see more Fail Blog

YOU'RE BLIND

THOUGHT PROCESS MAP

TEETH, COLOUR, SCAR

'A-O'-W-K

BAG GIRL FACE

Some other old photograph where I made a girl wear a bag on her head and jump about a bit.

BAGDAD

Some old photograph I took.

S.O.N.S

Possible logo for the S.O.N.S. Unknown Land Project

CAM AGAIN!

SNOW, OH NO. SNOW.

A snow pigeon I built on my roof overlooking Great Eastern Street and the City.

TACHIKOMA & I

PICKLE AND I

UNTITLED

Work that's years old...

It's the only version I have left of this image that was originally a photographic print. I've forgotten why this image is skewed and on a brown background. I think it was a crop from a sketch book original.

On the subject of album covers...

Great album, great cover.

The Bronx, The Bronx (I)

THE PEAK OF OUR LIVES

This photograph is taken from the Andrew W.K. website (www.andrewwk.com) It's a shot of the lecture he did at Madam JoJo's last year. The guy who's head is covering the 'E' is my friend Johnny. I'm somewhere behind him. It was incredible.

UNTITLED

This guy can be funny on and off...

Most adverts these days are shit. I think this guy just complains for the sake of it though.

http://tvs-worst-adverts.co.uk/

Check it out.

And listen! Listen!

They will come, They will come.

http://photoramas.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/great-horned-owl.jpg

MEN OF DEATH CONTINUED

MEN OF DEATH

A series of work I did a while back about the seemingly genetically short life span in my family.

It's supposed common knowledge that females out live males but in my family, my dad is the oldest living male Kilburn we know of. He's 52 this year.

SOULWAX – ANY MINUTE NOW – TREVOR JACKSON

This record is worth owning on vinyl whether you have a record player or not. Although you get the same collection of images included in the CD version of the album, the small format doesn’t do the optical illusions justice. In one foot squared glory, they can really give you a headache (in the best way possible). Each of the five images in the double vinyl record contains either the band and album title or a two-tone picture of a band member. The images are created using repeating patterns and shapes but with some shapes minutely widened and thickened to create a ghost image that is only visible at certain focal lengths or when tilted. As is common and usually successful to a certain extent, Soulwax used the album theme in live shows and single releases, each with a specific pattern dictating a relevant image.

JOY DIVISION - UNKNOWN PLEASURES - JOY DIVISION AND PETER SAVILLE

One of the most iconic pieces of music design and a testament to a band that arguably formulated an entire genre or movement, the cover image itself is beautifully simplistic and in this case is the main strength of the design. What I find really interesting about the ‘unknown pleasures mountains’ is that despite being an important image before it’s use by factory records; the success of its use on the highly influential album has made it synonymous with Joy division.

The cover image of this album is not what makes it special to me. The whole concept of the album and the emptiness that it produced represented the album brilliantly, the fabric card that the sleeve is constructed from and the absence of a track listing make a must in the top ten.

APHEX TWIN - “THE GIRL/BOY” E.P. - APHEX TWIN AND

The cover of this album features a pixelated photograph of the artist’s older brother of the same name who died at a young age. The uneasy concept of the album artwork is very much representative of the artist and this particular record. As well as this the digitalised effect on the photograph is an obvious choice of aesthetic considering the electronic genre of the artist. Another possible reason for the pixels could be the technology at the time of production. With digital imaging still far behind the quality of conventional film, Clayton and James could simply have chosen to blow up the digital image past the point of clarity to exaggerate the electronic theme of the artwork.

The reverse of the record contains the track listing. Again in the same theme mentioned, the use of keys to spell song titles fits in perfectly with the record design. I have always liked the way the type is set up and the fact that the sizing and layout of the lettering changes to accommodate the size of the record cover. Apart from being a brilliant collection of music I would definitely say that the design element on this E.P. has made it much more of a cult object.

PIXIES - DOOLITTLE - VAUGHAN OLIVER/V23

This record came complete with a set of twelve by twelve inch prints inside the record sleeve that contained the usual lyrics and corresponding pictures for each of the fifteen tracks on the album. Through writing so far, I have learnt that extra effort to create a complete idea within a record is one thing that can really make it special. Each of the individual pictures within this sleeve was a visual representation of the song that ranged in subtlety. Some are obvious, like the cover image for ‘Monkey gone to heaven’ which contained a monkey and the numbers five, six and seven; a reference to key lyrics in the song. Others carry much more of a covert set of objects but all contain at least some reference to a lyric in the appropriate song.

KASABIAN - SINGLES FROM THE SELF-TITLED ALBUM - SIMON CORKIN

Kasabian are a band that I honestly think are over-hyped and over-played. What was good about the band around the time of the first, self-titled album release has now been lost as the band sides itself with publications like the NME and the show that will generate the highest revenue possible. Not that I’m here to preach against bands that I think have sold out, but my point is that; what was originally fresh and exciting about Kasabian’s sound and has been lost along with their aesthetic. What made the first album special to me was the way the band managed to create a visual concept that was both mass produced and individual at the same time. It is always nice when you receive something better than you where expecting and with the record version at least, that is what you got. Each ten-inch vinyl was wrapped in a A0 size poster with a corresponding high grain image on one side and a striking block colour on the other. This appealed to me because it had so much going for it! The wear and tear on the packaging made each record unique as the poster ripped and bent and best of all, the owner was left with the choice; to never really experience the poster, or to find another case for their record!

TELEPOPMUSIK - ANGEL MILK SAMPLER - UNKNOWN

This record is a pre-release to the ‘Angel Milk’ album but in my opinion the artwork in this record is much more beautiful, less gimmicky and gives a better impression of the music that the record contains. It is a simple concept on the cover but it is a favourite of mine because of the fresh and almost organised way that the mysterious setting gives the surrounding nature. Although the record is only a sampler and was never widely distributed, I think in design terms it is a beautiful testament to similar works in this category of both music and music related design.

Subtleties within the photograph such as the relatively old-tech audio equipment are real complements to the sound of the band. As is the whole woodland aesthetic that became Telepopmusik’s trademark in the time surrounding the release and longevity of this album.

DEATH FROM ABOVE 1979 - YOU’RE A WOMAN, I’M A MACHINE -

I remember buying this record after hearing through the store sound system, but not before I had seen the cover. In this case (as if to back up the logic of my question) the E.P. cover was an integral part of me buying the record. Apart from being a particular favourite of mine, this artwork again really supports the sound and principle of the music. It’s important to me that a member of the band also did the design, I am not implying that that is a necessity, just that it give the whole package a much more home grown feeling. I feel that this graphic really influenced a lot of my work when I was younger and that, in partnership with the music has made this I very iconic record in its genre.

FISCHERSPOONER - ODYSSEY - FISCHERSPOONER

I thought this cover was striking from the first time I saw it and I still find it pleasing to look at about four years afterwards. This piece of symmetry describes the band brilliantly; already part answering the original question. The simplicity and electricity of what successfully became the bands logo describes them perfectly. A shape made of shapes using the classic aesthetic of a cyan, magenta, yellow and black setup really speaks volume for the sound of the album and the almost fashion based founding of the bands sound at this time. It was always interesting to me, how the shape is both so fluid and disjointed at the same time, creating an abundance of new, hidden shapes every time you glance across it.

In criticism of the piece, the text is disjointed and the choice of typeface feels very out of place. In different editions of the record (after it became more known) the design was changed to incorporate only the logo.

THE TOP TEN RECORD COVERS IN MY BOOK CASE IN REGARDS TO DESIGN AND HOW THEY MAKE THE RECORD MULTI-DIMENSIONAL.

The ‘top ten’ is not in any ranking order

Other than how I stacked the records on my desk.

 

 I chose to discuss ten of my favourite record covers as apposed to a list of my favourite designers for a few reasons, the first of which was to avoid making comparisons between designers that may have little in common both in context and practise. Although I never planned to use the top ten as a ranking system, I still wanted to write about a medium that could be reviewed on how adequately it fulfilled it’s purpose.

I’ve always been a fan of records in the same way many people are; the higher quality, the effort required in listening to one rather than say, just pushing a button – the whole package is appealing. What really gets me excited though is the fact that you are not just b

uying the legal rights to play a piece of music in your home (like a compact disc or an MP3) You are buying a piece of art. A high quality image that complements, distracts or even ruins the music it shelters. It was this chain of thought that lead me to ask, ‘What makes a record cover really good?’ I mulled it over for a long time and finally decided that rather than answering a difficult question that could be endlessly debated over, one that eventually came down to either taste or record sales, I would choose ten records from my collection who’s c

overs I thought separated them from the rest. I

 chose only to use records that I owned to narrow down the thousands of brilliant pieces of art and design around and also as proof of the fact that I must really mean what I say, to have spent that extra premium on the wax version of a piece of music.

 

[I will list records in the categories of ‘album artist’, ‘album title’ and ‘artwork designer’.]