(v)
(v_i)
(version_industries)

music
landscape cover
portrait cover
landscape
portrait
landscape / portrait
_what
record sleeves for the new york-based band, matte black.
_how
old friends matte black have a new record coming out. in fact they have a double-album and its called, landscape / portrait. the first part, landscape, herald's a brand new sound for the band. the second part, portrait, weaves that new sound back into their original style of songwriting. 

we won't get into the details about the artwork just yet as the records are not out, but you can listen to two songs from them here and preorder digital copies of them here:

_link
matteblack.bandcamp.com
_tags
cover
cover
back cover
details
details 2
_what
record sleeve for the nashville-based band, makeup and vanity set.
_how
when makeup and vanity set released endless destiny we started talking to them about music videos for the record. matt pusti told us he was looking for a video for the song "time," which was also one of our favourites on the record. we'd previously worked with film director drew lint on his feature film M/M, and he immediately came to mind for this project. 

we reached out to drew and he was into it. soon we were going back and forth with him exchanging ideas for the piece. fast forward to a few months later and we're all sitting here in awe of the video he'd made for us. matt pusti then said he was going to make an EP in support of it, with "time" as the title track. the great folks over at data airlines agreed to put the EP out on vinyl, and asked that we might make a record sleeve that used images from the video. we hope you dig the results.
_link
makeupandvanityset.bandcamp.com/album/time-data099
_tags
vinyl cover
front cover and record
front cover
back cover
digital cover
_what
record sleeve for the portugal-based musician, alessandro cortini.
_how
scuro chiaro is the 2nd album by alessandro cortini to be released on mute records. just as with his previous record, volume massimo, the photography you see here is by emilie elizabeth.

it was up to us to find a way to talk about the concept of "chiaro scuro" with emilie's photos and any other elements we saw fit. the result is a piece that talks not just about light and shadow, but also the nature, shape and form of sound. 
_link
mutebank.co.uk/collections/alessandro-cortini
_tags
cover
back cover
inside closed
inside open
back
booklet 1
booklet 2
booklet 3
booklet 4
booklet 5
booklet 6
booklet 7
booklet 8
booklet 9
_what
record sleeve for the nashville-based band, makeup and vanity set.
_how
matthew pusti of makeup and vanity set is scoring more and more films these days. this time around he was asked to score a documentary made about the making of the original batman: the animated series. to celebrate the release of the soundtrack on record store day, we teamed up once again with sound machine records to create something pretty special. the result is a visual expression of the aim of the documentary and a fresher take on the typical batman symbolism.
_link
makeupandvanityset.com/heart-of-batman
_awards
runner-up in the best record store day vinyl category for the making vinyl packaging awards.
_tags
utopian frequencies
disquiet
photo
photo
photo
photo
photo
_what
record sleeve for the sheffield-based band, 65daysofstatic.
_how
through 2020, the first year of the global pandemic, 65daysofstatic began work on an ongoing subscription project. fans made regular payments in order to receive a constant supply of music and other material throughout the year, published the moment it was produced. by the end of the year the band realized that in amongst the bits and pieces they'd worked on there were two records worth of material that were worth casting in stone. thus we began work on the two vinyl releases you see here.

the packaging is an attempt to turn the digital graphics 65 created on their computer screens during the year into an original lasting physical experience one could see and touch. in and of itself a reminder perhaps of one of the strangest years of our shared lives thus far.
_link
65daysofstatic.com
_tags
summoner
canary
lord only knows
_what
record sleeve for the los angeles-based band, big black delta.
_how
the record cover for big black delta's fourth LP was made in collaboration with the photographer and filmmaker matt sundin.

in the fall of 2019 matt, jonathan bates (singer and songwriter of big black delta) and caspar went to death valley together to take some time off. later when jon had finished his latest album he expressed an interest in using the images from that trip for the album's accompanying artwork. thus every image you see through the album's packaging and the digital singles that went with it, were images taken from this trip. in particular the cover image was taken by caspar, whilst every other image was taken by matt.
_link
bigblackdelta.bandcamp.com/album/4
_tags
cover
back cover
package mockup
_what
record sleeve for the nashville-based band, makeup and vanity set.
_how
"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.
_link
makeupandvanityset.bandcamp.com/album/shadow-circuit
_tags
cover
_what
record sleeve for the berlin-based band, sonoio.
_how
for this the third and final sonoio release, alessandro cortini asked us to produce artwork that offered a more cinematic visual than last time. after much discussion we landed on the idea of building a film set, lighting it and photographing it. we then reached out to long-time collaborator, the photographer matt sundin, and got to work sourcing all the necessary materials. the final cover offers both a commentary on the dual translations (italian and english) of the album's title, 'fine,' and a visual suggestion of the sonic and lyrical nature of the music. 

the record is available through dais records on vinyl, cd and all streaming services. if you have the means, we cannot recommend a physical copy of the record enough. it offers a rich accompaniment to what is already a really beautiful listening experience.
_link
sonoio.org
_tags
cover
back cover
_what
record sleeve for the nashville-based band, you drive.
_how
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 took a feeling for the overall tone and 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. we 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.
_link
you-drive.co
_tags
4 vinyl box set.
_what
record sleeve for the sheffield-based band, 65daysofstatic.
_how
our friends and long-standing collaborators 65daysofstatic were hired to write the score to the forthcoming game, no man's sky. 65 in turn asked us to put together the artwork for the soundtrack itself. after listening to the music for months we had a long chat with the band and came up with a loose aesthetic trajectory. two or three different approaches were fully explored before we settled upon what you see here.

the landscape paintings you see embedded into the various covers are by another of our long-term collaborators, john delucca.

the record is available here in various physical and digital formats.
_link
65daysofstatic.com
_tags
_what
record sleeve for the nashville-based band, makeup and vanity set.
_how
makeup and vanity set was asked to score the forthcoming video game brigador. the game developers, telefuture and yk records to release two volumes of the soundtrack on vinyl and other formats. what you see here is the sleeve artwork we made in collaboration with jack monahan, the game's own 3D graphics artist.
_link
makeupandvanityset.com
_tags
_what
record sleeve for the los angeles-based band, big black delta.
_how
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.
_link
bigblackdelta.com
_tags
cover
cover + vinyl
_what
artwork for matte black's second album, dust of this planet.
_how
matte black are old friends and with the release of their sophomore LP they asked that we handle artwork duties. the record's closing track 'time's arrow' immediately conjured an image in our heads of a mass of people running from something toward a great darkness. caspar asked his father, thomas newbolt, to draw such an image in pencil and watercolour. caspar then worked on it digitally until it reached the form it is in now.
_link
matteblackband.com
_tags
cover
cover + records
back cover
inside spread
detail
_what
record sleeve for the nashville-based band, makeup and vanity set.
_how
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.
_link
makeupandvanityset.com
_tags
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
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
cover
outside spread
inside spread
detail
wide
_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.

you can read more about the making of the artwork here.
_link
surachai.org
_tags
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
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
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
front cover
back cover
detail
wide
_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