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music

distant friend, i love you!_record sleeve

_what
record sleeve for the berlin-based band, polinski.
_how
paul wolinski has returned as polinski, his 65daysofstatic side-project. distant friend, i love you! is the first single from his forthcoming sophomore LP, telex from MIDI city. the record will be released through dataairlines, home of makeup and vanity set amongst others.

we made the LP cover artwork for the new record first, and then made this single cover second. the latter photographed in the rainy streets of berlin not so many days ago.

you can watch the fantastic music video paul made for distant friend, i love you! here.
_link
polin.ski
_tags

protomen the fight_record sleeve

record sleeve
_what
record sleeve for the nashville-based band, the protomen.
_how
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.
_link
protomen.com
_tags

jasmin kaset_record sleeve

have you met me yet?
i will never let you go from me
have you met me yet? 7-inch mockup
i will never let you go from me 7-inch mockup
_what
record sleeve for the nashville-based singer, jasmin kaset.
_how
old friend and long-standing collaborator michael eades reached out to us with an interest in us doing some more work for his record label, YK records. this time around he was releasing two singles for jasmin kaset. jasmin we'd worked with before. we created the record cover for band, you drive. this time around we were to make cover artwork for a double a-side 7-inch single she was putting out. the covers you see here are the result of this new collaboration. jasmin was taken by the covers of a late 80s yugoslavian computer magazine called, racunari, and asked that we adapt a photoshoot she'd had done into the style of that magazine.

all photography by bill reynolds. 
_link
jasminkaset.bandcamp.com/album/have-you-met-me-yet
_tags

you drive_record sleeve

cover
_what
record sleeve for the nashville-based band, you drive.
_how
you drive were asked to write a song for the third season of the girlfriend experience. the song they wrote was used in a virtual reality orgy scene, and makes for quite the beautiful crescendo. excited to develop another aesthetic for you drive, we began by visualizing three lyrical phrases from the song: "go on and hit them with the haymaker lover," "put your mouth where you money" and "i am a new machine." in doing so we explored the idea of creating and packaging a synthetic being using just a flatbed scanner, some coins and an obliging friend. the song is called "such a perfect thing" and you can listen to it via the link below.
_link
youdrive.bandcamp.com/track/such-a-perfect-thing
_tags

65dos asymmetry_record sleeve

_what
record sleeve for the sheffield-based band, 65daysofstatic.
_how
65daysofstatic wrote and released this song in support of palestine and its recent conflicts with israel. the song was released on bandcamp on a "pay what you want" basis with all proceeds going to medical aid for palestine. for the first 24 hours of the song's release the band matched all sales with money from their own pockets. the band raised 4000 GBP in the end.

the song's artwork was created using a photograph caspar took in berlin during the 2020 pandemic lockdown.
_link
65daysofstatic.bandcamp.com/track/asymmetry
_tags

white sea_record cover

single cover
_what
artwork for white sea's single, they don't know.
_how
we've been chatting with morgan kibby of white sea and m83 about collaborating for some years now. opportunities have come and gone like black dogs running at night. that was until a few months ago when she told us her new record was done and it was called 'in cold blood'. listening to it confirmed that our hearts had started racing for good reason - this was as close as she could have possibly come to our sensibilities, and we had to seize the moment. what you see here is the artwork for the first single, 'they don't know,' which in many ways foreshadows the more elaborate work we've done on the album cover. patrick nagel meets david lynch meets american psycho, if you will.
_link
whiteseamusic.com
_tags

BBD side of the road_record sleeve

side of the road
money rain down
_what
artwork for big black delta's single, side of the road.
_how
inspired by a salvador dali painting and discussions about how to evolve the BBD 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.
_link
bigblackdelta.com
_tags

protomen drove all night_record sleeve

cassette cover
inside spread
_what
artwork for the protomen's cassette single, i drove all night.
_how
the first single from the protomen's forthcoming covers record was the roy orbison song, i drove all night. the song was of course chosen because of how directly it tied in with and expanded upon the band's long-running, conceptual narrative. in the same fashion the artwork had a very clear path to follow. once again employing the talents of john delucca, we set about creating a design that both expanded on the protomen's story, but also paid homage again to many of their key influences. releasing it on cassette only was of course the final gesture that completed the project.

if you're interested you can read more about the development of the artwork on our blog. otherwise by all means grab a copy of the single here, whilst stocks last.
_tags

BBD ifuckingloveyou / betamax_record sleeve

IFUCKINGLOVEYOU
betamax
_what
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.
_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