Melissa Bergen

Our lovely little friend Melissa Bergen is a bright young artist and designer from Pasadena, CA. Her genuine love of creating hand-crafted, beautiful pieces is the reason we asked her to create the package design for our 2009 self-titled album. Melissa talks a bit about her inspirations and process and also shows us some sketches for our album cover. Continue reading for some spicy stuff.

My name is Melissa Bergen, and I’m an all around creative person for hire. I find inspiration from old magazines, photos shot on 110 film, exploring, researching, nature. I work in many different places, so my studio is more of a state of mind. When I want to feel creative, I will daydream or take myself back to the details of the places I’ve seen. I like to create new ideas out of old memories. My goal is to create work that my clients love, so that I can keep doing what I love.

[quote]When I want to feel creative, I will daydream or take myself back to the details of the places I’ve seen. I like to create new ideas out of old memories.[/quote]

I met Bao in December 2008, and he introduced me to The Twins a few months later to design their album artwork. I listened to an early rough mix of the album on repeat while creating the artwork. Every song is so listenable, and it helped to get the feeling right.

For the album artwork, we agreed to base the design off of antique Chinese medicine boxes. The challenge was to making everything look authentic, but still staying true to the twins’ style. See more process photos on Melissa’s Blog

We started by gathering as many samples of packaging as we could find. I carefully studied the patterns and redrew them to see which ones would work best. Since the linework needed to be perfect, it was a meticulous process. But I love a good challenge. See the finished package on MelissaBergen.com

Melissa loves to make beautiful things for people who appreciate great design with a human touch. Check out her website at melissabergen.com and send her a love note!