It’s been such a weird year and so chaotic that I can’t believe I let this portfolio update slip by: I was commissioned for the cover art for the single “Borderline” by Ash Electric (feat. Deft Beck). You can see the cover art used on the song upload on YouTube, for example.
You can also find the “Borderline” on Spotify and other music platforms.
As for my involvement, let’s talk about that.
How the “Borderline” Single Cover Was Made
My point of contact in all of this is my good friend Deft Beck, who was the featured collaborator on the track. He’s always great about sending opportunities my direction. He’s very much a good friend and great collaborator. Be sure to check out his comics as well.
In any case, he had sent me an album cover he had mocked up and asked me if I wanted to take a stab at it.
Deft’s take was pretty strong already and gave off the retro-synth vibe that fit the song. So, from there I began to ideate on what I might do with the art. Deft also sent me a batch of photos of the specific arcade that the song was in reference to, EC3.
With all of this in hand, I started playing around. Deft also requested I use the Adobe library font Monte Stella as the blocky letters had a solid digital look.
All it took from there was opening Adobe Photoshop and getting to work over a couple of days between other tasks. So, here is a brief collage of different approaches at different stages.
As you can see, I set out for a TRON (1982) look almost immediately. I’ve been obsessed with the aesthetics of TRON since childhood. Not only is it one of the best movies ever made, even the earliest film of the franchise is still absolutely stunning to look at. I’m not even talking TRON Legacy here, though I adore that film as well.
For inspiration, TRON promised the edgy arcade look that guided the whole design process.
Details on the “Borderline”
As far as the rest of the process went, it was a lot of small changes over time. Figuring out the style and position of the text took a while, as well as figuring out the best approach to the CRT lines to give the images the retro-feel Deft and I were looking for. We even debated line thickness and color choices for a while. You can also see that in some steps in the “Borderline” album that I changed what part of the reference image I would use for the outlines. There were far, far more developmental snips I could have included in the collage above.
I created the image in Adobe Photoshop CC 2025. It features hand-drawn lines with a custom series of filters and layers for the specific glowing effect. The CRT lines use a simple screen tone of my own design that I cut, paste, and rescaled in different spots to give the CRT scans some variance. It helps create an uneven look and provides a little motion to the static image.
Anyway, here is the full cover. I actually have an errant line I forgot to clean up, but most people do not notice it. See if you can spot it.
And of course, do enjoy the song.
If you want to commission me, please check out my commission details – everything from OC art, to comics, to album covers.
Nioce photo editing and cyber collage 🛋⭐ Tronic! Well, i made that word up.