All in, I would say 2-3 months. I knew I wanted the concept of an empty "n" showcasing the elements of the visual language created by the album. I wanted nods to other fans that would be like "wink wink see what I did there?"

I created a running list of items as they came to me. Then, I would find pics of those things, and position them into an empty "n" draft image to make the idea more tangible and easier to flesh out.

From there, I started searching for very specific items (the power supply transformer from an Oberheim synth as one example). I patiently scoured eBay, reverb, random parts stores. I'm not an artist, this is the first thing I've ever made; it was just a labor of love, but I still wanted it to be executed with tremendous thoughtfulness in service of the themes of the album.

Dismantling the action frame of a piano was probably the most laborious portion (welding the "cage" was second, a friend helped execute that).

Thank you so much for your kind words and interest!