Royal Tusk
Altruistic
Royal Tusk frontman, Danielle Carriere came to me with a concept based around the idea of ‘Altruisim’ and whether or not is could be possible in today’s day in age.
In a time when we have groups of people gaining significant financial freedom from simply displaying kindness given toward others, it’s hard not to question ones true motives. If there is personal gain, then can a selfless act truly be altruistic?
What we found true altruism to be was far more fragile and intimate. The album artwork is a display of what we believe to be the modern version of altruism. Something delicate and private. A kindness that is not meant to be on display, and only performed for the receiver.
Album Design
Altruistic is packed full of bold, striking visuals, as well as a well choreographed and vibrant colour palette. Not just for the album, but also for each piece of single artwork. Every design was built to be completely unique, but deeply rooted together stylistically.
The strict colour palette and typography driven insert holds a very strong unified aesthetic as this won the Album Artwork of the Year award at the 2025 JUNOS in Vancouver.
Single Artwork
Each piece was create to embody themes and narratives within the respective song.
A restricted colour palette and illustration style helped to unify the set.
Royal Tusk
Tusk II
After the release of their album Dealbreaker, Royal Tusk underwent a significant change in sound and signed a worldwide contract with Entertainment One (eOne). This new sound needed a new image. Frontman, Danielle Carriere came to me with a concept based around the possible origin of the backwards V sign. The original swear by English archers at Agincourt in 1415.
The French would cut the middle finger off the hands of captured English archers so that they could no longer draw the strings of their longbow. This led to English archers taunting the French by raising their middle fingers showing they could still draw their bow. This symbolism was important to the band regarding the music industry as well as this new, significant step for them.
Tusk II Pre-Save Campaign
Using primarily footage shot by each band member from months prior in the recording studio, this video was intercut with behind the scenes shots from their two music video shoots, and assembled to promote their album release.
Album Release Social Media Optimization
On the build up to the release of Royal Tusk’s first single ‘Aftermath’ and announcement of the upcoming album we created a promo campaign consisting of four unique 9:16 videos setting the tone for the change in sound and building towards the bands new nickname "‘TUSK’. The four videos were followed by brief 16 second teaser of the song’s opening riff.
Album Design
Royal Tusk frontman, Danielle Carriere came to me with a concept based around the possible origin of the backwards V sign. The original swear by English archers at Agincourt in 1415.
The French would cut the middle finger off the hands of captured English archers so that they could no longer draw the strings of their longbow. This led to English archers taunting the French by raising their middle fingers showing they could still draw their bow. This symbolism was important to the band regarding the music industry as well as this new, significant step for them.
Album Artwork
Emphasis was placed on creating, vibrant, iconic, designs for the album and single artwork. Each unique, but deeply rooted together stylistically creating an unmistakable, unified aesthetic. It was important to the group to carry out the hand gesture imagery from the main album artwork. Various designs were created, but in the end the focus was set on Tusk II and Aftermath.
Hand Drawn Animated Music Video
For Royal Tusk’s music video Die Knowing, we wanted to create a vibrant, colourful music video that provided the same contrast to the genre as did the Tusk II album artwork.
The mesmerizing 2D imagery in each chorus was created via rotoscoping. We filmed each band member individually and then assembled, and hand drew the animation frame by frame in photoshop.
Music Video Production
A straight up performance video with some subtle practical effects. While the video comes out swinging, the band still wanted to build tension and intensity towards the end. With each new section of the song, the amps, lighting and walls were moved closer together.
The final chorus reveals that the entire video was projected into a mirror which shatters, reflecting the scattered image back at the viewer.
