Emily Barker

In 2002 Emily Barker moved to the UK, honing her craft and establishing her presence in the music world. Two decades later Emily has returned to her home in Western Australia to set up a new base from which to tour around the globe. Emily reached out to Headjam in 2023, to develop a visual identity for her new album, Fragile as Humans, and to ensure cohesion throughout the entire album campaign. Headjam worked with Emily to translate her vision with music into a visual language that unified the album and supporting campaign assets.

Re-introduce Emily to a global audience and increase record sales.

Audiophiles, storytellers and those that appreciate artisanal craft and approaches to music making.

Fragile As Humans

“I feel like Emily has created something new that we can all relate to.”

To visually represent the duality in Fragile as Humans, we focused on capturing the delicate balance between tenderness and strength, reflecting the complexities of contemporary life and relationships. Our creative solution began with the development of a cohesive visual language. We used hand-lettering styles for the album title and booklet, drawing inspiration from the intimate, personal feel of notes and notebooks Emily used to write her lyrics. The colour palette combined warm neutrals with deep greyscale shades, providing a grounded yet dynamic foundation for the visual identity.

Photography played an important role in the album’s aesthetic, and we categorized our images into three distinct types: things, places, and Emily. The first focused on natural details like delicate branches and native flora, rendered in black and white, highlighting their detail and fragility. The second set of images captured landscapes and spaces that held personal significance for Emily, evoking a sense of nostalgia through rich colour. The third type centred on Emily herself, with personal portraits and close-ups that conveyed both strength and vulnerability.

The album art concept honed in on bushfires as a metaphor for destruction and loss, but also for rebirth and growth. We emphasised the ever-present duality in life—acknowledging heartbreak and setbacks while also recognising hope and renewal. This theme was embodied in the album’s physical design, where we burned an actual piece of wood to create the cover. For the single artwork, we used black-and-white images created with found objects and a photocopier, which were then adapted into dynamic digital assets with added motion for platforms like Spotify.

The music video for the album’s lead single presented a meditative, heartfelt take on the universally relatable experience of school portrait day. Inspired by Emily’s observations of teenagers and the unspoken hopes, fears, and dreams that they carry, the video explored the power of photography to capture fleeting moments in time. Our involvement spanned from developing the treatment to casting, selecting locations, and designing the uniforms.

For the lyric music videos, we animated key typefaces in sync with the lyrics, overlaying backgrounds featuring natural elements, landscapes, and textures. Hand-drawn elements added a lo-fi, imprecise motion, echoing the tactile feel of Emily’s notebooks.

In addition to the visual elements, we also contributed to the album’s merchandising by designing t-shirts featuring single artwork. Our social strategy centred on highlighting Emily’s unique blend of singing, songwriting, and poetry, aiming to build relationships, establish a sense of community, and position her as a mentor in the industry. To support this, we suggested and developed a filming equipment plan, ensuring Emily had the tools needed to create authentic, engaging content.

Collaborating with artists is a deeply rewarding process, especially when it comes to merging the audio and visual worlds. By facilitating Emily’s vision, we helped to create a body of work that could resonate on multiple sensory levels, making the album’s release a comprehensive and immersive experience.

The album excitedly hit #4 on the Folk charts in the UK upon launch and has continued to contribute to Emily’s 47.8k monthly listeners on Spotify.