Nicola Thompson's book

I wrote something for the current issue of the Big Issue in the North on Nicola Thompson's brilliant book. It's a project that all of us in our little MA Communication Design group have taken great interest in throughout its development.

And while the book itself is very worthy of the coverage, it's also worth remembering that Nicola's 'Soup Run Diaries' shouldn't be overlooked. They can be viewed via the following link:

http://nicola-thompson.blogspot.com/

Electronic Battle Weapon

The Chemical Brothers began their 'Electronic Battle Weapon' series in 1996 so that fans and DJs could obtain the records that the duo had created with their own club sets in mind. Now ten strong, some of those tracks have since featured on official Chemical Brothers releases although, at the time of their issuing, they were very much part of an underground tradition of promotional material.

I wanted to propose a design for a hypothetical number eleven that would address a number of issues. Firstly there is the problematic nature of big selling artists maintaining those undergroud credentials. I put something in my report about the 'under-design' being used to suggest "a dependable realness" or what Redhead described as "a regime of truth" (Redhead 1993:121).

Particularly identified in subcultures that retain elements of exclusivity through the shared self-identification of being an outsider, there can be a rejection of anything approaching mainstream assimilation. In clubbing circles, this can manifest as a rejection of commercially-minded major labels. But the problem regarding a major label promoting material that it wants to be taken seriously outside of the Top 40-oriented demographic also related to my own desire to utilise QR-Codes within this project: as much as I love their pixelated nonsense and what they can do, they just seemed too corporate. So the idea here was to go back to a quote from producer Andrew Weatherall (who remixed The Chemical Brothers' first single, by the way) about the notion of the future as being this sleek, shiny techno vision. He believed that his 'future' aesthetic is one where the world is falling apart. I wanted to allow that to be used with this contemporary gadgetry. While also relating a proposal to the more underground design that is used to promote low budget, independent dance releases - the white label and the crudely applied stamp [figure 3]. So basically, after some deliberation, I wanted to revise the QR-Code as a deteriorated rubber stamped, monochromatic image across a 12" single.

For the vinyl itself, I went back to the laser-etching approach for a disc with one playable side. But the design was very much about going back to roots - albeit while acknowledging the year 2010 - so it additionally took layout inspiration from the pair's oldest 'Dust Brothers' releases through the Junior Boy's Own label. While it emulates the rubber stamp, given the size it is actually screenprinted using a pre-deteriorated digital image.

The B-side will feature a 'correctly' printed QR-Code directing users to a similarly rough looking Chemical Brothers microsite with all info, a MP3/WAV version, mailing list sign-up [for upfront details of new tracks] and a gateway to other currently available purchases including more general releases.

Dead Formats series

Bockingford Ex Rough 300gsm haunted by the ghosts of music past.
Set of three.
Edition of 20.

Un-Convention

Tash forwarded an email that called for poster designs as part of the Un-Convention conference/festival that comes to Salford in October. There were guidelines concerning the text that needed to be included although complete freedom was offered regarding the imagery.

I decided to quickly submit one based on an idea I'd jotted down in a current sketchbook. It's a continuation of ideas surrounding unplayable media, format destruction, music as 'product' and the fetishization of music hardware.

The organisers will be selecting some to be screen printed by the lovely people at Hotbed Press so I wanted to ensure that the design was simple enough so that, should it be chosen, it would allow for the three colour process to add that additional detail. [I thought it would look good should the grey be printed silver. Maybe on an off-white or pale grey stock.] Anyway, we'll see...

Meanwhile I may be doing something else as part of Un-Convention. I'm just waiting for details/confirmation.

Brian Eno - Small Craft On A Milk Sea

Electronica/ambient nerds will currently be salivating over this.
352gsm.
Phwoar.

New album on Warp Records
out 2nd November 2010 (15th November in the UK)
With Jon Hopkins and Leo Abrahams

* Limited Edition Box Set
* Collectors' Edition Box Set
* CD & High Quality Download
Limited Edition Box Set (Heavyweight vinyl, 2xCD, Lithographic Print)

Packaged in a rigid, Birch paper-covered slipcase with printed and foil-blocked cover and spine, this edition includes:

* 180g heavyweight, double disc 12" vinyl pressing of the album, in full-colour, case-bound 12" cover. Lined in crimson stock with foil block.
* CD pressing of the album, along with extra disc containing four extra tracks, in full-colour, case-bound 12" cover. Lined in crimson stock with foil blocked credit sheet.
* High quality 12" square lithographic print of new Brian Eno artwork, printed on 352gsm Mohawk Superfine stock, presented in full-colour, case-bound 12" cover. Lined in crimson stock with tissue paper protection.
* Audiophile quality downloads : 24-bit WAV album AND 320kbps MP3 album delivered digitally on day of release.

Collectors' Edition Box Set (Unique signed, numbered screen print by Brian Eno, Heavyweight vinyl, 2xCD)

This strictly limited edition of 250 worldwide includes everything in the Vinyl Edition with the following, one-of-a-kind additions:

* A one-off, entirely unique and customised 12" square silkscreen print by Brian Eno. A print application of the generative process that Brian has been developing throughout his career, each print will be be a unique combination of screen printed elements by Brian Eno and Nick Robertson. Printed on 330gsm Somerset Radiant White stock, signed and numbered in pencil by Brian Eno. There are no duplicates. The printing process will be fully documented.
* A real copper plate, etched with the title and edition number embedded in the slipcase spine.

*Please note no edition number or specific print can be reserved from this edition. Allocation to customers will be random.

CD

* CD album packaged in an 8 panel digipack
* Bleep customers will receive instant digital downloads following the release date


High Quality Download

24-bit audiophile quality WAV downloads from Bleep.com, 16-bit WAV downloads plus standard MP3/AAC downloads.

Download from Bleep, iTunes, Amazon and other stores from release date

Ian Wright - Printed Records

Originally known for his tribal-like illustrations for Straight No Chaser magazine's jazz-oriented favourites, Ian Wright's more recent work has explored the use of the pixel while building iconic images out of everything from badges to mascaras.

I was looking for an image that I remember seeing a while ago that employed the use of a TDK blank cassette but I couldn't find it. However, what I did find was these prints created by inking up records which, after seeing Tal Brosh's use of vinyl to emboss, was something I was going to attempt.

"Playfulness is important to me; I’m motivated by trying to push my work somewhere new. Somewhere else. Really, I’m interested in what could be. I sometimes reach that point by making mistakes and generally misusing technology and I often arrive at solutions by accident. I prefer to let the materials I use influence the outcome. I especially enjoy making portraits and I’m excited by the process of collaboration. I love conversation. I’m obsessed by music. I’m looking forward to what happens next."

Illustrator Ian Wright
http://www.mrianwright.co.uk/

Folkways

From: Creative Review

Date: 22/03/10
By: Mark Sinclair

Unit Editions' first newsprint publication unearths a selection of covers that Ronald Clyne designed for esoteric US record label, Folkways. The work, and the story of the label's almost sacred mission, make for a compelling read...

Clyne, who died in 2006, made over 500 sleeves for the Folkways label, which was founded by Polish-born Moses 'Moe' Asch in New York in 1948. Under Asch's direction, the label evolved into a fascinating repository for field recordings, spoken word, poetry and indigenous compositions.

The label helped to bring native folk traditions to a wider public and recorded, among others, Lead Belly, Burt Ives, Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger. Bob Dylan was also a fan of the label's output and recalls his early ambitions to record for the label, as a natural home for his music, in the first part of his Chronicles autobiography.

In one of two essays bookending the Unit Editions collection, Adrian Shaughnessy suggests that Folkways had the characteristics of "a social enterprise", that it was almost "a non-for-profit organisation." Clearly not in the business for financial gain, the scale of "musical bio-diversity" that Asch presented through his label is incredible.

There are the songs of the Ulster Orangemen and collections of Catalonian folk artists; psalms from Cameroon and modernist poetry from Charles Olson. Sir Edmund Hillary's reminiscences of his mountaineering campaigns even made it onto vinyl – one of over 2,000 albums that emerged from the label.

If Folkways had a remit it was, as Asch himself put it, "Anything that is sound, from Indonesian folk music to James Joyce reading his own poetry."

Yet however diverse and appealing Folkways' subject matter was, Clyne's creative work for the label has largely been ignored by design history. From the 1950s to the 1980s he designed hundreds of covers, working on sleeves for many of the recordings by electronic, avant-garde and jazz artists, in addition to the label's folk releases.

Clyne was apparently an avid collector of art from New Guinea and Vanuatu and many references to ethnic art and design feature on his sleeves. Indeed, all of his cover designs have, says Shaughnessy, "an unpretentious, unselfconscious graphic purity" that make great use of two-colour printing on matt paper.

This production process was in part an economic strategy, but one that became an integral aspect of Clyne's approach which remained un-showy, understated and, like the Folkways sound itself, authentic throughout.


Unit: Design/Research 01 – Ronald Clyne at Folkways is available now (£7.50 including p&p) from uniteditions.com. Editors: Tony Brook and Adrian Shaughnessy. Design: David McFarline and Claudia Klat at Spin. Project co-ordinator: Natasha Day for Unit Editions.

In 1987, in accordance with his wishes, Moe Asch's family transferred the Folkways label to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, with the proviso that all 2,168 albums remain in print in perpetuity. (A quick search and I've already got some "Tuvan multiphonic throat singing" bookmarked). There is also a filmed interview with Clyne at the Smithsonian Institution site here, and more on Moe Asch at Ralph Rinzler's Folklife Archives and Collections website, here.

Hot Chip work by Wallzo

I referenced some music sleeve/packaging designs over the past couple of weeks purely for their aesthetic style. Others I've posted as they take a different approach to physical products or have some thought-provoking rationale behind them.

One aspect that the Tom Hingston or Ben Drury posts touched on with regards to their respective Massive Attack and Mo Wax work is the idea of a series that can only come from a long relationship with a musician or label.

Many visually interesting music items are part of release 'campaigns' where a different designer will take on an album and its singles. The baton is then handed to the next studio for the subsequent long-player's campaign. I suspect that part of this is down to the the musicians or label owners having an approach to commissioning that is linked to curating a personal collection. Although there is a suggestion that a different aesthetic approach to each stage in an artist's career is in tandem with the alternate sonic 'direction' of each album: that these phases might require a markedly distanced visual style.

Hot Chip has avoided this creative 'relay' by instead opting to collaborate with designer Darren 'Wallzo' Wall for the band's three albums and each one's selected singles. This has resulted in a trio of clearly defined campaigns that still have very different solutions.

I thought that Wall's discussion of the development process for each of these was particularly enlightening. Additionally I can also see the benefit in a single designer being able to apply a rationale and depth of understanding to a catalogue of releases over a disparate design that comes from a single campaign pitch and that more fleeting involvement.

Following interview from It's Nice That.

Wallzo / Hot Chip

* Posted by Will 2 February 2010

Yesterday saw the launch of the fourth Hot Chip album, One Life Stand and with it saw London based designer Wallzo successfully design the third consecutive album artwork. With rave reviews filling many of the weekends papers and music press we thought we’d check in the Darren Wall (aka Wallzo) to find out more about the artwork.


Evening Darren, following on from The Warning and Made in the Dark you’ve just designed the latest record from Hot Chip, One Life Stand, does it get easier year on year?

Yes, I think I was a lot less nervous about this one. When I did the first album, The Warning, I created a cover with no prior understanding that it would become so well-known. Of course this was a really wonderful experience for me and I was hugely grateful for the chance to get my work seen by so many people, but when it came to sit down and tackle the second album cover I must admit I felt the weight of expectation upon me. That pressure is good of course – it makes for good work – but now its much more self-imposed than anything else.

Is there a conscious effort to do something completely different, keep certain things the same?

After each two year gap, personal influences and tastes are always a little bit different so between myself and the five band members, we always end up doing something different. I work closely with Owen Clarke from the band on the initial ideas, and we have hugely overlapping tastes, so after an evening talking about ideas we normally get to a core aesthetic that we can then experiment with. The band are generally happy if Owen is happy, so its good that we share such similar tastes. That said, we always seem to gravitate towards ‘mysterious objects’ that invite interpretation; the blocks from The Warning, the artifact from the Made in the Dark campaign, and now, of all things, a suspended marble head.

What’s the idea behind the current artwork?

When statues are installed or transported they are often lowered into place with large, colourful canvas slings. Owen had a few photographic examples of this in action and they seemed to create an interesting theme; classical forms intersected with bright stripes of colour. The idea of a head seemed to appeal to the band most of all, and from there it all came together after lots of experimentation. There’s plenty of Giorgio de Chirico and Hipgnosis reference in there too. I think its essentially quite an over-the-top image – like a prog-cover reduced to a screen-print. The most enjoyable part of the process was working with the Vinyl Factory who created the 12” versions of the album. The special edition is a 2-disc gatefold with an art print and we’ve even printed a pattern hidden on the inside of the sleeve.

What are you listening to at the moment?

A friend of ours; Rob Smougton operates under the name Grovesnor and makes music like a laser-guided Hall and Oates. He’s just been signed to Lo Recordings and his forthcoming album will soon be graced with a cover from none other than Non-Format. If his music doesn’t make you smile, then something has gone awfully wrong. You can hear his music here.

I'm very interested in Wall's approach for 'Made in the Dark' - Hot Chip's second album. Exploring the oxidising of copper for the print process (in addition to also devising a die-cut poster version), he developed a series of circular forms. Especially his discussion of the one from the album cover as 'the Artefact'. Plus, for me, The Warning's a whole catalogue of esoteric shapes/ambiguous objects also links Wallzo's work with the Matthew Dear 'Totem'.

Extrovert vs Introvert

I've seen lots of products that explore music hardware or formats as iconic items. Most are tinged with a certain nostalgia or sentimentatility that fits in with some of the murmurings regarding the need for a physical object for music media. Yet there's this other aspect about this sort of collectable surrounding how these become a signifier of one's self; how these - like the band tour t-shirt - become part of an outwardly display of 'liking music'. This appears to be at odds with that quieter, introverted relationship where an individual's actual music inhabits the generic iPod to create a listening environment and fan-dom that is often exclusive to that person.

Anyway, I've been considering all this in terms of what it is I want to create and I think I would like to try and create something which is about that personal attachment between listener and music release rather than something that communicates an individual's music tastes to others. After all, this digital era is one where 'sharing' (of personal tastes, music, etc) is catered for more than adequately online but, at the same time, it is important to recognise that the internet has additionally allowed for incredibly niche scenes that - as much as they can easily be 'liked' on Facebook - will retain what is often observed as a cult following. The Sound Zero book highlights this with its observation that there are now bands that subvert that Warholian adage to be "famous for fifteen people".

The following Hi-Fi prints, by the way, are available from design studio Yes.

The Return Of Liner Notes: Scion Releases Album As Booklet

From: PSFK
Date: 11/06/10

Scion A/V is releasing a new album called Blu Jemz’ Night People, featuring Turntable Lab Radio’s Blu Jemz along with The Hardy Boyz, Mobroder and several other artists. The launch is unique as there is no music CD or physical media involved; instead, they have put together a booklet with extensive liner notes and a link to download the songs. Liner notes, rarely featured in music releases now, are usually printed on the inside of an album and contain information about the artists, lyrics and some anecdotes about the album. Blu Jemz said that with re-introducing liner notes, they hope to bring back the excitement it brought to an album.

The booklet is designed by Japanese illustrator Rimo, and is limited to only 1000 copies.

Potential ideas to explore

This change of direction for this final major project has meant that I've not had the luxury of time to allow a lengthy experimental stage. With previous projects, I've tended to see what comes out of various processes to inform some kind of deliverable. With just over a month to complete this, I need to be at a stage where I'm ready to move into a more considered approach to the output to maintain a certain amount of freedom to fully explore the potential aesthetic solutions.

So right now I'm considering a number of different directions. All of which are the result of the rationale I've been refining.

One is to argue the relevance of format to music in the digital age with a series of 'unplayable' music forms. As with the Matthew Dear 'Totem', the format itself is simply a collectable visual object with the audio content via streaming or download. The use of unplayable media is, for me, a logical conclusion for where music retail is going and is seemingly a more potent yet actually quite abstract piece of ephemera that might question the current music buying habits within this particular era. I can already see a number of interesting routes for this and have a selection of associated visual references that I'll post as soon as I have chance.

A second option is a series of print-based items that exalts digital media by exposing how traditional music formats have been wrongly defined as the actual music. I knocked up the quick image below as a marker for this approach although I'd suggest a broader interpretation of the concept. I also need to check on the availability of various print facilities before going too far down a particular route.

The third was an idea that looks to exploit the fetishism for music formats in a visually communicative way. To highlight how vinyl hunger in particular verges on the pornographic. This is the one that I'm less sure about although I was thinking it could be a fairly tongue-in-cheek series that looks to play on that desire.

There's a fourth option which would be to use all of these in some way and build something approaching a campaign that uses the various elements to contribute to a dialogue about the concepts of music, formats and meaning.

Gig posters by Telegramme

More examples of the effort that is being put into devising eye-catching gig posters. These are by the formerly Cornwall and Bristol but now London-based duo that operates as Telegramme. [Other exponents of quality gig posters that I should reference quickly are Sonnenzimmer's Nick Butcher and Nadine Nakanishi plus the very influential Jay Ryan. There are also hundreds of lesser known practitioners featured at www.gigposters.com]

I particularly like the way that Telegramme have managed to focus on location for their Arctic Monkeys series: taking design inspiration from where the gig is set to take place. Although, for me, the colour use and addition of intricate pattern does recount some of Shepard Fairey's output. Style-wise, I'm more attracted by the Mum piece that boasts the kind of tesselated structure that has also drawn me to some of the work by Siggi Eggertsson and Andy Gilmore.

Ghostly International Editions

Ghostly has to be one of my favourite labels and I referenced Mike Cina's work for the company during my last project. The symbiotic relationship between music and art has proved inspiring and, especially after news of the Matthew Dear 'Totem', I'm really interested to see how they further develop the approach to physical products in the digital age.

Here is another aspect to what the label is doing with the availability of images created as 'packaging' now becoming available as prints alongside digital downloads of the associated music.

The press release:

Visual art has always played an indispensable counterpoint to Ghostly International's musical releases. With this in mind, we've introduced an exciting new addition to The Ghostly Store's repertoire of custom apparel and hand-picked, can't-live-without-'em goods: Ghostly International Editions. Our new art section will feature an ever-growing selection of open-edition and limited-edition prints from Ghostly's renowned family of visual artists, along with work from talented new collaborators.

This spring, The Ghostly Store made its first foray into this field with signed, limited-edition prints by longtime contributor Michael Cina. These archival prints feature artwork from Ghostly releases such as The Sight Below's Glider, the state-of-the-label compilation Horizon Line / Ghostly By Night, and Grand Valley State University New Music Ensemble's Terry Riley: In C.

Looking forward to the months (and years) ahead, Ghostly International Editions will release prints in two perennial formats: the PDL and the Art Print. When the cover art for a new (or back-catalogue) release lends itself to the print format, we'll offer an open-edition PDL (print + download) version. Larger than a CD but smaller than an LP, these 10" x 10" archival prints will be sold with a digital download of the album.

In conjunction with the PDL, Ghostly International Editions will be releasing limited-edition art prints featuring original artwork from collaborators including Michael Cina, Andy Gilmore, Will Calcutt, and many more.

Both the PDL and Art Print are printed using archival ink on photo rag paper and will include artist signed certificates of authenticity. We've carefully considered the pricing for both formats: PDL will be an affordable $25, while the larger, limited-edition art prints will generally cost less than your monthly cellphone bill.

Tape inserts

Considering past formats, there is a great selection of vintage blank tape inserts collected on Flickr here. Some interesting design aspects amongst them: specifically in terms of layout, logo, type, print and colourway.

Peter Gabriel's Scratch My Back Album - deluxe edition designed by Marc Bessant

Dave sent this my way a few weeks back and it's a lovely bit of packaging by Marc Bessant with art direction by Daniel Mason. This format for the most recent Peter Gabriel album features CD, vinyl and USB plus a limited print signed by Peter Gabriel and it retails at $299. There are just 500 copies. [Full details at http://www.petergabriel.com/scratchmyback/]

It is interesting that even basic vinyl copies of chart albums now come with premium pricing and are only available in limited numbers. But as this multi-format version highlights, often the releases aren't about the playability of the music itself. The collectability of the product is potentially more important.

Methane Studios

Another inspiring gig poster operation is Methane Studios. The following images are by one half of the partnership Mark McDevitt and have a vintage feel, some lovely type and re-appropriated images.

All of the poster producers I have referenced this week - Methane Studios, Aesthetic Apparatus and The Small Stakes - have defined an approach to visualizing music that is more visceral than the simple (and often UK) template of 'insert band photo here, insert date and times here'. Thankfully, this more considered style has proved so influential that it is becoming more commonplace on the British live circuit. Perhaps this shift in focus is directly related to how touring has become more important revenue-wise than music sales in recent years.