Behind The Artworks: Green Carnation - A Dark Poem (Trilogy) (2026)

This behind-the-artwork article was written by Niklas Sundin, who created the artwork.

Overall: This project was probably the most ambitious one that I've ever undertaken: album/single cover artwork, full layouts, and a huge amount of complementary merch illustrations for three albums. I haven't counted, but it probably adds up to 30-40 images in total. As for the process, I started off by reading the lyrics of the songs as well as discussing the general visual direction with the band. I work in different styles, but we all liked the organic and handmade look of the cover created for the "Leaves of Yesteryear" album back in 2020, so something in that general ballpark was deemed to be a good idea. Apart from that, the trilogy format obviously means that the different covers - just like the music - should feel like they belong to the same "family" while still being separate pieces. Chapters in the same book, if you will. For the merch designs, we wanted more variation since it wouldn't make much sense to create 20+ shirts in a similar style. 

Part I: I worked chronologically, so the Part 1 cover was the starting point for the whole general style. I wanted something colorful and with a relatively simple composition that would be easy to "read" but at the same time providing lots of details for those that like to analyze artwork in full LP format. The Ophelia mask is obviously tied to the lyrics, but otherwise I mainly went for gut feeling rather than a deep analysis when it comes to the idea.

Part II: The "blood" album obviously called for something reddish and dramatic. To be fair, this is not the first album artwork where I've featured celestial bodies hitting the earth, but once I got the concept in my mind, it just seemed to fit the songs perfectly. Again, the image is made up of relatively simple shapes that come together in a strong way. One little Easter egg that people might not notice is that the CD, LP, and digital covers each differ in small ways.

Part III: Lots of semi-hidden allusions to the title here. With an album called "The Messiah Complex", I wanted to avoid the most obvious and religious references and instead go for something more subtle. Creatures of all three elements are displayed (the human gets to represent land animals), and the pose suggests manipulating the planets in a way suggestive of omnipotent and world-saving powers.

Green Carnation's A Dark Poem Trilogy is available now on Season of Mist. Order & Stream at https://orcd.co/greencarnationadarkpoempart3

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