Travis Smith (artist)

Travis Smith (born February 26, 1970 in San Diego , California ) is an American graphic artist . He is mainly known for his artworks for metal bands like Anathema , Death , Devin Townsend , Katatonia , Nevermore , Opeth , Soilwork or Strapping Young Lad .

Career

At the start of his career, Smith designed the music album covers for a friend's band, the progressive metal band Psychotic Waltz . By working for this band, he was able to make connections that eventually allowed him to embark on a full-time career in the arts. From 2006 to 2011, Smith worked with nearly 100 bands. Except for one semester in high school , Smith did not go through any formal arts education.

Smith lives in San Diego.

style

Smith's work essentially consists of designing album covers for metal bands . He is known for his “dark and introspective” style, which is largely based on photographs, which are then digitally combined with other media.

When creating the cover of the band Avenged Sevenfold's album Nightmare, for example, he painted a few textures with acrylic and watercolors, scanned them and mixed them with the entire picture. For special components like the skull and the girl, he digitally painted over the photos and then inserted them into the originals.

Incomplete overview of Smith's works

year	album	Artist	Credit (s)
1998	Elements of Anger	Sadus	Artwork
	Eyesore EP	Skinlab	Artwork
	Something Wicked This Way Comes	Iced Earth	Artwork
	The Sound of Perseverance	Death	Artwork
1999	adagio	Solitude Aeturnus	Artwork, design
	Alive in Athens	Iced Earth	Artwork
	Demons & Wizards	Demons & Wizards	Artwork, design, layout, logo
	Disembody: The New Flesh	Skinlab	Artwork, design
	Dreaming Neon Black	Nevermore	Design, illustrations
	Necroshine	Overkill	Artwork
	Still life	Opeth	Photography, booklet design
	Tonight's Decision	Katatonia	Design, layout, illustrations
2000	Black Emotions	Beseech	Cover
	Bloodletting	Overkill	Design, illustrations, layout concept
	Dead Heart in a Dead World	Nevermore	Design, illustrations
	Lightbringer	Power Symphony	Illustrations
	manifestation	Malevolent Creation	Design, illustrations
	Only Law Is Survival	Hate plow	Cover
	Thane to the Throne	Jag tanks	Cover
2001	Blackwater Park	Opeth	Design, cover
	Horror show	Iced Earth	Layout, illustrations
	Last Fair Deal Gone Down	Katatonia	Design, photography
	Mechanized Warfare	Jag tanks	Artwork
	Profoundemonium	Trail of Tears	Layout, cover
	Rapture	Dragonlord	Design, layout, illustrations
	Tonight's Music	Katatonia	Photography, design
	Terria	Devin Townsend	Design, illustrations
2002	Abigail II: The Revenge	King Diamond	Artwork
	Dark Genesis	Iced Earth	Artwork, design, layout
	Deadsoul Tribe	Deadsoul Tribe	Design, layout, illustrations
	Deliverance	Opeth	Design, photography
	Despise the Sun	Suffocation	Artwork
	Envenomed II	Malevolent Creation	Cover
	Natural Born Chaos	Soilwork	Artwork, layout
	Resurrection Through Carnage	Bloodbath	Digital editing, design
	Souls Highway	Beseech	Cover
	To welcome the fade	November's Doom	Artwork
	Tribute to the Gods	Iced Earth	Artwork, design, layout
	The will to kill	Malevolent Creation	Artwork
	Words as Carriers	Matt Zane	Artwork, layout
	Wrecking Everything	Overkill	design
2003	Accelerated evolution	Devin Townsend	Graphic design, layout design
	Damnation	Opeth	Cover, booklet
	Enemies of Reality	Nevermore	Artwork, layout
	Exit through fear	Society 1	Artwork
	The Glorious Burden	Iced Earth	layout
	Killbox 13	Overkill	Design, layout
	A Murder of Crows	Deadsoul Tribe	Design, layout, illustrations
	The Puppet Master	King Diamond	Artwork
	Viva Emptiness	Katatonia	Art direction, design
	Glow	Unjust	logo
	Gone Forever	God Forbid	Concept, illustrations, logo
	diEversity	Entwine	Cover, design
	The January Tree	Deadsoul Tribe	Layout, cover photography
	Of Malice, the Magnum Heart	Misery signals	Illustrations
	Twice Second	Symphorce	Artwork
2005	Arcane Rain Fell	Draconian	layout
	The Black Sessions	Katatonia	Design, layout design
	Ghost Reveries	Opeth	Art direction, layout, illustrations
	Immersed	Sinai Beach	Artwork
	ReliXIV	Overkill	Layout, cover
2006	Eclipse	Amorphis	Artwork
	Alone	Solitude Aeturnus	Cover
	The New Black	Strapping Young Lad	Artwork, photography
2007	Live consternation	Katatonia	Artwork
	Ziltoid the Omniscient	Devin Townsend	Artwork
	Viides Luku - Hävitetty	Moonsorrow	Artwork, layout
	Silent Waters	Amorphis	Artwork
2008	Cynic Paradise	Pain	Cover
	Godspeed on the Devil's Thunder	Cradle of Filth	Design producer
	The Wacken Carnage	Bloodbath	Artwork, art direction, design
	Watershed	Opeth	Cover
2009	Addicted	Devin Townsend	Artwork
	Anno Domini high definition	Riverside	Design, layout, illustrations
	Bloodstained Endurance	Trail of Tears	Artwork
	Carver City	CKY	Artwork
	Skyforger	Amorphis	Artwork
	The Cold	Flotsam & Jetsam	Cover
	Night is the New Day	Katatonia	Artwork
2010	Everything Remains as It Never Was	Eluveitie	Artwork, cover photography
	The Evolution of Chaos	Heathen	Artwork, layout
	Ironbound	Overkill	Cover, layout
	The Obsidian Conspiracy	Nevermore	Cover
	omen	Soulfly	layout
	Nightmare	Avenged Sevenfold	Cover, inlay
	A thin shell	October tide	Artwork, layout
2011	Heritage	Opeth	Cover illustration
	The Beginning of Times	Amorphis	Illustrations
	Bloodbath over Bloodstock	Bloodbath	Illustrations, layout
2012	Dead End Kings	Katatonia	Artwork, design
2013	Shrine of New Generation Slaves	Riverside	Artwork
2014	Pale communion	Opeth	Artwork, design

Web links

• Travis Smith website: Seempieces

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Sea of ​​Tranquility in conversation with five cover artists (English) , last accessed on May 26, 2011
2. ↑ Bennett, J. (November – December 2010). "Avenged Sevenfold's Nightmare: Guitarist Zacky Vengeance, artist Travis Smith live a dark dream". Revolver Magazine. P. 106.
3. ^ Discography at Allmusic (English), accessed on October 28, 2016.
4. ↑ Credits from Allmusic (English), accessed on October 28, 2016.