After filtering through my normal documentary/docu-series search on YouTube, I came across Andy Mineo’s Uncomfortable album release approach. Evoking a sense of claustrophobia or “uncomfortableness,” the video showed the process behind crafting the album cover. From this moment, I knew that this album campaign was #DONEGRAYT.
THE COVER: Reach Records seemingly have a knack for pushing the limit each and every album release with their creative approach, thus Mineo’s Uncomfortable cover not being an exception. From the cover to much of the online promotion materials, the creative direction portrays a lack of comfort which reflects the music–as Mineo addresses topics that are taboo to systemic manhood, white privilege, and Christianity. The thought process behind the cover is what is dynamically #DONEGRAYT. View the unveiling of the album cover, HERE.
INSTAGRAM ALL-ACCESS FEATURE: Andy Mineo & the Reach Records team meticulously planned the rollout for this album, apparent in all-access, behind the scenes Instagram pages for each song on the Uncomfortable Album. Here’s how it works: First, you’d go to @uncomfortable_album on Instagram and then select the song you’d want to know more about.
After you select the song, you’d be prompted to the post for that song; which, has the song’s page tagged to proceed to next. For example, if you were to select “Vendetta,” you’d be prompted to @uncomfortable_9 which would take you to the song’s Instagram page.
Once you’re on the “Vendetta” page, you’ll be able to identify production credits, behind the scenes photos, additional artwork for the song, and a behind the scenes video where Mineo discusses the inspiration and more insight into the song.
THE GRAYDE:
Creativity: The creativity poured into this album release is awe-inspiring and attests to the thought processes, strategic planning, and significant execution the Mineo team managed, in order to provide an all-access look into this Uncomfortable Project via a prominent.
Distinction: Reach Records has a canny ability in releasing projects with supplemental content to engage the listener deeper into the experience of each respective project. Similar to the Beyoncé Video-Per-Song approach, Lecrae released a lyric video for every song on his Anomaly Project.
Connectivity: Although you may get lost in maneuvering the Instagram pages and posts of individual songs, the [grayt] thing about this album is that you are able to connect with every corner of this Uncomfortable Project.
This GRAYT Project is definitely a nice addition to my musical and design palette while living in China for the next few months.
#DONEGRAYT explores visual projects, musical releases, cultural initiatives, branding efforts, advertising, and marketing campaigns, analyzing their creativity, distinction, and connectivity.
