When I met with Steve to orchestrate the cover for their second album, "What Wondrous Love", he had a clear-cut vision in mind. Following the minimalist trademark of the ECM record label (whose publishing credits include the Pat Metheny Group and Keith Jarrett), Steve wanted everything framed in pure white. No fancy effects, no graphical treatments, nothing elaborate. The focus was the music, and the cover was merely the wrapping paper. Steve had a picture of Dan and himself which adorned the cover of "Love", with their names and the album title above in a straightforward Helvetica font.
A year later, when Dan and Steve emerged from the studio with a new album recorded by Webster's Barry Hufker, I got the phone call to design the front for "Whole New Light", another collection of luminous, gorgeous guitar arrangements. This time, Steve and Dan were both present for the designing session, and had a vibrant picture of a sunset, representing the new "light" contained in their record. Again, the font of choice was Helvetica; however, in this case, Steve and Dan both preferred everything in lower case. I wrote out the actual names of the track numbers ("nine", "ten", eleven", etc.) in white text on the back, providing the extremes of the grayscale, while the background graphic (a zoomed-in black-and-white version of the cover) covered the remainder of the range.
Dan Rubright and Steve Schenkel perform regularly at churches throughout the St. Louis Metro area. For more information about the duo and their label, Heart And Hand Music, please continue on to Steve's web site to order a CD, learn more about the artists, or inquire about bookings:
