CD artwork...

As part of getting back in touch with the boys from They Walk Among Us to do their site, they asked me to get involved with the artwork for their new EP.

The title is "Outside the Campfire Circle", without going into too much detail about what the title is about, Richard explained to me that the idea was one of not feeling connected with masses and accepting it. I liked the idea a lot! We hammered around some ideas and this is where we ended up.





I won't bother you with the onbody as it was just text details in one colour due to production costs.

I am really happy with this, mostly because it doesn't quite feel like my usual work, which is always a good thing.

Happy with that!
Michael

Links
Larger Versions
They Walk Among Us' homepage

Instant album art 6

This one didn't go quite to the rules as it was inspired by an odd conversation with a client about waking each other up sending '4am emails' and a random joke about that sounding like an album title. So my brain said, 4am emails does sound like an album title...artist can be the clients name...look out flickr random search here I come!



So I give you Suni Khan's '4am Emails', a never to be released experimental acoustic trip hop album.

Best ideas are often the weirdest!
Michael

Link
Larger Version

Instant album art 5

I am going to have to stop doing these! I have spent ages doing them now! This might be the last one I do for a while, but I have enjoyed making them none the less!



Right thats it for a while!

I'm going to cook dinner.
Michael

Link
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Instant album art 4

Ok, this is a sickness!



Would this be more or less interesting if I included the original image aswell?

I need a shower!
Michael

Link
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Instant album art 3

I have become obsessed with doing this! Meet number 3!



I wanted this one to feel a little abstract hip hop in style, kinda DJ Shadow or something to that effect? I don't know. The band name was M D Live Care, which is just incredible!

I think the best thing that has come from this has been learning about playing with text more and how to make it sit better.

Anyways, I should go to bed!
Michael

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Instant album art 2

I like doing these, it is an interesting challenge and it proves that you can stomp the cover of a CD in 45 minutes with a strong image and a clear vision! I know, I know, I spend way more time on things when I do them professionally as there is more concern to resolutions, visual representation....

So yeah, here is another.



With a band name like Crassispira Trimariana, it was great to have an image that involved stars, as it does sound like the name of a constellation!

Lie to Me is back on!
Michael

Link
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Instant album art 1

You know the drill, well if you don't where have you been? Random wiki, random quote, random flickr, piece it together, in an interesting fashion!

I had a lovely random photo, which was a great start!

My band name was, Juno Award, its an award to do with jazz, and my quote was "meet again in life".

I got lucky I guess.



Quite an easy task with the picture, it screamed arty indie, as did the name, so I did my thing to the photo to make it more interesting and then added the text. I think it went quite well!

Real work to do!
Michael

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Just about the biggest compliment...

I am fairly well tattooed as it happens, don't worry this is going somewhere, and the reason I get tattooed is to act as a positive reminder of great things from my life. Many of them are to do with my band and music experiences, but I have yet to get my own artwork done.

I have a band I played with's CD cover art on my arm, because I had an awesome weekend with them and we got to support Sick of it All, ok I have their cover art and a Sick of it All dragon...so I guess I can identify with what I have been getting at

I got sent this photo earlier.



And I must confess, my mind was blown! To get a message from a friend, who had my artwork tattooed on him, was a truly humbling gesture. Mike Borgia, I am with you for life now sucker!

With a thankful heart (for great friends), I bid you good night.
Michael

Link
Mike Borgia's Website

Digital artwork and shirt!

I was lucky enough some years ago to play a few shows with a fine gent from New York called Mike Borgia, and his new mini album/EP was recorded and ready to go, artwork was needed! This was a new experience for me as the focus was artwork for digital download more so than physical format, don't worry there will be a physical, just not yet.

The title was the simply amazing "Live or Die, you won't be Lonely", I was totally behind this project and I had the idea straight away that this reminded me of the sort of monogram you see on a family crest, so that was the inspiration for the artwork.

So cut the crap and post the artwork...



The interesting plan is that the band name is going to be on the back of the physical product, and not on the front, interest but an idea I love.

The best part of this job was the idea that the coat of arms should go on a shirt. Also an idea I liked! So here it is!



Mock up!



Link
Mike Borgia's Website
Largesr Version

My band's EP!

Well, the best time to get creative is on your own time, for your own stuff, and this was one for me.

My band needed to get our songs out there, and we were looking for an affordable and interesting way to do so, I started looking around the net for packaging that was a little out of the ordinary.

After a little bit of digging around I found a company who make card CD wallets similar to 7" wallets, and then the CD on body seemed perfectly logical, it had to look like a classic 7" from the heyday of its medium. I know there are vinyl effect CD's in the world, but with a one colour on body print on the disc, I was certain I would achieve more. So inexpensive CD wallet, inexpensive disc all equals win win!

Meet the onbody artwork:



For all you nerds out there, it is based loosely on a Capitol Records 7".

And here is how the finished product looks...



This is one of those jobs that prove you don't need to spend a fortune to get something awesome looking! If you want one, good luck, there is only 100, and we don't have online sales, so come to a show!

Woo!
Michael

Link
The Modern Farewell Myspace

Something I should have posted ages ago!

I spent the best part of 6 months working on this, seriously 6 months! Not constantly, but it was a long time from the first photo to the sending off stages.

I will give some explanation of this, as I am happy to explain; Peachfuzz are an amazing rock band from Bridgend, they needed artwork for their album, they asked me to do it. I have know Peachfuzz for some years, and I would describe their sound as similar to the Lemonheads and the Replacements, you know the wonderous branch of rock that fills you with happy thoughts of summer and the perfect soundtrack to a beautiful holiday...

When I listened to their record(s) I think of a soundtrack to a summer film based in a run down theme park, if we are being stereotypical I would say Coney Island, NY, this all got me thinking about a chapter from Mitch Albom's "The 5 People You Meet in Heaven", the lead character arrives in the afterlife to be greeted by a carnival freak who's idea of heaven is Coney Island (where he worked) without people to point and shout at him. "But these guys are from Bridgend in south Wales" I hear you say, so I decided to take advantage of the dilapidated south Wales seaside!

I spent an afternoon in November in Penarth, an afternoon in January in Porthcawl and an afternoon in Barry Island in February. the hardest part of getting good quality/brightly lit photos in Wales in the winter is waiting for the day where the sun was out and the sky was clear. If you know Welsh weather at all, you know how rare this is! I'm not lying when I say some of these photos were taken in a scarf and gloves!

Front Cover:



On body:



Back:



Sleeve outside:



Sleeve inside:



I would like to thank Tom at Sound Print for doing an awesome job helping me turn my artwork into an awesome poster, which I swear one day I will find a frame that will fit it!



One day I will get the enormous InDesign files off my external hardrive and posting them here, I swear!

These 2 made me smile as well...



Yes, up for sale on HMV.com, its a small thing that made me smile...



and my artwork taking over the homepage of their label!

Right...more posts to come.
Michael

Links
Check out Sound Print
Peachfuzz's Myspace

Contest

At the beginning of the year, I swore blind I was going to make a more concerted effort to try and do more projects for no reason/contests/just because, so it hasn't been going that well, but I have certainly tried a few things that haven't seen the light of day on here because they haven't been finished. Give me time, they will come.

I've mentioned Emptees in the past, there is a similar site called Bandjob, and there is currently a competition running to "Re-Design A Horrible Album", what a great idea, when I saw that it was Creed's "Human Clay", I thought to myself...screw sleeping I'm going to have a crack at this!

I hate Creed and I hate that album cover, its an embarrassment! So this was really exciting to even think about. Meet my offering...





It is a stock photo that I have treated pretty heavily to try and make it more interesting, my idea was to not get a million miles away from something that they could use, whilst being a thousand times better than the original. I'm going to list this as for sale, as I doubt I will win the contest and this might interest someone as a cover for their record, stranger things have happened, but I honestly have no idea what will go over well with the judges, we shall see...

Links
Larger Version
Contest on Bandjob

Needs a home!

I started working on this after watching a show on BBC1 called 'Invisible', the show was about filming things in super slow motion and actually seeing things that our rubbish human eyes couldn't see! There was an awesome part about shockwaves, hang on....

Right I'm back, found a trailer on youtube!



Sweet!

Well there was a part in this show about how certain animals fly, birds, bees, basically anything that seems to float. It was awesome also, but it got me thinking, I went away and made this...



Link to the larger version would probably help, it's at the end of the post, don't worry.

On point, I am posting this as "for sale" as it doesn't have a home yet, and I guess it needs one! At the moment it would fit lovely on a card sleeve, but I can work this up for a dual case if needs be.

Right, bedtime.
Michael

Link
Larger Version

Every now and then...

You get a client who truly blows your mind!

And today, that client is Juliet Echo. When I agree to take on the job of designing her artwork, I was given a title of the record, a list of songs, a few lose ideas of what they wanted on the cover and that it had to be a cd in a card sleeve.

Every idea I presented was greeted with open arms and a positive response, but above all else I was faced with a client who was happy to just let me run away with things and do pretty much whatever I felt was right for her and her record. Even this is an amazing thing in terms of being a designer, but this story has an even happier ending.

I always want a physical copy of whatever I have made, it just makes me happy and once the CD was all pressed, I was promised one in the mail. This morning when I came downstairs I found a mailer from the US on my doorstep, I was excited enough to be getting the CD, but this is what I found...



The CD, a thank you note and some origami birds. How nice is that? The answer, incredibly!

I have a massive smile on my face right now, and I probably will smile every time I see the record on my CD shelf.

So simply put, Juliet Echo, you are a wonderful lady.

Thanks,
Michael

Links
You can buy it here
Juliet Echo

Satisfying

This is about vindication and how nice it is to see your work come to life.

Artwork for Captain Accident was a really satisfying, it was done at break neck speed and looked great, so it was rather satisfying to see it up on Amazon.



Now I was not aware of this, but the physical artwork got re-done as there was more time for that. My logo stayed on it, but it was mostly redrawn.

I had no idea there were going to be tshirts for the release show, so it was a pleasant surprise to see this when I walked into the show...



Here, have a better view, don't worry he is a friend, so he pulled a stupid face for me!



Sweet times.
Michael

Links
Why not go buy it?
Larger Versions
Captain Accident's myspace.

The never ending job...

It is never ending...

I have done all I can to get this done, it is just waiting on the band to get it together and get it all sorted. In truth, not my place to post the parts that haven't gone public yet, so here is the interesting part...



Look you can see the actual album in the picture! It does look good in your hands, the 40, 20, 20, 100 black is really black. What an odd sentence that must be to someone who doesn't know about CMYK printing.

The reason I carved it all out is...



The thing with this album was to keep costs down, and this approach was way cheaper than a standard dual case, and far FAR more interesting! AND there is still more to come! But you will have to wait for that...

One day there will be a post with everything in it!

Few more things to post.
Michael

Links
Larger Versions
They Walk Among US Myspace

The job that keeps on going...

Well it does, this is its second post and there is still more to come!

They Walk Among Us again, this time its the cover art for the CD and the on body, and the craziest part about this is, the cover isn't actually for finished! There is more to come and that will require photos!

The point, cover art!!!

Front:



Back:



On body:



It is a little odd that I have done 2 card sleeves out of 3 (I don't know, I haven't spoken to anyone about the Captain Accident physical sleeve yet!) in a row. What will the world bring me next....

Bed time!
Michael

Links
Larger Versions
They Walk Among US Myspace

A punk rock chick...

A few years back I played a show with a very friendly gent from New York called Mike Borgia, super nice guy, super talented as well.

He has recently produced a record for a very talented young lady called Juliet Echo, and for some unknown reason he decided I was the man to get the artwork designed for her record, oh wait, he's an old friend, that's why. Taking note people, you can do good work for your friends!

So anyway back to the album design...

The album title is 'Saturated Youth', I was sent a concept sketch, which will for ever be kept for me to chuckle at (love you guys for doing it though), which gave me my initial direction. Me being me, I did it, looked at it and decided I wasn't fused with what I had done, so decided to do what I thought was right as well.



You have no idea how many photos this cover went through to finally get the right feel for this!

I am glad to say that all the work I did on the discarded front cover didn't go to waste in the end! It ended up being the back!



This went through a few stages aswell, one will be remembered as the photo overload! But I must confess to the fact that I was steered towards this be a client who loved it. Don't get me wrong I don't hate it here, but the original just wasn't front cover material.

Oh yeah there is an on body too!



Not a million miles away from the anything else, but I think it will be a nice thing in its physical form.

Time to finish this post.
Michael

Links
You can buy it here
Larger Versions
Juliet Echo

Deadlines are wonderful for inspiration!

It's Wednesday today, and its also the first time I have had a chance to update in ages!

On Thursday just past I had an email from a friend, followed by a phone call from another friend, then emails...

The long and the short of it was, "Record label want the digital cover ASAP!" "How ASAP?" "Tomorrow!" and muggins here took up the challenge, with a little help from a friend.

Captain Accident AKA Adam Parsons, has an amazing reggae record just around the corner, the single is called "Fire! Fire! Fire!" and is a love song about his wife. His brother in law, also an amazing designer/illustrator (his myspace is coming and it is off the charts!) agreed to collaborate to get this badboy done ASAP.

He provided me with this:



and a bit of info that was on his mind. I think between the two of us we have upped the standard of both of our work. His drawing was amazing, so I just had to piece it together and design a logo and some text placement. As you can see...



Here is a larger version of the logo:



Fingers crossed it will look like this when it goes to the physical product:



And it would be totally inappropriate for a band to not have a release show, but this is a special show on a special night. I'm looking forward to Valentines Day now!



This is one of those things that I feel I will be proud of for a very long time.

I'm happy I'm back!
Michael

Links
Larger Versions
Captain Accident's myspace.

Random Nice Things

One of the best things about doing this blog is that I get to ramble a little (well, a lot) about things that I think are cool or things that I have done, you get the picture.

So this post is entirely about some recent niceness relating to my work.

First off:

I was featured on a design blog!



Interviewed and sample portfolio, it was nice to even be featured, let alone well recieved by Amber who runs the blog.

Go to Design Splat or My interview.

Second off:

I enjoyed doing work on the Zenyth project, and it has resulted in some randomly cool things...

It was cool to go to their release show, take some photos and hang out with some friends, but it was way cooler to see my artwork projected on the screen behind the band.



I may or may not have mentioned my love affair with my local indie record store, Spillers, I was walking past there a few weeks back and the Zenyth CD was in the window. Simple pleasure. Excuse the low quality, camera phone picture.



Alot of clients will try and sell you doing their work on where and who will see your work, whilst this is always nice, it should not be a motivation for doing your best work. I usually try to ignore these sorts of things as I want to concentrate on the work, not the aftermath. However, it was fairly cool to wandering around HMV and see it in the racks.



Can you see it? Want a clearer view?



That put a smile on my face.

My shirt design for SWPK, was rather fun to do, I sent them a few drafts of the design and they ended up having 2 made, one colour and the 2 colour, I saw the 2 colour, it ended up different colours from my choice, but what the hell, they like it. I was also really happy to finally get my hands on one myself.



Success, success...
Michael