A Really Really Really Good Design Firm
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Posts tagged ‘Fire Records’
Continuing the look for our series of ESG releases for Fire Records, we took a playful take on the energy inherent in their single “Dance.” The song is funky fun, while still sounding like only ESG can. You might have heard it as part of the recent xbox campaign. The sleeve made such an impact on record store shelves that it sold out in a matter of days. Everybody wants to dance, and everybody wants to dance now!
Few projects have allowed me to be creative in so many areas as the reissue of post-funk pioneers Pigbag’s collected works. Hand-crafted type abounds, as does a playful approach to their old photos and a complete re-creation inspired by their original record covers. The support of both the band and the label inspired me to push it even further. Every last inch of these packages bristle with the combined energy. Once we had the look established, the playful diecut took the whole thing to another level. The “awesome” level! Plus, we couldn’t settle for spreading that joy across just one release when we had Volume Two waiting in the wings:
I wish I could show you all of the pieces as each individual disc sleeve still makes me smile. Not to mention having a dayglo monkey wearing glasses and a beard! Head on over to the facebook fanpage to see more of the funky goodness.
One of my all-time favorite janglepoppers from the C-86 scene were Scotland’s Close Lobsters. As big a fan of their music as I was, I often looked down at their record sleeves and wished they were more in tune with the joys behind them. I had to wait two decades, but I finally received my chance to make it so when offered the opportunity to package their albums “Foxheads Stalk This Land” and “Headache Rhetoric” together on one disc. Tackling the many challenges in merging two VERY different covers from the originals, I kept coming back to how much I enjoyed the very titles themselves. Once I knew that the words would be the playful heroes, this practically designed itself (with the help of a lot of x-acto cutting and pasting and a heaving old copier.)
London’s iconic Fire Records has undertaken the noble task of re-introducing some of the classic records of a post punk era gone by. Many come from their own treasure trove but others have been secured for this purpose alone. When we heard artists like Spacemen 3, Neutral Milk Hotel, Teenage Fanclub and Television Personalities, we didn’t require further convincing. Being asked to create the identity for the “Embers” series was indeed an honor. I mean, just look at the records the logo will grace. Does this finally make us cool by association? We sure hope so!
Fire Records invades the Bergenfest musical extravaganza with a showcase and what better way to alert the locals than a one-eyed lass surrounded by record advertisements from the backpages of old pulp publications!
Fire Records put out some of my favorite music of the 80′s and 90′s (you already know this had you seen my peppering the Close Lobsters with kisses on my BYT “Lost Records” column.) They have re-emerged from an extended slumber, primarily on the power of Virgin Passages and their pastoral goth chanting mixed with experimental instrumentation grounded in acoustic instruments. (Thats a long way to convey that they are equally pretty AND spooky.) Working on the new EP gave me a chance to paint some floating eyeballs and scrawl out some type. Two things I never tire of.