Art Direction – TOVE LO – LADY WOOD PHASES I & II

Tove Lo’s ‘LADY WOOD’ Phases I & II are two of my favourites albums for 2017. I discovered the first part a bit too late, but I was more than in time for the second. My iTunes says I’ve listened to both albums 327 times (for Phase I) and 72 times (for Phase II, who was released in November. So yes, I visually have this album in my mind and it needed to be shown.

LADY WOOD is the intimate story of the Swedish singer, dealing with love, loneliness, fear, confidence, and of course, sex, as the lady wood is her female version of the male wood – when you’re happy to ‘meet’ someone you really like. Anyway. It’s always a question of duality, as songs can be incredibly cool and happy, but also terribly sad and full of anger. Phase I is visually clear, sexy, bright, positive; Phase II is visually wet, hot, dark, negative. I needed to show this duality again by melting the two in one the good way, that’s why the text is in place and upside down.

More than that, Tove’s photos in 2016 and 2017 for the album promo are incredibly hot, but not vulgar in any way. I thought it would be a good idea to get the best of them in a book, mixing photos, songs lyrics, and of course, the two albums / two phases / four chapters. That’s how this project happened.