(v)
(v_i)
(version_industries)

music

the pony collaboration_record sleeve

album cover
inside sleeve
back cover
_what
artwork for the pony collaboration's self-titled debut album
_how
we here at version have been following the pony collaboration since they formed back in 2003 and have been strong supporters of their unique brand of wonky alternative country music. james scallan, the lead singer of the band whom is a friend of version from years past got together with us to collaborate (as pony so often like to do) on a creative venture to encapsulate all that went into those recordings but in graphical form. i think that between us and the pony collaboration we have created a perfect package for those wonky alternative country tracks. enjoy.

their debut album is out in april 2007 on series 8 records.
_link
theponycollaboration.com
_tags

65daysofstatic - destruction website_website

home page
releases page
_what
website for the sheffield-based band, 65daysofstatic.
_how
65 wanted a new website for the release of their third studio album 'the destruction of small ideas'. in terms of looks, they wanted the loose hand-made feel that matched the band's long-running visual aesthetic, but also to add another element. the kind of element that only a website could add but again something you'd not typically have experienced before. we exchanged various ideas and settled on a design and concept that we felt captured all of this in one. the end result is a site that lives and breathes as much as it feels hand-made. a site that changes as the light fades.
_features
  • adapted wordpress-based news blog
  • javascript driven time-based selection style-sheet system
  • CSS / xhtml / javascript design
  • custom .flv player
  • custom 'ejectable' mp3 player with 'resume' cookie system
_link
www.65daysofstatic.com
_tags

dance parties [remix]_website

_what
mini-site for the sheffield-based band, 65daysofstatic.
_how
this site was designed to promote the release of the forthcoming 'dance parties EP' from 65. they have headed in a new direction sonically and visually with this EP and so called upon us to create something that would redefine people's expectations of them. it was agreed that something sample based where the user could remix audio from the new EP was worth experimenting with. on top of that 65 gave us a bunch of late 80s / early 90s peter saville / designer's republic album artwork to look at for reference. the end result is pretty insane, but all agreed it captured the fury of the new sound.
_features
  • action script 3 
  • papervision 3D
  • cursor driven remix interface
_link
www.65daysofstatic.com/danceparties
_tags

protomen_website

home page
_what
revamped website for the nashville-based band, the protomen
_how
the protomen are on the eve of the release of their new album, act 2. recruiting the powerful drawing abilities of john delucca, we created an open-ended flash website that would allow us to introduce as much exciting new content as we liked, during the build-up to the album's release.
_features
  • full-screen flash interface
  • original music by the protomen
  • original hand-drawn graphics by john delucca
  • new protomen logo
  • countdown clock
_link
theprotomen.com
_tags

perry danos_website

bio page
music page
_what
website for chicago-based big-band jazz singer, perry danos
_how
grand vista wanted a very simple, elegant, compatible website that would deliver perry's message, music and imagery irrespective of the system, connection or screen size you might be viewing it with. they also wanted to be able to connect it to perry's various social networking connections. the resulting site's look is based on the artwork from perry's forthcoming album & it's minimal flash technologies mean it works well on all hand held devices to date.
_features
  • flash mp3 player witth 'resume play' functionality
  • javascript slideshow with flickr-based content
  • xml-based mp3 playlist player
_link
perrydanos.com
_tags

protomen_logo

logo
_what
logo for the protomen's second album, act 2
_how
the protomen's second album herald's a brand new sound, story and aesthetic. after many discussions and revisions this logo, we all agreed, captured the vibe of this the next chapter in their ongoing musical retelling of capcom's megaman saga.
_tags

protomen_record sleeve + poster

film poster
album cover
_what
artwork for the protomen's second album, act 2 - the father of death
_how
everything about this record cover + poster had to be bigger and better. the moment we heard act 2 we knew the protomen had taken things far beyond anyone's imagining, and that we were under a huge amount of pressure now to produce artwork that echoed that through & through. we were aware of john delucca's work after collaborating with him on a previous poster for the band, and hired him once again to produce the fantastic 'streets of fire' inspired drawing you see above. we then took care of the sleeve + poster layouts and also put together the 24 page booklet that would detail the story behind the music on the album.
_link
protomen.com
_tags

makeup and vanity set_record sleeve

front cover
back cover
_what
artwork for makeup and vanity set's self-titled album
_how
through our long-standing collaborations with the protomen we were contacted by their touring DJ makeup and vanity set. he wanted us to create a furious sleeve design for his forthcoming even more furious self-titled release. after 4 or 5 design ideas were tried, we found solace in the one you see here. if you dig it, know that the album is even better.
_link
makeupandvanityset.com
_tags

the pony collaboration_record sleeve

album cover
inside sleeve
back cover
cd
ep cover
_what
artwork for the pony collaboration's second album 'if these are the good times' and the supporting e.p 'i never knew'
_how
james, the head of the pony collaboration, came to us with a few photographs he had sourced as a starting point for the art direction on their second album. visually, the route we took was to show the new album as reflection of their first. this is especially apparent with the cd itself which reflects a more sombre outlook than the jolly pink one from their first release. both james and version wanted to take the visual cues from the first album and reflect it as if seen in a forgotten dirtied mirror, very much like the source photography he gave us.

their new album is out now on series 8 records. the new digital single will be out in may 2010.
_link
theponycollaboration.com
_tags

big black delta_music video, record sleeve + poster

EP cover
poster
_what
EP artwork + music video for the LA-based band, big black delta
_how
jonathan bates, better known for his part in the fantastic band mellowdrone, recently got back in touch with us regarding a 'new thing' he was working on. as luck would have it, it was some seriously rich and rewarding new music. the kind which fills the mind with images pretty fast. well, the next thing you know we're watching the thundercats intro in total awe, debating wallpapering our apartment walls with TRON screenshots, and obsessing over UFOs. how one thing lead to another is neither here nor there, but it turns out we were all down with this new thing ... and it was taking us places.

what then ensued was the constant, rapid exchange of music for artwork, much the way a choir does their psalms and responses. there's no question in our minds now that big black delta was the only name you could use to sum up the music, what inspired it and everything we'd ultimately made together from that point forward. cut then to just a few days ago. cut right to the moment when we slung the cover you see above onto the proverbial coffee table. cut to us all looking at each other like we knew it was time. yep, ufologists were about to get some melody in their google.

additionally we shot and edited a short film to accompany the release of the song IFUCKINGLOVEYOU. it was shot over a couple of days around independence day in los angeles. the idea was simply to capture everything we got up to in the short time we had, be that searching the night sky for flashing lights, watching dan akroyd talking about UFOs on youtube or jonathan bates making strange noises on his studio floor. we hope the end result, if nothing else, makes you feel like all these things are related. not forcibly, but maybe with a little serendipity.
_link
bigblackdelta.com
_tags

daft punk_website

album slash page
offer page
poster page
source code
data capture page
_what
website for the tron legacy soundtrack by daft punk
_how
understanding that we were enormous fans of the original film and the forthcoming sequel, our new collaborators topspin, asked us to create a site gather emails for the forthcoming soundtrack release. given the soundtrack has been created by daft punk, we knew the site would get a vast response online from music geeks to film buffs alike. as such, we took full advantage of some of the latest web technologies (with help from mr. doob) and produced a site that works on iphones, ipads as well as regular machines. the end result is a very streamlined data collection / e-commerce site with many secrets (for those fans that love secrets as much as we do).
_features
  • html5 / javascript UI
  • keyboard input based triggers
  • ascii art source code
  • topspin E4M integration
_link
versionindustries.com/archive/tron
_tags

sonoio blue_record sleeve + print

print
album cover
_what
LP artwork for the LA-based band, sonoio
_how
alessandro cortini, widely know for his multi-instrumental work for nine inch nails, got in touch with us recently. a fan of our record sleeve and poster work for mellowdrone, he wanted us to create artwork to accompany his new solo project, SONOIO.

now we say 'artwork' as opposed to 'design work' because he was particularly interested in the looser, more painterly / emotional elements of our work over some kind of cleaner, tighter design effort. modwheelmood (his previous band) had been heavy on the minimal design / die-cutting and this time, the record being much more personal to him, alessandro wanted a more cathartic, hand-made quality.

we talked for a while and decided that we should try to create something that had a european quality to it - something that harked back to alessandro's roots. combining this with a visual device that we felt was most honest to the lyrical content on the record, we came up with the two matisse-esque characters you see on the cover, who are trying to cover up the holes in their chests. the colour choices were then informed in part by the colour of the buchla synth itself. the pencil marks are that of my father thomas newbolt, who's drawings we cut up and relocated elements of for the sake of adding more movement / life to the collage.
_link
sonoio.org
_tags

war widow_record sleeve

front cover
back cover
_what
LP artwork for the LA-based band, war widow
_how
after accidentally hearing a clip from this band's new record, we sent some designs through that caused them to cancel the print job they already had running. sourcing photographers from as far as eastern europe, the resulting 12 inch vinyl artwork proved to be a very fast, very exciting collaboration between people in los angeles, new york and the ukraine. you can read more about the creation of the artwork here.

a huge thanks to photographers alex alekseenko and matt sundin, without whom this project would have never come about.
_link
warwidowmusic.com
_tags

sonoio red_music video, record sleeve + print

print
album cover
_what
music video + print design for LA-based band, sonoio
_how
we'd been aware for a while that sonoio (alessandro cortini) intended to follow up his unique and well received experimental synth debut, with a 'sequel' record of some kind. then a few months ago we were given the rough mixes of this new record and started to put together ideas for how to top the artwork for the first record and yet make it feel like an organic and fluid transition conceptually. alessandro had already made it clear to us that this record would be based around the colour red, so we simply had to evolve things and further the story of the matisse-esque characters we'd developed for the original blue album cover.

furthermore alessandro was toying with the idea of a music video this time and asked that we might pitch a few ideas to him for a couple of different songs on the record. we came up with 3-4 ideas he chose the most 'live performance' based concept that we had and soon things were under way. the video was for the song enough, which to us was one of the songs that immediately jumped out on the record when hearing it for the first time. once more we recruited the talents of matt sundin (who helped us shoot the 65daysofstatic and war widow album covers) and soon after alessandro was flying to new york to shoot the video with us in brooklyn.

you can read more about making the artwork + video here.
_link
sonoio.org
_tags

big black delta_record sleeve

cover artwork
_what
artwork for big black delta's debut LP, BBDLP1
_how
continuing the very fluid back and forth between us and jonathan bates, this the cover for the forthcoming BBDLP1 is our attempt at capturing the immensity that is this new record. whether you are listening to the lush love song that is 'capsize' or the vastness, heaving space trip that is 'BBD3', we wanted the cover to echo both the inner workings of jon's mind as well as the beautiful, dark recesses of the universe. no longer the man with his head exploding on the cover of mellowdrone's 'angry bear', we now step deeper inside that thinking and in doing so reach much further out into space as we get involved with his obsession with UFO folk-lore and his desire to be taken away from his planet by whatever means possible.
_link
bigblackdelta.com
_tags

polinski_record sleeve + music video

album cover
stitches single cover
awaltzoflight cover
poster
_what
artwork for polinski's debut album, labyrinths
_how
paul wolinski is one quarter of the experimental musical machine that is 65daysofstatic. polinski is his more purely electronic side-project.

the discussions for how to handle the artwork for the album started years before the record was even a twinkle in his eye. we'd talked at length for years about films, musics, books, games and designs that appeal to us for whatever reason. whether it be the books of jeff noon or the cassette loading games of sinclair zx spectrum, there was an innate understanding of what this solo project would demand in terms of artwork the moment the demos started to come together.

the final artwork started with us coming up with a story that would capture paul's feelings about various things and how he wanted to translated those into a science fiction tale of some kind. the next step was padding that story out with various touchstone visual elements and then translating those into a series of panels that we could use for the album and any singles. the first image we put together turned out to be the album cover as it is now, and this went onto influence paul's approach to making the music. he then sent us more demos that inspired the creation of more panels, and so the back and forth went until we had enough to illustrate the story / world we had created.

the music video for the album's first single, stitches, was an attempt to bring back the feeling of using the zx spectrum computer, whilst detailing some of the album's narrative elements. more details on the making of the video to follow soon.
_link
polinskimusic.net
_tags

makeup and vanity set_record sleeve

album cover
_what
artwork for makeup and vanity set's LP, charles park III.
_how
we'd heard the track blood oath already and given the quality of charles park II, we're already salivating at the idea of having the chance of doing the artwork for this release. the illustration was done by the amazing john delucca (who did the protomen's act II sleeve + the charles park II sleeve), and we were called in at the last second (literally the day before it was released digitally) to do our thing in terms of typography + treating the sleeve to make making it feel 'tougher'.
_link
makeupandvanityset.com
_tags

protomen_record sleeve + tour poster

cover
tenacious d show poster
_what
record sleeve for the nashville-based band, the protomen
_how
here's another one of the many fruits of our on-going collaborations with the protomen. the band played a tribute night in nashville, TN, back in late 2010 and the recordings came out so well they decided to release it. performing as 'queen' for the night, we decided to recreate the iconic 'queen II' record cover in a studio in brooklyn. the photography is by long-time (v) collaborator matt sundin, and the logo work is by M L hope. we handled the art direction, post-production + layout duties. 
_link
protomen.com
_tags

makeup and vanity set_poster + VHS tape

poster
VHS
VHS 2
VHS + poster
_what
artwork for makeup and vanity set's film soundtrack, 88:88.
_how
this was a project that started out with MAVS sending us demos and whispering things about it possibly being a film soundtrack. we were then contacted by the film's director, joey ciccoline. joey showed us the film and sent some ideas he'd had for possible directions for the artwork. included in his package was a poster for the 1985 kid's science fiction film, the explorers. this poster single handedly informed the initial designs we created for the film soundtrack. these designs were then scrapped when joey then expressed interest more in a design that told you less about the narrative, and gave you simply a sense of mystery. 

fortunately MAVS then had the idea to do a parallel release in the form of a limited edition VHS cassette and poster. this would then come out later than the official film artwork, and give the original pieces we created a place to live. a tangent universe if you will.

you can see photos of the VHS tape here.
_link
8888film.com
_tags

bells≥_record sleeve

_what
record sleeve for the brooklyn-based band, bells≥
_how
the creation of this cover was swift and to the point. bells≥ were fans of the photography we've taken over the years and were after a sleeve that felt abstract enough to echo their instrumental sound, but local also to their native brooklyn. immediately taking a liking to an image we took of some street art outside of our studio in DUMBO, we set about laying out some type.
_link
bellstheband.com
_tags

surachai_record sleeve

cover
outside spread
inside spread
_what
artwork for surachai's LP, embraced.
_how
we were introduced to surachai by alessandro cortini of SONOIO. a fierce individual, surachai makes a form of black metal that he calls plagued metal. whatever you want to call it, his dark, aggressive and intricate songs take you to a very particular place.

for his latest LP he asked that we tackle the artwork. ordinarily, given the pre-established hallmarks of the black metal scene, this is something we might not have jumped at immediately. however given surachai's taste for esoteric artwork (formerly employing the likes of bridget driessen and sarah sitkin to handle the task), we knew he would be open to an entirely fresh interpretation of his music.

full write-up to follow soon.
_link
surachai.org
_tags

gabriel bruce_poster

show poster
show poster 2
_what
poster for gabriel bruce's debut album release show, knights in white satin.
_how
gabriel asked us to have a shot at some posters for his upcoming album release show, dubbed 'knights in white satin'. we produced 5 different designs using photographs we'd taken of him at a new york show last year. the first you see is design he went with, and the second a fond favourite of ours. sadly we won't make the show itself, but when a few these start appearing around london we'll at least be there in spirit.
_link
gabrielbruce.com
_tags