The Life Force Trio

Carlos essentially let me run with this — his only request that it have a private press feel and include a Kev Ramos polaroid on the front. I added Akzidenz Grotesk, the polaroid and a mix of rich and pure black ink.

My main visual reference was the Actuel jazz series but with a much looser type treatment. And  both Carlos and I thought it quite democratic to include all the players name on the cover as opposed to hiding them in the liner notes.

Savath & Savalas “Apropa’t”

Press sheets from an art direction & design project for WARP Records recording artist Savath & Savalas. Recorded in Spain, I wanted to portray Maya Hayak’s photography within an architectural motif that illustrated the country’s rich history of accommodating external influences.

Initially I specified a cream stock but when it became difficult to obtain WARP was gracious enough to let me use a 5th color flood. And provide me with press sheets! The quality of European music packaging is such a huge contrast to what is done in the States where digital press results near color copy quality.

Downtown Calling

305 × 457 mm, one color risograph posters and website for a documentary about late 70s and early 80s downtown NYC music and arts scene.

“Teto Solar” — Tohno Crocco

Brasilian SMD release of Tohno Crocco’s super group of old players. The format is guaranteed at 5 reales and helps combat bootlegs by making the releases affordable. The cover illustration and subsequent treatment of circles within the package mimic stages of a solar eclipse. I think the literal translation of teto solar is a sun roof. Special thanks to Simon Katz for producing this release.

East Dev Music Packaging & Websites

Art direction and design for the first 13 releases of a music imprint I cofounded. My partners and I wanted the packaging to obviously reflect the individual artist projects but also feel like an East Dev release. The lack of realistic budgets also helped dictate the look which often ended up being illustrated.

CD packaging for Jon Philpot’s Bear In Heaven project entitled “Tunes NextDoor to Songs”. The illustrations are by S. Jeffery Sims. Unfortunately no vinyl was produced.

Ammon Contact

This EP sounds so raw and funky that there was no way it could be not be done by hand, especially without ready access to photos. The illustrations are all done with construction paper on a bed of stickie notes.

My only regret was that we were unable to get proper digital repro due to budgets and a crazy deadline. Currently out of print and hard to come by. Printed shots coming shortly, vinyl collection in storage.

EastDev promo CDs

I detest hate CDs. Ya believe it or not we used to mail these things to people. These were basic promo CDs with space to write on. I wanted to establish this as the house illustration style but it never evolved as such.

Eliot Lipp
“Steele Street Scraps”

Another music packaging project with a small budget and quick turn around time. The typography is a play off of the title, with the 8bit chunks and blood splats for style points. Inconsistencies in color in the above images are purely due to my lack of skill in shooting flat work. A Hefty Records release. I also recently found an interesting outtake.

Prefuse 73, “Surrounded By Silence”

Art direction and design for G. S. Herren’s 2005 LP and series of singles on Warp Records. Guillermo and my initial thoughts were to shoot Super 16mm scenes between distraught lovers in a car on a dead end Brooklyn street. Motion picture film would be flexible enough for print and the nascent digital platforms, YouTube and MySpace,  although logistically and financially the choice was ultimately not feasible.

I did however choose to treat the imagery, shot and art directed by Grace Villamil, as if they were film stills, by not covering them with the typography. This decision allowed more flexibility in dealing with the imagery online, beyond just presenting the standard packshot, by thinking of the entire browser as the package.