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music

MAVS charles park trilogy_record sleeve, poster + trailer

charles park trilogy album cover
charles park trilogy poster
_what
record sleeve, poster + trailer for the nashville-based band, makeup and vanity set.
_how
telefuture records approached makeup and vanity set with the idea of re-releasing their popular charles park records as a trilogy box set. the moment the project got a green light john delucca, joey ciccoline and ourselves were put to work in tying the overall package together visually.

john was sent a few paragraphs detailing the narrative behind each album. he then started to create a poster that we could divide into three halves, to represent the three parts of the story.

we were asked to create the logo, cover and overall packaging for the record. the logo we made is pretty self-explanatory, but the packaging was a subtler affair. utilizing the bokeh affect often seen in films when the camera is focussing on objects in the foreground, we realized we could represent each part of the trilogy with a different coloured circle. in this way the cover image could say a lot with very little, and each record within the packaging could be differentiated by its own red, blue or brown graphic.

joey was then sent the logo and proceeded to shoot the necessary footage to create the teaser trailer for the trilogy, this clip was the first promotional piece released to the general public. once released the limited edition box set sold out in 2 days, but you can still purchase the album digitally here.
_link
makeupandvanityset.com
_tags

activator_record sleeve

cover
detail
wide
_what
record sleeve for the new york-based band, activator.
_how
activator approached us to handle the sleeve artwork for their eponymous debut album. a dark, brutal, relationship-based thrash metal record, it played into our sensibilities nicely. sketching out basic layout on a scrap of paper, we photographed it and sent it to the incredible john delucca. 3 days later he sent back a final drawing and we began to colour it. the resulting image is a visual allegory commenting on whether it's really the relationship that's killing you, or whether it's actually something else.
_link
activatornyc.com
_tags

65DOS wild light_record sleeve

detail
wide
_what
record sleeve for the sheffield-based band, 65daysofstatic.
_how
wild light is 65daysofstatic's sixth LP. presented with manifestos, poems, drawings, prints and transcripts of studio discussions about the concept of 'wild light', we set about producing a piece of work that we felt best encapsulated these ideas whilst also touching on how it felt to listen to the music itself. the result is something we're very proud of, and we hope is something that will change in meaning when you hear the music itself.
_link
65daysofstatic.com
_tags

protomen a night of queen_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

BBD self titled_record sleeve + poster

BBDLP1 cover
detail
poster
_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

labyrinths_record sleeve, poster + music video

album cover
stitches single cover
awaltzoflight cover
poster
_what
artwork and music video 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 sinclair ZX spectrum computer, whilst detailing some of the album's narrative elements. paul and caspar wrote the video's story, which expanded upon the lyrics jonathan bates from big black delta was singing on the song. john delucca then beautifully redrew and further illustrated the graphics caspar had made for the vinyl record's packaging in pixel art format, and josiah newbolt then animated those graphics.
_link
polinskimusic.net
_tags

enough_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. 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

protomen act II_record sleeve + poster

cover
poster
_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
_awards
making vinyl awards 2018 finalist in 4 categories
_tags

mellowdrone angry bear_record sleeve + poster

cover
back cover
poster
wide
_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