(v) (v_i) (version_industries)

paulwolinski.bandcamp.com/album/telex-from-midi-city-data111

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polinski_telex from MIDI city_record sleeve

_what

record sleeve for the berlin-based band, polinski.

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here's the album cover for the aforementioned new polinski LP, telex from MIDI city. paul wolinski, sole member of the band, asked that we might make the vinyl artwork for the record.

a telex is a now antique device for sending text messages over phone networks. it was invented in germany (where caspar and paul live) in the 1920s and finally gave way to the fax machine in the 1980s. given the science-fiction nature of the album's title, paul and caspar agreed that the invention of a new alphabet would be the first place to start when making the record's artwork. paul's love of emojis and caspar's complete distaste for them seemed like an amusing place for this alphabet's generation to begin.

caspar asked paul to reimagine and transcribe every single word on the album's cover and liner notes into apple color emoji format. caspar then took these emoji-based phrases and reimagined them into a visual style he felt more aesthetically comfortable with. he went through several stages of redrawing and simplifying them on paper with a pencil until they felt like a workable pictographic alphabet. he then imported them into a computer and proceeded to vectorize the different characters so that they could function at any size and in any context, be that in sentences or as single characters.

paul then generated a working typeface / font file from caspar's vectorized glyphs and used this for the various online and music video outputs he was preparing to promote the record. in the meantime caspar used the alphabet to prepare the final record cover artwork you see here.

the front cover uses a photograph caspar took from his balcony during the pandemic lockdown in berlin. the back cover is a telex message paul wrote detailing the album's tracklist and liner notes—using the new alphabet—from himself (in his MIDI city) to his record label, data airlines.

the record was released on february 24th, 2023 by data airlines. you can see paul's usage of the MIDI city alphabet in the video for the album's first single, distant friend, i love you!

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aftersun_title sequence

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title sequences for the feature film, aftersun.

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a few days before the 2022 cannes film festival producer adele romanski reached out and asked if we had the time to create the title sequence for a new film she had produced called aftersun. we connected with the film on a number of levels and immediately committed to the work.

caspar sent the director, charlotte wells, some typeface ideas based on the film’s overall mood and his experiences of growing up in the 90s. they then began work on customizing and animating the chosen typeface in a fashion that charlotte and he felt appropriate to the tone of the film. all the while caspar’s brother josiah got to work on creating the end crawl.

you can read more about our involvement in the project here, and you can watch the titles themselves here.

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artofthetitle.com/title/aftersun

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prep_film poster

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poster for the short film, prep.

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producer raymond knudsen returned and asked us to make a poster for his new film, prep. this time raymond was in the director's chair and his film is a frenetic, personal insight into the world of body building. we loved the film and presented a range of poster ideas for raymond to choose from. he selected the one you see here. the collaged juxtaposition was our attempt to tackle the particular psychosis suffered by the protagonist in the film.

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bigbluepictures.com/soon

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protomen_the fight_record sleeve

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record sleeve for the nashville-based band, the protomen.

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the protomen sent us their new song, "the fight," and we got to work. the band are always clear on the imagery they want to accompany their music, and john delucca and caspar do their best to realize that vision.

this time around the band needed a new logo as well as a revised visual aesthetic. john drew the cityscape you see here, and caspar drew the logo typeface and the rest of the layout. the aesthetic references are we're sure very obvious to some, but above all we hope you find it all a fitting visual accompaniment to the song.

you can listen to "the fight " here.

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protomen.com

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the inspection_title sequence

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titles for the feature film, the inspection.

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long-standing collaborator elegance bratton reached out and asked that we assist him in creating titles for his debut feature film, the inspection, which was to be produced and distributed by A24 films. the film is a personal story based on elegance's own experiences as a young, gay man who, rejected by his own mother, entered the military as a way of getting off the streets of new york and finding some self respect. what transpires is a drama that illustrates the complexities of being a homosexual in the army and a parable of self discovery and definition.

we sent elegance a series of typographic ideas for the titles and elegance picked the styles you see here. the resulting mixing of typefaces used, to us, suggested the idea of being a sensitive man in a tough military environment. both typefaces are beautiful and imperfect in their own ways and together suggested in this way the film's overall narrative. elegance then asked that we colour the text gold to reflect his feelings about how he felt about the story.

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a24films.com/films/inspection

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fraude films_logo

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logo for the new york-based company, fraude films.

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wells watson jr. reached out to us and asked that we might create an animated logo for his new company, fraude films. after presenting various ways in which to visualize his company's name, we all settled upon the one you see here. created by giulia bertolino and caspar, the animation is a result of some digital type design, and plenty of printing and scanning.

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fraudefilms.com

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filmmaker_winter 2021_magazine

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redesign of the new york-based film journal, filmmaker magazine.

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this the winter issue of filmmaker magazine further evolves the overall approach we've taken with the redesign, both inside and out. this time around charlotte gosch and i introduced some new typefaces to the magazine and used their large family of styles to talk about how a magazine of this kind has different "voices," be those the the voices of the filmmakers being interviewed, the magazine's writers or the magazine's designers.

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waves_title sequence

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title sequences for the feature film, waves.

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director trey edward schults had a few ideas about how the opening titles for his new feature film, waves, should look and feel. he was keen to capture a certain, particular, "florida feeling." florida was the US state in which the film had been shot and where trey is from. to that end we suggested that a neon flicker of orange on top of the beautiful opening shot of the girl on her bike would hint nicely at a florida tone, but also the darker, fiery film to come. after finding the right colour, placing and treatment of the titles, we offered trey some typeface options and he chose the one you see here.

for the closing titles trey had some unusual, abstract b-roll footage he'd shot in pre-production and we suggested we scroll black type through it so that at times the words literally got lost in the darker colours. this was one of those rare projects where everything we did both the director and A24 (the film's production company) loved straight off the bat.

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a24films.com/films/waves

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filmmaker_fall 2020_magazine

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redesign of the new york-based film journal, filmmaker magazine.

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this the fall issue of filmmaker magazine further evolves the overall approach we've taken with the redesign, both inside and out. after the summer's "pandemic digital-only issue" charlotte gosch and i wanted to celebrate the return to print with an experimental design. we explored the idea of "spatial depth," as hinted at in the magazine's logo, within the pages of a magazine. we blurred images and laid them over other images to give a sense of light, projected films and so on. we then used a brutalist-style chiaro scuro approach within the magazine's layouts to talk about what it is to move through space, particularly when entering the cinema to see a film in the darkness.

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filmmaker_summer 2020_magazine

_what

redesign of the new york-based film journal, filmmaker magazine.

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this the summer issue of filmmaker magazine further evolves the overall approach we've taken with the redesign, both inside and out. this time around, due to the global pandemic and printers being closed down, we redesigned the magazine for digital viewing only. charlotte gosch and i therefore changed the format of the magazine to suit the scrolling experience, as opposed to the physical page turning experience.

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filmmaker_spring 2020_magazine

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redesign of the new york-based film journal, filmmaker magazine.

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this the spring issue of filmmaker magazine further evolves the overall approach we've taken with the redesign, both inside and out.

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filmmaker_winter 2020_magazine

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redesign of the new york-based film journal, filmmaker magazine.

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this the winter issue of filmmaker magazine further evolves the overall approach we've taken with the redesign, both inside and out.

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MAVS_breaking news_record sleeve

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record sleeve for the nashville-based band, makeup and vanity set.

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'breaking news' is the 4th record in a series of imaginary soundtrack albums by matthew pusti, AKA makeup and vanity set. it is the first record in a start of a new trilogy, but a part of a larger series under the name 'charles park'. the narrative of this record is based more around a criticism of the american news media. based on a short plot synopsis from matt, long-standing collaborator john delucca and i set to work on creating a cover that we felt set the tone of the movie inside matt's head. the result of that work you can see here.

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store.mute.com/browse/mute/products/alessandro-cortini-volume-massimo

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cortini_volume massimo_record sleeve

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record sleeve for the berlin-based musician, alessandro cortini.

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old friend and long-standing collaborator, alessandro cortini, asked us to take care of the logo and design the layouts for his new album, volume massimo. photographer emilie elizabeth had already shot the beautiful cover photographs you see here when we joined the project. it was then our task to frame these images with a rich yet minimal design aesthetic that further harmonized with the album's overall tone. in the end we went with three different covers for the album - one for the vinyl, one for the CD and one for the digital / streaming edition.

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filmmaker_fall 2019_magazine

_what

redesign of the new york-based film journal, filmmaker magazine.

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this the fall issue of filmmaker magazine further evolves the overall approach we've taken with the redesign, both inside and out.

_link

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filmmaker_summer 2019_magazine

_what

redesign of the new york-based film journal, filmmaker magazine.

_how

this the summer issue of filmmaker magazine further evolves the overall approach we've taken with the redesign, both inside and out.

_link

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filmmaker_spring 2019_magazine

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redesign of the new york-based film journal, filmmaker magazine.

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this the spring issue further evolves the overall approach we've taken with our cover to cover redesign.

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leaving hope_film

_what

writing, directing, title design and poster design for a short film.

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two years ago caspar wrote and directed his first short film. the film is now available through the online short film festival, no budge. the film stars laine rettmer and is about loss and the fear of making a film.

the film's titles and poster were also designed by caspar.

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nobudge.com/videos/leaving-hope

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filmmaker_winter 2019_magazine

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redesign of the new york-based film journal, filmmaker magazine.

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this the winter issue further evolves the overall approach we've taken with our cover to cover redesign.

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the song of sway lake_title sequence

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end title sequence for the feature film, the song of sway lake.

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we met director ari gold at a party on his rooftop. in discussions about his forthcoming new film he revealed he was looking for a title sequence. sharing a love for the filmed title sequences of saul bass, we agreed to stay and touch and discuss things further. a few weeks later producer alexandra byer, cinematographer shabier kirchner and i found ourselves upstate filming by a lake. not long after that were cutting the sequence you see here into the film. the piece combines almost every aspect of what we do as a company, from record cover design through to film direction.

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swaylake.com

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filmmaker_fall 2018_magazine

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redesign of the new york-based film journal, filmmaker magazine.

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with issue 104 of the magazine we decided to revamp the filmmaker logo once again. we didn't want to change the concept of it, but more the way in which we'd previously executed it. the original rendition had been hand drawn and this revised edition was more machine-made. the result is more refined and, we feel, a more fitting translation of our original concept.

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makeupandvanityset.bandcamp.com/album/shadow-circuit

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MAVS_shadow circuit_record sleeve

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record sleeve for the nashville-based band, makeup and vanity set.

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"the future past. lights on a horizon. blood in your veins. old visions. low frequencies fading across night. the roar of the masses. the reflection of bulbs overhead, on printed plastic and steel. a fight to survive, all or nothing. shadow circuit."

this was the story matt pusti (AKA makeup and vanity set) had written and was thus scoring the soundtrack for when he created this album. what you see here is the logo design and record sleeve artwork we created to reflect this narrative.

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you drive_new_record sleeve

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record sleeve for the nashville-based band, you drive.

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here's the artwork we created for the first single from you drive's debut album. the song is called new. art direction and design by us, photography by jeff brown.

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you-drive.co

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you drive_self titled_record sleeve

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record sleeve for the nashville-based band, you drive.

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you drive is a new band formed by long-term collaborators of ours, makeup and vanity set, and the singer / song-writer jasmin kaset. a few months ago they approached us to create their debut album artwork. the plan for the record was to release it on vinyl. after listening to the record for some time we focussed on some lyrical fragments from the songs, and decided to make a series of still life photographs that we'd then insert into the jacket design in one form or another.

working in collaboration with the photographer, jeff brown, we sourced various objects, built a series of sets in our studio and got to work arranging and lighting things. caspar then created abstract interpretations of the same photographs and used those as counterpoint pieces throughout the layouts. the resulting package we feel speaks to the music in both direct and indirect ways.

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you-drive.co

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BBD_tragame tierra_record sleeve

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record sleeve for the los angeles-based band, big black delta.

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the cover for big black delta's 2nd LP, tragame tierra, was the 'last man standing' after trying a series of ideas that attempted to capture the subtler qualities of the new tracks. in the end we settled on a minimal aesthetic, colours that jon felt were closer to his sensibilities these days and a photograph jon liked of himself taken by jeff brown, and we developed things from there.

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BBD_RCVR_record sleeve

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record sleeve for the los angeles-based band, big black delta.

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RCVR is the second single from big back delta's sophomore LP, trágama tierra. it features guest vocals from none other than debbie gibson. in our opinion it's one of jon's finest pieces of work, not least for it's wendy carlos-style rendition of a paganini violin solo.

the music and lyrics are what inspired the artwork you see here.

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MAVS_wilderness_record sleeve

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record sleeve for the nashville-based band, makeup and vanity set.

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2 years in the making, wilderness is the new album from our good friends and longstanding collaborators, makeup and vanity set. the artwork stems from the narrative matthew pusti wrote for the record has he composed it. a combination of bespoke photography and extensive digital collage-work, it's perhaps our most involved record sleeve to date.

the record features the talents of many friends including big black delta, the protomen, witchoria and joey ciccoline. the short film accompanying the record's release and is featured in part in the album's video trailer above.

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protomen_the cover up_record sleeve

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record sleeve for the nashville-based band, the protomen.

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the protomen, quite apart from their original music output, are a band that produces cover songs par excellence. this is not least because they choose songs that almost entirely echo the narrative they deliver in their ongoing series of rock operas.

the cover up is likely just the first in a series of exceptionally well recorded collections of cover songs from the band. needless to say it was our job to create artwork for the record that deliberately wove it into the protomen's overall narrative arc. this included nothing less than asking friends to voice characters in the various "movie scenes" dotted throughout the recording.

the idea here was to make a movie soundtrack to a film that was made and exists within the protomen's ongoing story. in doing so we asked john delucca that he might once again bless us with his exceptional drawning and painting talents. caspar and commander then sewed everything together to make a vinyl record release we're very proud of.

we hope you enjoy the work.

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protomen.com

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songs my brothers taught me_film poster

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film poster for the feature film, songs my brothers taught me.

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producer mollye asher got in touch and asked that we might design the poster for chloe zhao's debut feature film, songs my brothers taught me. we ended up making two posters for the film, both using beautiful photographs taken on set by eleonore hendricks.

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songsmybrotherstaughtme.com

_awards

mubi movie poster of the day

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MAVS_charles park trilogy_record sleeve, poster + trailer

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record sleeve, poster + trailer for the nashville-based band, makeup and vanity set.

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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.

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MAVS_manifold_record sleeve

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record sleeve for the nashville-based band, makeup and vanity set.

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the threat of anthony scott burns and makeup and vanity set collaborating on a project together had been growing at an exciting rate. finally with the forthcoming release of burns' sci-fi short 'manifold,' we get a preview of things to come in the form of the score he asked makeup and vanity set to write for it. including two new, unreleased tracks, the score is now an EP soon to be released on telefuture records.

what you see here is the sleeve artwork we created to support the release. the record is available now for preorder here.

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65DOS_wild light_record sleeve

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record sleeve for the sheffield-based band, 65daysofstatic.

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wild light is 65daysofstatic's sixth LP. the band presented caspar with manifestos, poems, drawings, prints and transcripts of studio discussions about the concept of 'wild light'. he then set about producing a piece of work that incorporated these ideas but also expressed how it felt when he listened to the record.

the "creatures" or "ships" in the artwork were created by trying to break some of the standard functions in adobe illustrator.

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65daysofstatic.com

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BBD_side of the road_record sleeve

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artwork for big black delta's single, side of the road.

_how

inspired salvador dali's galatea of the spheres and discussions about how to evolve the big black delta aesthetic as we approach the foot of the mountain that will eventually be the second LP, this cover is in some ways perhaps the band's most figurative yet. the human eye instinctively sees faces in abstract patterns, and of course it's no incident that that is what you might see here. however what you take from it as you listen to the song is of course your decision. either way we hope you enjoy the experience.

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BBD_ifuckingloveyou / betamax_record sleeve

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artwork for the singles off of big black delta's debut LP, BBDLP1

_how

after signing to nerve management, big black delta have been set to release a series of singles both on vinyl and digitally. challenged with a way of making these releases unusual in some way, given some of the songs have been out for a while, we suggested that perhaps each release's artwork tesselate with the next. this way all the singles can form a larger image once they've all been collected. at the time of writing two releases have been put out, IFUCKINGLOVEYOU and betamax, which you can see here.

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MAVS_88:88_record sleeve

_what

record sleeve for the film soundtrack, 88:88.

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this cover was created to fall more in line with the 88:88 film poster design, rather than the artwork we created for makeup and vanity set's own limited edition release of the score. it gives less away about the film's true nature.

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8888film.com

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protomen_a night of queen_record sleeve + tour poster

_what

record sleeve for the nashville-based band, the protomen

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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.

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protomen.com

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BBD_self titled_record sleeve + 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.

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polinski_stitches_music video

_what

music video for polinski's debut single, stitches.

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paul wolinski is one quarter of the experimental musical machine that is 65daysofstatic. polinski is his more purely electronic side-project. labyrinths is is the debut album from polinski.

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.

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polin.ski

_awards

color in design 2012 award winner

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MAVS_never let go_record sleeve

_what

artwork for makeup and vanity set's EP, never let go.

_how

working with makeup and vanity set continues to be a very exciting, fluid and rewarding process. this time around, in terms of a brief, we were given the recordings themselves, informed that the release would be out on cassette only and asked that we try to echo a visual from the VHS era of home entertainment. old enough to have lived through a great portion of the VHS and cassette eras, we understood how this record would sound when fans heard it and very much where it was coming from in terms of cinematic narrative. the decision to in some way make it photographic and involve some sort of backlit misty scene came very quickly, and was undeniably influenced by our shared love for shows from that era like twin peaks and the x-files. so it was then a matter of building that out with a combination of photographic elements and a series of photoshop brushes and textures. finally, the typography came about as a result of wanting something elegant and not too cliche, but that would also feel a little like film credits.

you can read more about the making of the artwork here.

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BBD_IFUCKINGLOVEYOU_music video, record sleeve + 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.

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