A POPULAR BRIEF

So back to uni from Easter - our newest project brief has been set by designer and art director Peter Chadwick, from Popular UK and before that, Zip design. Pete showed us a variety of his work within the music industry, with album cover designs from the likes of Primal Scream's 'Screamadelica' cover, to Groove Armada's logo, to promo work for Swedish House Mafia.


The new project is to redesign our favourite 12" Vinyl Album cover. I think this is the most excited I have been about a project in a while! I knew that the best place for me to pick up a great vinyl cover was back home, to the vast collection that belong to my dad. With hundreds of classic covers to choose from, it was more difficult that I thought! Here are a few of my favourites:

Bowie's 'Hunky Dory'

 

Blondie's 'Parallel Lines'

Sex Pistols - 'Flogging a Dead Horse', both sides (I particularly enjoy the back, shown below!)

But my cover of choice was 'The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust' and the Spiders from Mars, David Bowie. This is an album my dad had me listening to as a child, and I love that as a concept album, it tells a story of Bowie's alter ego character, Ziggy Stardust. The cover has been put together by Terry Pastor, who added inks to a black and white photograph (taken by Brian Ward) to create the bright, surreal colours.

What I really enjoy about this cover is a small instruction in the bottom left hand corner on the back, reading "TO BE PLAYED AT MAXIMUM VOLUME." It's so easy to miss, and after a bit of research I found that it has actually been removed from more recent re-released copies of the album. In my re-designed cover, I would like this to be brought back and made even more significant.

Have lots of ideas, can't wait to see how it turns out!