Monday, May 18, 2009

Sigur Ros - ( )



I know a lot of my blogs have been cd covers, but I cant help it when I have been seeing such fantastic design in some of the cds, so I feel i should mention them.

This is the cd cover and packaging for the the album ( ) by Sigur Ros. The name of the album has no letters but is represented on the front cover by the curved shapes. Sigur Ros are from Iceland, their music as beautiful, and sometimes quite haunting but with relaxing ambience. I believe their style of music is portrayed well in the design of the cover. The white and grays are very relaxing to look at, and also has a cold feel to it which is what the music of Sigur Ros makes me feel when I listen to it. Iceland, being a cold, isolated country it is, really is portrayed in both the music and the design. Sigur Ros sometimes make their instruments from organic things, for example, one band member of Sigur Ros found this different stones which when hit with a stick used to play with xylophones, made different sounds depending on the size and shape of the stones. Many of these stones where collected to make an instrument which sounds similar to a xylophone. This organic form of playing music is also influenced the design of the cover.
The typography used on the covers is nice with the "( )" is a die-cut to look at the cover underneath whereas the typography of the "Sigur Ros" is written as if someone wrote it with a pen. It think the design is of very high quality due to the perfect style of design to represent the style of music.
I originally saw it in a cd store, and my love for the band made me buy the cd.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Pixies - Doolittle


This is the cd cover for the album Doolittle by the Pixies. It was designed by Vaughan Oliver and photographer Simon Larbalestier. One of the songs on the album is called Monkey Gone to Heaven which is represented by the monkey with the halo. The numbers "5", "6", and "7" are included on the cover because the part of the lyrics included in Monkey Gone to Heaven say "If man is 5, and the devil is 6, then god is 7."
I first saw the cover years ago when I bought this album, ever since i have bought it, not only I have loved the music but also the photography through out the cd cover and the booklet. 
I really love the Grunge style used in the design, it has a real rusty feel to it. The use of typography for the "5", "6", and "7"is clever with using Helvetica printing blocks to represent the numbers. 
I believe this work is of high quality due to the clever photography and use of typography to represent songs. 
I was attracted to this piece because I love the band plus the style of the CD cover