Travis Smith (artist)

Travis Smith ( born February 26, 1970 in San Diego, California) is an American graphic artist.

Smith originally had no formal art training, except for a semester in high school. Earlier in his career, he designed album covers for the music the band of a friend, the progressive metal band Psychotic Waltz. By working for this band he got connections that eventually allowed him to begin a full-time career in art. Since 2005, Smith has worked with nearly 100 bands. He currently lives in San Diego.

Smith's work basically consists of designing album covers for metal bands. Smith is known for its " dark and introspective " style, which is based mostly on photographs, which are then assembled digitally with other media. When creating the cover art for the album Nightmare of the band Avenged Sevenfold, for example, he painted a few textures with acrylic and watercolors, scanned them and mixed them with the entire picture. For special components such as the skull and the girl he painted the pictures digitally and then inserted them into the originals.

He has Collaborated et al with bands like Anathema (A Fine Day to Exit, 2001), Nachtgeschrei, Devin Townsend, Katatonia, Nevermore, Soilwork, Strapping Young Lad, and many more. On the website of his graphic design studio Seempieces most of his work can be examined. In 2010 he drafted the cover of the album The Cold by Flotsam and Jetsam.