.
I’ve seen other design work I’ve done be tattooed on fans before, but the Street Eagles logo has the unique distinction of being the only piece of art I’ve created that was subsequently mowed into a lawn for a music video for one of the songs on the album (see gallery above). Reviewers of the album repeatedly noted the album art as standing out.
Music: Honduran
Music Video: Adam Cornelius
Screenprinting: Seizure Palace
Released by: Eolian Records