All Been Paid Album Art
Album Art Design
2025
This project is an album art design for local musician Deyling Machado’s original worship song “All Been Paid.” The art features visuals drawn from Biblical imagery to communicate the themes discussed in the song’s lyrics.
The Opportunity
Deyling Machado is a worship leader and singer-songwriter based in Rock Hill, South Carolina. For this project, I was commissioned to design cover art for the upcoming release of his song “All Been Paid.” This project included the album design with potential for merchandise designs drawn from the cover art.
The Process
The client requested that the art incorporate themes of atonement and the rest that comes from reconciliation, as well as imagery pertaining to Jesus being the eternal High Priest. Throughout the process of developing visuals, it was crucial to keep in mind the Biblical text on which the worship song is based (Hebrews 4).
After studying the aforementioned Scripture passage and considering the client’s input, I decided to utilize a few Biblical symbols to convey the central themes. Firstly, I decided on a lamb; the animal, used repeatedly
throughout Scripture, is a symbol of Christ’s sacrifice that allows believers to have access to the Father. Next, I decided to use the image of an olive branch to convey rest and peace, which it has signified since its first Biblical mention in the context of a dove bringing an olive branch to Noah after the Flood. The next image I decided to use was a cluster of thorned branches, a clear allusion to the crown of thorns that Christ wore during the Crucifixion. Finally, a pomegranate serves as a more obscure image; this alludes to the ornamentation on the priestly robes described in Exodus 28.
The Solution
I decided to hand-render all of the images mentioned above in graphite, giving them a rougher and more rugged appearance. After scanning my illustrations to digitize them, I created a pattern of the botanical images, weaving togther the olive branches, thorned limbs, and pomegranates to appear in the background of the album art. This allows the lamb to emerge as the focal point of the cover, rightly highlighting Christ’s
sacrifice as the most crucial aspect of the song’s message. The typography for the cover is a bold blackletter to evoke a traditional and historical tone. Adding to this tone is a lancet shape around the title, referencing traditional stained glass windows and contributing an overtly religious tone.