Brett Jones for Scarlet Hill

February 17th, 2012 — stephan steyn | 4 comments
Album Artwork

I recently saw the images of the new Scarlet Hill EP titled “What” released late-ish last year and you can see Brett Jones‘ handprints all over this.

We asked Brett to tell us a bit more about the brief and process, and he had this to say:

“Well basically the guys from Scarlet Hill approached me to design their EP and wanted something bold and different but at the same time pretty catchy, which represented something of their musical style as a band. They gave me full license to design how I wanted, which was honestly the raddest “gift”.

Being the first CD I designed, I scanned over a few CD covers I liked and kinda anaylised why I liked them and such. I loved the Tame Impala covers, that whole trippy-recurring-image vibe as well as Foals’ This Orient single cover, but at also wanted to keep my personal style. So with that in mind, I started messing around with some idea’s and after about a month-or-so of design and discussion with the Scarlet Hill guys, we settled on the cover.

I love design where each time you look at it you can spot something new or different, and that’s what I tried to achieve with the front cover. Loads of detail but at the same time trying to keep that balance. I kinda toned it down for the rest of the artwork, but overall loved working on this project, learnt tons and gained some valuable experience.”

I bet you love this? I’m gonna run out and get me a copy to see it in real life.









Chris Slabber for Haezer - Yasi

October 7th, 2011 — stephan steyn | 0 comments
Album Artwork

Our very own Chris Slabber was asked by Haezer to design an EP cover for a new song he recently released, and this is the end result.

This is what Chris had to say about the artwork:

I was commissioned by South African based electro act Haezer to design cover art for his new 2011 release entitled YASI. The name YASI pays tribute to the hurricane that hit Australia in 2010, while Haezer was touring there. The brief was simple - come up with a way to symbolize the intensity of a hurricane in a non-literal way. Thus I thought that shoving your hand in your mouth and having your fingers come out your nose holes and eye sockets is pretty intense.

The EP can be downloaded here thanks to Griet.

Chris Valentine for Wrestlerish - Towns

October 3rd, 2011 — stephan steyn | 0 comments
Album Artwork

10and5 jumped ahead of us to feature this album, but we thought me might as well finish what we started. Chris Valentine did a stellar job with the illustration for Wrestlerish and we think it looks amazing.

We got hold of Chris to tell us a bit about the process, how he got the job and how he feels about the work done. Here’s what he had to say:

It was through a bit of luck that I got the opportunity to work on Wrestlerish’s new album, Towns. I think it was in early July that they put up a status on Facebook to say that they were looking for a young illustrator to work with them on an exciting new project. After being told by three of my friends that morning, I jumped at the opportunity and submitted a quick illustration of the Joburg skyline (which would later become the album cover). After meeting Werner and the boys at Fratelli’s, I had a great idea of where we were headed with the artwork and got down to business.

The guys had this idea to crowd-source the artwork to fans, giving everyone the opportunity to submit photographs of the towns they grew up in. The top 5 photos would then be illustrated for the booklet’s interior artwork. Werner loved the idea of black and white illustration as it really represented the band’s simple and clean style of music, so I stuck to pencil and ink artwork with a few paint effects added in with the help of Photoshop.

Whilst waiting for the fan photos to come in, I’d started the freehand pencil portrait drawings in my own time, knowing that we had about a month to complete the artwork. Naturally it was a bit of a shock when Werner told me we now had a deadline for a week later for completion of the artwork! So due to time constraints I had to lightbox the fan photos directly in pen, completing them with paint effects in Photoshop after scanning them in. Whilst losing some of the expression of freehand drawing, I think they turned out ok in the end. Werner and I also decided on the typography we would use to compliment the artwork, deciding on the use of two different fonts; one fairly formal and the other lending itself to a handwritten, homegrown feel.

All in all I’m extremely excited by the way the album came out in print & I look forward to working with Wrestlerish again in the near future.











Si Maclennan for The Dirty Skirts - Lost In The Fall

September 6th, 2011 — stephan steyn | 0 comments
Album Artwork

Here is a new feature, probably not weekly, but as great album artwork is released (hopefully weekly). Thanks to Brett Jones for the idea to showcase album artwork on the blog.

First up is Si Maclennan‘s work on The Dirty Skirts new album ‘Lost in the Fall’. Darker than their previous albums both in sound and look.

Here is what Si had to say:

“I’ve been working with the Dirty Skirts since just after the release of Daddy Don’t Disco. The Skirts have undergone a bit of a reinvention since then. We developed a much more mysterious and dark art direction to refresh their image - moving away from their previous bright and energetic visual language, and embracing something with more emotion, and a bit of magic.

The guys had a vision for this album, and there was never any doubt that the album design would relate to certain themes in the music. Nature, mysticism, darkness versus light, and the idea of some sort of reckoning (without sounding too religious). The brief was fairly open ended, and working closely with the band was a big bonus. We settled on using a geometric style to carry the content of the design. Sacred geometry, mandalas, and concentric geometric designs can be found throughout all the artwork (and even in visuals and banners at the launch shows). The geometry provided a useful base that tied all the other elements together.

Once I had solid art direction laid down, I began branching out into typographic treatments, sourcing interesting photography, and playing with compositions for the cover art. After a weeks of grind and a few sessions of intensive DTP, the album emerged in all it’s grungy, mystical glory.”









And the album launch tour poster


We hope you like the fist episode in this new chapter, and by all means let us know of any work that we might be missing, posters, videos or album artwork.

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