The National
Building the Beast
For their seventh studio album Sleep Well Beast, The National sought a visual identity that would match their own evolution. Known for understated, photography-led covers, the band was now stepping onto a bigger stage — experimenting musically with digital textures and structurally more ambitious songs. They wanted the design to reflect that shift while also playing with the irony of an indie band adopting the language of mega-corporate branding. The result was a tongue-in-cheek system that dressed the release in logos, office supplies, and coded graphics, setting the stage for a campaign that blurred the line between music marketing and cultural commentary.
Role
Designer
Client
The National
Creative Services
Identity Design
Package Design
Campaign Design
Design
Luke Hayman
Andrea Trabucco-Campos
PHOTOGRAPHY
Graham MacIndoe
CHALLENGE
Signaling a New Chapter
While Sleep Well Beast carried subtle political undertones related to recent shifts in American politics, the band wanted to steer clear of overtly political symbols or partisan cues. Instead, they wanted their identity to reference the mechanics of resistance and the feel of underground distribution — the zines, pamphlets, and coded graphics that circulate outside mainstream channels. At the same time, this album marked a turning point for The National’s sound, moving into more experimental and digital territory. The visuals needed to signal that evolution, extending beyond their history of understated, photography-driven covers to introduce a new level of scale and conceptual ambition.
SOLUTION
A Corporate Underground
The identity revolved around the band’s Hudson Valley recording studio, photographed by Graham MacIndoe for the album sleeve. Its five-sided barn shape was abstracted into a geometric mark — two squares and a triangle that could disassemble like code — and applied across vinyl, posters, and tour materials. The pared-back blue-and-white palette echoed 1970s corporate manuals, while a clipped “Ntl.” logotype gave the band a utilitarian shorthand. To echo the album’s move into more experimental, digital territory, the design leaned into coded graphics, transmission-style video works, and kinetic web animations. Zine-like inserts and unlikely merchandise such as staplers and tape dispensers reinforced the underground-propaganda angle, parodying the language of office bureaucracy. Together, these analog and digital elements created a campaign that felt both subversively corporate and distinctly forward-looking.
IMPACT
Taking the Underground on the Road
By merging the visual tropes of corporate branding with the DIY grit of underground distribution, the campaign gave Sleep Well Beast a layered identity: at once ironic, political, and deeply process-driven. Fans experienced the release not just as an album but as the output of a fictional institution — equal parts record label, propaganda office, and design studio. This hybrid aesthetic amplified the album’s political undercurrents while preserving the band’s wry, understated tone. The project culminated in wide critical acclaim, with Sleep Well Beast winning the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album in 2018.
1st
grammy award
500k
audience MEMBERS REACHED on world tour
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