Izzy Johns

This project was probably the most fun I’ve had this year, maybe of any project ever! I’ve been toying with the idea of designing record sleeves for a while and this project has cemented it as a personal ambition. I’ve realised the importance of being able to design records from any style of music (not just the ones I like.) I’ve also realised that the charm of records is not just about the front cover. Every physical aspect of a record adds to its sense of presence. Were I to do this project again, I would want to design every aspect of it - the front and back covers, the centre label, even the etchings in the runout groove and the weight of the vinyl. 

This project isn’t over ! Jeremy suggested that I start an instagram page for it, so I can invite people to submit their own concepts. I think that this is a great plan and I like the thought of designing stuff for people I don’t actually know. Plus, it might be a good way to get the attention of designers/DJs/musicians that I was trying to email before.

Jim told me about an artist called Mingering Mike who designed a load of fake soul records and left them in record shops...

... This is such a great idea that I’m a bit frustrated I can’t go and do it. Making an instagram account is sort of similar, but Jim suggested that, like Mingering Mike, I need to learn to create a self-contained version of what I’m doing - that is, without asking for anyone’s assistance. I struggle with this a bit. Last year, my work was quite collaborative/interactive and I enjoyed bringing that aspect back to it. It’s still a good point and I think that if I had to I could probably design a few fake records and make some fake music, even though I’m not that interested in making music. 

Here’s the last one. I was looking at a lot of new age record sleeves. Most of the ones I found were realistic drawings of heavenly realms, generic photos of lily pads, and some that were just deliciously cringey photos of the artists holding a zither or something. New age is definitely NOT a genre that is known for cutting-edge graphic design! Luckily, I found a few more interesting ones (they’re in the pinterest board.) Most notably was this Jon Hassell record:

those little drawings fascinate me so much. They look like runes from an alien language. That’s exactly what I was going for with this design! I took the idea of this “glyphs” and designed lots of my own... 

I tried to make these glyphs reminiscent of earthly symbols (representing the field recordings) but still quite otherworldly. Eventually, I took my favourite glyphs into photoshop. For the background, I wanted to choose an image that was recognisable, but could be manipulated slightly to look alien. The final image is a leaf, very close up. I’m still not sure quite how recognisable it is to someone who doesn’t know it’s a leaf... the idea I was hoping for was an image that reveals itself only by studying it. That is, the alien quality of the image makes the viewer look at it twice, and then they realise what it is ! 

I couldn’t decide whether I wanted the glyphs to float above the background or to look they were embossed onto the leaf (the embossed version is the one below.) NB - I didn’t just add effects to the glyphs, but to the most prominent veins in the leaf as well. I hope this unites the foreground and background (sort of the opposite effect to the orange sleeve) whilst also making the veins look like a river or a lightning bolt... 

This design was the most difficult because it was SO outrageous. I needed to make something grotesque but not ugly, evil but hilarious, classical but gabber... It looked completely different to start off with. I began by hand-drawing a few horrible metallic looking insignias, hoping to simply put them together on a black background and that be enough....

...it was definitely not enough! Even after bitmapping the images to make them seem more cyber-crazy, they were still not evil enough. I had the idea to 3D model a “Zen Satan”, but, in fact, I don’t think such a character was ever meant to be visualised. Instead, I downloaded a robot and thought about how best to manipulate him to freak people out. 

I ended up editing the robot a LOT! here’s what he looked like orignally:

...actually quite cute! Naturally, it’s all the more grotesque to start with this cute robot and turn him into the creature above! Once I had an idea in my head, this design progressed much more easily and I ended up using some photoshop filters I’d never used before, like Bloat and Pinch. To make the text, I put one of the pixelate filters on, duplicated it loads of times and dragged it all over the place. 

Oranges are quite aesthetically interesting as it is, but to make a sleeve that just had an orange on it didn’t seem very inventive. I have always liked fiddling with the netted bag that oranges come in, so I focused on that instead. I wanted to give a multi-layered effect to this record ... the oranges are under the netting, the record is under the oranges, the music is in the record! I liked the idea of opening a record sleeve to discover the sweet and juicy music within, which is why I drew attention to the packaging. 

The netting was drawn by hand. I actually printed out a photograph of netting which I manipulated on photoshop to give that dizzying swirly effect (that’s just personal taste) and then traced over it on a lightbox, then scanned it back in. I wanted the netting to be hand drawn, otherwise I might as well just have taken a picture of a bag of oranges. Instead, the netting has a sort of flatness and symmetry that places it midway between a likeness and a pattern. 

here’s an orange-inspired sketch I did the night after finishing this sleeve:

https://uk.pinterest.com/ijohnston0351/horrible-metallic-bad-trip/

“so what we have is a vinyl press but its actually an orange juice presser and you put the oranges in and it turns it into vinyl”

“Artist: Zen Satan

Title: Horrible Metallic Bad Trip

Format: Vinyl, 12″, red

Label: Rats - RATS006

Track Listing:

A1 The Shinning 

A2 Taste the Tetanus

B1 Vision of Warped Grandma

notes: each record contains a piece of small hand-etched text that reads ‘Ludum Mortem.’ These have been uncovered on the centre label, the sleeve and the record itself.”

“record I’d like to have in my collection...is something with a lot of variation kind of like a compilation of sounds, field recordings, interesting sounds I could manipulate, 2 disks one with experimental new agey synthy weirdness and the other disk probably the darker side of things. Freaky freaky vibes you can’t put a finger on the exact genre but it does something to your ears that not only makes you wanna dance but can sit, close your eyes and let those sounds take your head on a journey.”

some of my initial brainstorms about each one:

here’s some stuff I wrote down on the subject of records + community. 

There are lots of good ideas here which I’d like to come back to someday. The conclusion I eventually came to was to design imaginary record sleeves based on ideas my friends had about records they wanted.

the message i sent out:

“describe an imaginary record that you wish you had in your collection. It can be as vague/specific/serious/silly/far out as you like. And I’ll have a crack at designing the sleeve” 

Playing records with friends (something that I’ve only discovered recently)

Bonding with people over shared taste

Listening to a new record, for the first time, with others is a wonderful shared experience

Going to see performers or DJs with friends

Going record shopping with friends

The next project is a personal project and I was very excited do look in to my favourite topic which is RECORDS! in the introductory workshop, Jasper asked us to bring along three items that were meaningful to us but completely different. I brought three records of course. 

1. that had been given to me by my dad and represented the music I had grown up with and the fetished object of a “Classic Album - first pressing”

2. that I had listened to a lot in a period of my life when I was having a tough time. Later, I got the record signed and got some useful advice from the artist. That symbolised a sort of closure which meant I could get on with my life.

3. my most recent purchase, a record I play in clubs, which symbolises the shift in my relationship to record buying, collector to entertainer. 

Finally, I put text alongside each page to tell the story. I imagine each of these as spreads in a nicely-printed, hardbound book. But that can only happen once the other 25 pages are completed ! Jim suggested that it didn’t even need the text, which is probably true cus I don’t think my basic indesign skills do it much justice. Naturally, I would need to complete the rest of the pages before removing the text if I want it to make any sense. One of the benefits of illustrating a well-known story like Frankenstein is that it’s not necessary to go into too much depth because most people vaguely know the story already.

I finished each page of my plasticine frankenstein comic with a drawing overlaid atop the image of the plasticine model. In my interrim crit it was suggested that I make the whole thing out of plasticine, but in fact I prefer it this way. It’s a sort of multimedia that I’ve never really seen before, and also I think that the drawing being seperate from the background places the storytelling aspect of each page on a different level to the background, making the action more readable. 

Here’s what they looked like :