I had a vision. A post-apocalyptic french new wave spaghetti western. A bad place. Yet, it was beautiful. Almost welcoming. I used to be obsessed with all these Mad Max clone movies coming out of Italy in the early eighties. I like that world because it’s a great creative representation of true societal deconstruction. Modern technology swallowed up the remnants of our already fragile existence. What’s left is sort of future mutant techno caveman.
Am I making any sense here or is this going right over your head?
Okay, so why am I babbling on about this fantasy world only alive in obscure Italian post-apocalyptic films? When I received a project to design the record art for Trolley, this is where my head was at. I didn’t have a whole lot of direction to start off with from the band. When they got a hold of me, I think they were even still in the recording process. I didn’t even get to hear the record until I was in the homestretch of building out the design. So, the direction was essentially rooted in flying by the seat of my pants and coming up with something out of thin air.
“Hmmm... Ya know, Warriors of the Wasteland is such a cool movie. I wonder what that theme would look like if it was co-opted by a sunshine-y psychedelic pop band. What would THAT record cover look like. ” I said to myself as I launched Illustrator.
I had worked with Trolley before so I sort of knew where they’re coming from.
I started the project like any other. Research. I looked into my “inspiration” folder and sought out other work. I listened to some Trolley records. I checked out the new arrivals on gigposters.com (a great resource for inspiration), I poured through some photos, various record covers, some colors combinations… Basically, I’m letting myself to be exposed to things that could spark the imagination. Hell, I watched Warriors of the Wasteland again. Again, cool movie. Then I decided to take a look at my sketches folder.
“Maybe there’s something in here that I can use? Surely, there must be. Some of this stuff needs to see the light of day.”
There were a few things here and there that I could drew upon. The basis for the eventual finished product were all there. It was a matter of pulling things apart and tightening up the direction. I started with the cover by bringing in the various elements and placing them in a cohesive manner. The hand rendered type came near the end, but I kept a clear space for it. I adjusted some of the halftones, some of the colors, sought out some higher res material…You know… Just tweaking and tightening. The overall vibe was pretty upbeat and glowing. Yet, there is kind of an underlining desolate feel. Again, welcome to your post-apocalyptic California hippie dream.
Next, I brought all that over to the back cover. But this time I played around with the sizing of a few elements to make room for any text that I might need to include later. I sort of look at the back cover as a simplification of the front cover. You’re going to have to include things like song titles, record label information, band members, etc…. It’s best to account for that ahead of time instead of getting locked in a direction and then trying to cram type in at the last minute. The inside cover is an even more simplification for that. So as you see from the images, the cover is the main attraction and as the listener digs deeper, they are confronted with easy-to-navigate information. There’s wiggle room here and I love to see designers push the boundaries of what record designs can do, but for this particular project things didn’t need to get too crazy. I think a “less is more”approach worked well here. Especially since there is a lot going on with the texture use and image manipulations.
“When in doubt, cut it out!”
When I got into the ‘zone', the record designed itself. That happens a lot. That’s when I know I’m onto something good. The pieces of the puzzle fall perfectly in place and all I have to do is lightly tap them into place. Good design is just supposed happen. (Well, in an ideal world… Am I right, designers? Zing! Pow! Boom!)
Anyway, check out the art I did for Trolley’s newest record, "Caught in the Darkness”. A true post-apocalyptic french new wave spaghetti western. Or something like that.
