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music

protomen_act I posters

hope rides west
conquest of the west
the fight for light
dragon con
a&g ohio poster
mercy lounge
mercy lounge 2
_what
posters for the nashville-based rock band, the protomen.
_how
whilst working on their website the protomen invited us to design a series of tour posters for them. the results of this work can be seen here. the original artwork is not always by us - we are often hired to handle the typography, layouts and post-production on the designs to make them look authentic and retro where necessary.
_link
theprotomen.com
_tags

65daysofstatic_film poster

poster
_what
escape from new york film poster
_how
every film has to have a great film poster to go with it. 65 asked us to make sure this was the case with their road movie. 11 completely different designs were produced, this was the winner.
_tags

protomen_record sleeve + show poster

cover
back cover
lyrics + credits sheet
labels
release show poster
_what
7" vinyl single artwork for the nashville-base band, the protomen
_how
this is the protomen's first release from their forthcoming new album, tentatively titled 'act 2'. taking inspiration heavily from the two tracks on the disc, we discussed all the many underlying themes in the music and how to represent them in the most simple and powerful form. as ever with the protomen, there's more than meets the eye and if you look closely at what we created here you'll find a number of interesting treats.
_tags

mellowdrone_record sleeve + poster

cover
back cover
poster
_what
artwork for mellowdrone's second LP, angry bear
_how
mellowdrone called us one evening in march wondering if we were at all interested in working with them on the artwork for the follow-up record to 'box', an album which we'd played into the ground obsessively for who knows how long. work began immediately with discussions about what the new record was saying and where the band were at now. turns out they were the same age as us and into all the same stuff (david lynch, fist of the north star etc.). we then toiled for a while on an idea and passed it over to them. it was the right direction. we then produced 2 more pieces in a similar vein that formed a narrative around the core concept and produced templates for both cd + vinyl. the vinyl doesn't contain the third and final panel of the artwork, but it does have a blue plastic disc and a nice design idea for navigating which side is which.
_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

65daysofstatic_record sleeve + poster

cover artwork
tour poster
_what
artwork for 65daysofstatic's film soundtrack, silent running.
_how
in 2010 the glasgow film festival asked 65daysofstatic if they were interested in re-scoring a film of their choosing. the band, always interested in the idea of scoring films, accepted and chose the 1970s science fiction cult classic, silent running. the success of the score lead them to perform it live at various festivals throughout 2011 and finally record it in the studio for release. 

the band approached us in the summer, asking that we might put together a poster and a record cover of some description for the release. it was similarly an incredible opportunity that was by no means lost on us. the poster was in many ways a direct reference to the film, as discussed here. the final record sleeve you see to the left was something quite different, and you can read more about that here.
_link
65daysofstatic.com
_tags

nx energy drink_poster

poster
_what
poster for NX energy drink tradeshow
_how
NX wanted a poster for their stand at a recent trade show in las vegas. taking elements from the teaser site we built for them along with all their existing branding elements, we tried to make the most enticing and explosive design we could.
_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

newbolt_posters

poster 2
poster 1
poster 3
_what
open studio posters
_how
thomas & clare newbolt wanted us to create posters for their open studios. now that two have been made and they illustrate a different more minimal side of what we're capable of, we thought they were worth posting here.
_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

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

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

pavilion_website + posters

sparkler
traffic
bikers poster
max poster
boat poster
BAM festival poster
_what
website, posters + typography for the feature film, pavilion
_how
we were contacted by film director tim sutton after a series of talks we did on designing websites for films for the IFP. he was interested in us producing a website and possibly some film posters for his new film pavilion. we hit it off very quickly and soon had a series of ideas laid down for online and offline approaches to promoting the film.

the website focusses on a series of animated GIFs that reflect the very calm and subtle visual tone of the film, combined with looped audio from the films soundtrack + score. the posters take a leaf out of robert zemeckis's book to visually represent the very subtle narrative elements within the film.

we also handled the type treatment for the credits within the film. stay tuned for a fuller write-up of the process behind making these various elements.
_features
  • ipad / iphone compatible
  • html5 / javascript driven UI
  • animated GIFs / cinema graphs
  • scrollwheel / cursor key navigation
_link
pavilionfilm.com
_tags

brooklyn brothers_poster

poster 3
_what
film poster for the feature film, the brooklyn brothers beat the best
_how
our talk at the IFP labs in tribeca, new york yielded some unexpected but very welcome results - several film makers approached us to assist them with ways to promote their films. one of the first was writer / director and actor ryan o'nan. he was about to send his new film the brooklyn brothers beat the best to the toronto film festival. the above poster is one of a few elements we worked work him and his production team to put together for the festival.

the film is ryan's ode to john hughes' trains, planes and automobiles (and stars some classic 80s movie alumni) and we created a poster to try to reflect that whilst offering its own more beat-up, make-shift aesthetic. it's the story of a lovelorn musician trying to get a band together and perhaps rekindle a little self-respect along the way. due to these musical themes within the film we also helped design a series of other elements which will be revealed by the film's production team along the way.

this is our first proper feature film poster and we're very excited and thankful to have been ushered into this new world by such great and talented people.
_tags

protomen_act II posters

chicago metro
2012 tour
10 year anniversary
_what
posters for the nashville-based rock band, the protomen.
_how
here are the posters we've created, sometimes in collaboration, for the protomen during the touring for their second album, act 2 - the father of death. 
_link
protomen.com
_tags

88:88_poster

poster
_what
film poster for the short film, 88:88.
_how
the film's director joey ciccoline contacted makeup and vanity set after hearing some of his soundtrack work online. MAVS in turn recommend us to handle the design work for the film. for a 10 minute short film it captured so much of the aesthetic, concept and general motivational forces that bind so many of the projects we work on at (v). in terms of the design, joey was very keen to give away absolutely nothing to those who have yet to see the film other than a sense of quality + mystery. however, just to make things more difficult, we wanted to treat those that have seen the film to a few treats that in many ways do give away what the film is about, if you're in the know. the result is quite unlike anything we've done before, and happily so.
_link
8888film.com
_tags

booster_poster

poster
_what
film poster for the feature film, booster.
_how
director matt reeves was amongst the film makers in the talk on websites for film that we did for the IFP in 2011. when his film booster made the selection for the SXSW film festival he asked that we might produce a film poster for him. it was one of those jobs where the first thing we did resonated with everyone. the film is a very understated crime picture, and the poster focusses on the grit, grime and sense of displacement that the film talks to.
_link
boosterfilm.com
_tags

future weather_poster

_what
film poster for the feature film, future weather.
_how
director jenny deller got in touch with us through our involvement with the IFP. she'd finished shooting her film and in the process of finishing it off and entering it into festivals. we discussed the most necessary elements for her at this stage in terms of design and the poster was our first port of call. she gave us a copy of the film to work and after discussing the central themes of the film. the first draft of the poster was very different, and focussed on a more design-minded approach to conveying the message. this didn't resonate with jenny and so we took a different vector and ended up with the more painterly edition you see here.
_link
futureweathermovie.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

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