#lp cover frame

[artvinyl]

Uncovered: The Ninja Tales

2. Mr Scruff - Trouser Jazz Deluxe 20th Anniversary Edition (2023) AND Ninja Tuna Deluxe Triple LP out today! (29/03/24)

Part II of our ‘Ninja Tales’ series for our ‘Uncovered’ blog explores the creative for two re-releases from Manchester’s own Andy Carthy aka Mr Scruff on Ninja Tune. We speak to Ninja Tune's Head of Production, Sean Preston to get the full story.

Former fine art student at Sheffield University, DJ and Cartoonist, Andy Carthy’s iconic line art cartoon drawings have illustrated gig flyers, record sleeves and merchandise and usually accompany him at gigs as live animated visuals. Mr Scruff's cartoons feature across his body of work are a big part of his identity, instantly recognisable to electronic music fans.

Trouser Jazz, originally released in 2002, celebrated its 20th anniversary with a Deluxe anniversary edition on a double LP with blue/red vinyl to match the cover palette of the original iconic artwork by Mr. Scruff & Airside with an “infinity” peelable trouser sticker on the cover to reveal silver and gold foiled 20th anniversary trousers. 

Ninja Tuna, the fourth studio album by Mr Scruff, originally released on CD in 2008 through Carthy's personal Ninja Tune, is the latest Mr Scruff album to get a fancy makeover and is released on 29th March 2024. Now available for the first time on vinyl, the record is presented as a deluxe triple LP housed in a gatefold greyboard sleeve, complete with bonus tracks, pressed on Biovinyl and also with an “infinity” peelable tuna sticker on the cover.

We spoke to Ninja Tune’s Head of Production, Sean Preston to get the story behind the creative.

Sean explains, “These two records first came out decades ago when budget and RRP limited what we could do. Ninja Tuna didn’t even get a vinyl release. The two new versions utilise the same "gecko sticker” design to take a product concept and roll it out across the act's work. When ‘Trouser Jazz’ came up for an anniversary edition, it felt like a really good opportunity to delve into the original artwork, honour it, and bring it to life. It’s a fun, interactive and borderline silly design package, that is apposite to Scruff’s playful and tongue-in-cheek cartoons.”

He continues, “I had become aware of a “gecko” sticker thanks to music product maestros SixtySix Productions, specifically Emily Robbins there. The sticker is in fact more like velcro than a normal sticker adhesive, which is why it’s often called "infinity peel”. In fact, like velcro you prob get a few thousand re-peels of it, so whilst “infinity” is a stretch, it’ll take some debunking in practice.”

Sean continues, “We took the trousers which make up the original front cover’s central feature, and created new 20 year anniversary trousers, foiled in gold with a beautiful silver belt. Then, traditional marketing sensibility troll that I am, I placed the standard blue trousers over the top as a sticker. The trick here is not only covering up the expensive bit to leave as a surprise for buyers, but to create a small deboss into the sleeve where the foil trousers are, and present the record as it originally was, with the old school blue trousers sitting in place, flush against its surroundings. Of course, at home, once those trousers are peeled off, the owner of the record can put them wherever they want. My Trouser Jazz trousers currently sit on my copy of Bob Dylan’s Street Legal.”

With today’s release of Ninja Tuna on vinyl for the first time the new package design was in keeping with Trouser Jazz's concepts.

Sean told us, “Part of the decision to present Trouser Jazz with this peel and reveal gatefold sleeve was made with an eye on future Scruff reissues. This week we release Nina Tuna on vinyl for the first time, and as a 3LP no less! Its cover features a centrally located tuna fish. No free copies to anyone guessing what we’ve done with it! Andy (Mr Scruff) was very up for reinterpreting the original CD artwork, and got to work on new illustrations to exist alongside original illustrations."

"The main tuna dude on the front gets a beautiful new coat (scale even?!) of silver. It really shimmers in the sun. It’s so fun working with artists like Scruff, he’s totally open to ideas and has such vital advice and feedback. I think initially I was steering towards a greyboard to replicate the original CDs, but availability of that type of board wasn’t what it was 15 years ago, and it tends to be difficult to work with when you want to use heavier versions of it that are necessary for a heavy duty gatefold sleeve.”

Sean continues, “It’s a small thing, but I’m dangerously self-satisfied with the inner sleeves. They spell out NINJA TUNA between them, and reveal vinyl discs pressed onto BioVinyl, which is a relatively new thing in the world of vinyl offered by Optimal Media in Germany. There are a few specifics about Biovinyl that make it a better choice for the environment, but the key is using biogenic waste like cooking oil rather than petroleum. It’s something we are trying to encourage more use of, with one eye on truly eco-friendly, carbon neutral vinyl alternatives that are in development.”

Sean Preston is an award winning product designer and artist from London. He is Head of Production at independent record label Ninja Tune, a bastion of ground-breaking music since 1990, working with artists such as Black Country, New Road, Bonobo, Thundercat, Mr Scruff and more. Sean founded Fiction magazine and publisher Open Pen.

We already loved both these records, but Ninja Tuna getting a first release on vinyl is particularly pleasing for us of course. We shall be peeling and un-peeling our copies with glee! We were also extremely chuffed to have got some words from Andy Carthy (Mr Scruff) himself about this project, “I really enjoyed collaborating on the design with Ninja Tune’s Sean Preston. Both albums needed a lot of re-drawing & re-writing hand-written text, so I did the bit that I am good at (potato drawings & writing) & Sean did the professional design bit, which I struggle with beyond basic illustrator fiddling. The daft hype stickers were fun to do as well!”

With Mr Scruff's back catalogue getting this delightful vinyl upgrade, we're hopeful that there’s another one on the way to complete the set.... !!

NINJA TUNA (Vinyl Debut Edition) by Mr Scruff is released on 29th March 2024 on Ninja Tune. Design by Mr Scruff and Sean Preston. Vinyl record FlipFrames by ART VINYL

[artvinyl]

Uncovered: PJ Harvey - I Inside the Old Year Dying

We continue to delve into the detail of the creative process for some of The Best Art Vinyl 2023 shortlisted album artworks and today we take a look at this seemingly simple cover design for PJ Harvey’s tenth studio album that, in fact, couldn’t be less so. The final image is actually a result of months of preparation, awaiting perfect weather conditions and a combination of multiple photographs and techniques. We were lucky enough to get the whole story from artist Michelle Henning.

Henning’s background is in fine art, she started as a painter and installation artist. As well as being a Professor in Photography and Media in the School of the Arts at the University of Liverpool, Michelle works for PJ Harvey as art director/creative director, and as such is very much involved in decisions relating to many of the visual assets.

Michelle explained to us how the creative process starts and about her collaboration with PJ Harvey; “The way I approach the work is to listen to the music. Polly and I don’t discuss visual ideas at first, instead, she gives me everything to do with the album: recordings or demos, poems and lyrics, drawings and notes. I then immerse myself in it and try to get a feel for it and start working. I already had a way into it because I was familiar with her poetry book 'Orlam', which is connected to the album, and I had a strong sense of the world of the album. What matters most to me is trying to find a visual equivalent for the music, not to illustrate it or directly reference lyrics, but sense the atmosphere and convey that.”

Michelle elaborates, “In the case of ‘I Inside the Old Year Dying’, this album has a strange and interesting feel, on the one hand it’s about a twentieth century rural childhood, with references to Curly-Wurlys and Coca cola but also there are soldiers who appear from a much more ancient past, and there’s a strong presence of nature."

PJ Harvey, I Inside the Old Year Dying concept gatefold (Copyright © Michelle Henning, 2023) with photographs by Steve Gullick and drawings by Polly Harvey

"I started by thinking I would try to put wildlife cameras in a forest, not to capture animals but to get infra-red photos of trees. So I did that for a while but I wasn’t satisfied with the results. Then I started to paint forests, but that didn’t feel right either."

Early Forest concept ideas for PJ Harvey, I Inside the Old Year Dying (Copyright © Michelle Henning, 2023)

"I had a sudden realisation that I didn’t need a whole forest, I just needed one stick and such a simple single object would give it the feel of the classic album covers I admire. Now I realise an unconscious influence was Polly herself, because she had chosen to use drawings she had made of single twigs (“twiddicks”), to break up the sections in 'Orlam'."

Orlam by PJ Harvey

"I think the idea of giving the stick a shadow emerged from the process of finding twigs on the ground and photographing them — the shadows seemed to bring them to life and make something very ordinary suddenly seem almost animate."

Concept ideas for PJ Harvey, I Inside the Old Year Dying (Copyright © Michelle Henning, 2023)

"The back cover is a photograph of Polly by Steve Gullick, onto which I superimposed a scan of a tissue and plastic envelope, so it has a slightly battered, used look. I chose this photo because I loved the way her legs echoed the shape of the twig, and also how it could be cropped so that it seemed as if she was almost kicking the edge of the album away."

Front and back cover artwork for PJ Harvey, I Inside the Old Year Dying (Copyright © Michelle Henning, 2023)

Michelle has produced three album covers and a number of singles for PJ Harvey as well as several for other artists, including for John Parish, Mazgani and Dot Allison. She works with a wide variety of techniques; photography, clay models, printmaking, drawing in ink and watercolour and moves between analogue and digital, with a lot of work in Adobe Photoshop, creating very complex layered files.

Michelle Henning: PJ Harvey, Let England Shake (Island Records, 2011)

Michelle Henning: PJ Harvey, A Dog Called Money 7" Single

Centre label of Hope Six vinyl | PJ Harvey (Island Records 2016)

Expanding on her techniques for this current album cover artwork, Michelle tells us, “I photographed a lot of sticks in bright sunlight on different coloured and textured backgrounds. At a certain time in the afternoon the sun started to cast really interesting shadows. I remember Polly’s manager Sumit calling me and asking me when I would have something ready to show them, and I said I wouldn’t be ready until we had had more sunny weather. He was very patient with me but he must have wondered what on earth I was doing.”

She continues, “The stick that worked best, that I felt had the most mysterious shadow, I then rephotographed under plastic. The final image is a composite of about three or maybe more photographs of this twig, both under the plastic and not. The orange sticker is based on the sticker stuck on this piece of plastic — which was a large transparent folder in which my film photographs were returned to me. I liked the way it brought a pop of colour to the cover.”  

"In Photoshop, I changed the lighting on the plastic, added more layers of plastic lighting, superimposed Polly’s handwriting onto the sticker, and created the fake embossed text in the centre (which is a mixture of hand-painted ink drawing and a lot of digital editing)."

"The gatefold is a scan of a 1980s sticky photograph album complete with the blue lines of glue and the plastic layer, and the inner sleeve is based on photographs of red kitchen linoleum superimposed over photographs by Polly of a lamb and a forest. I did a rough layout for the body text and type, and then handed that over to Rob Crane of Rob Crane Design, who did a brilliant job of making the typography on the inside and back covers look elegant and balanced, and made all the files print-ready."

Inner gatefold for PJ Harvey, I Inside the Old Year Dying (Copyright © Michelle Henning, 2023) with typesetting by Rob Crane, and photographs by Steve Gullick gatefold pic

Michelle told us she looked at a lot of great album covers when creating this artwork and there are subtle references to some of them, both in the inner gatefold and the front cover. She says, "I love the idea that there are record cover geeks like myself who like to figure out the echoes of other designs, so I won’t say what they are!" (two iconic late 60s LP covers spring to our record cover geeky minds!)

Michelle Henning: PJ Harvey, I Inside the Old Year Dying concept (Copyright © Michelle Henning, 2023)

I Inside the Old Year Dying by PJ Harvey on Partisan Records is shortlisted for the Best Art Vinyl 2023 Award. Art Director, Design and front cover photography by Michelle Henning. Additional design and typesetting by Rob Crane.

[artvinyl]

Uncovered: Glüme - Main Character

Continuing our insights into the creative behind the shortlisted album covers for Best Art Vinyl 2023. Andrea Riba talks us through her work and this evocative cover shot of the avant-pop star Glüme who flippantly calls herself the 'Walmart Marilyn' for her latest album Main Character.

Andrea Riba is a Mexican-Chilean writer, director, producer, and co-founder of Femina Films. The album cover for Main Character was shot on the film set for 'Child Actor' which is the opening track on the album and inspired the short film and music video of the same title produced by Femina Films and Italians Do It Better.

Andrea tells us “It's a surreal film in which Glüme revisits her child self in the 90s. The image was taken after shooting the climax of the film in a preserved 70s dressing room in the outskirts of Hollywood. In this scene, Glüme confronts her mother (played by Riki Lindhome - whose credits include Knives Out, Wednesday) about the loss of her childhood to the demanding world of child acting in Hollywood."

Riba first met Glüme on set for her debut album cover shoot for 'The Internet', although the shoot initially started as a passion project. Andrea explains, “I had a Blue Velvet inspired photoshoot I had been sitting on, and after discovering Glüme through music label Italians Do It Better, I thought she had the perfect cadence for the concept. At the time, the label had already announced the album cover for her debut album The Internet, but when the label saw the photos from our shoot, the plan changed and they landed on one of the images for the album cover and billboards around LA, which was such an exciting surprise.”

The Internet album cover - Glüme 2012

We asked Andrea how the iconic image for the cover of Main Character came about. She told us, “We purposefully scheduled this scene at the end of our 12 hour set day in order for the exhaustion of the day to aid Glüme's performance. After wrapping the scene, I thought of taking film stills to capture Glüme's raw emotions, which were at an all-time high. There was no intention for the image to be the album cover, but the distraught expression captured on Glüme sparked the attention of her label, so they landed on this image as the album cover. There is an interesting contradiction between the title of the album 'Main Character' - someone at the centre of the plot, with an image of a woman tearing and in pure vulnerability.” 

Vinyl scan image for 'Main Character' 2023 by Andrea Riba

We wanted to delve into how the vintage feel of this image was captured so effectively. Andrea tells us, "I wanted to shoot the image on Cinestill 800T because this film captures a beautiful halation and glow around practical lights, that being the vintage tungsten bulbs around the mirrors around the entire dressing room we shot in. There is also a thick grain to the film which provides a sort of surreal veneer between the audience and the world captured, which was meant to reflect Glüme's life as a child actor in the 90's. We also wanted to keep it same world, since her first album 'The Internet' was shot on Cinestill as well."

Riba and Glüme have a close professional and personal relationship which may account for how Andrea was able to capture such a wonderfully raw and personal image of the star. She explains, "Glüme approached me about joining her team as a creative director and this was the beginning of, not only an organic professional collaboration between her and I, but a long term friendship. She is an inspiring human being and we share the same aesthetic interests and love for film, music, and people."

Glüme Harlow and Andrea Riba

Main Character by Glüme on Italians Do It Better label is shortlisted for Best Art Vinyl 2023

[artvinyl]

Uncovered: The Ninja Tales

1. Thundercat - Apocalypse Anniversary Edition

Art Vinyl's quest to ‘Uncover’ the stories behind some of the best vinyl record artwork each year never ceases, and so we turn to take a look at a selection of upcoming releases for 2024 from the consistently excellent independent record label Ninja Tune in our new sub-series ‘Uncovered: The Ninja Tales’.

First one off the press is American bassist, singer-songwriter, Stephen 'Thundercat' Bruner and the Apocalypse Anniversary Edition. This 10th Anniversary reissue of Apocalypse arrives on 15th March 2024 on Brainfeeder and Ninja Tune and features two previously unreleased songs. The original sleeve design is taken to the next level for this release, and we caught up with Ninja’s Head of Production and Design, Sean Preston to give us the exclusive creative process low-down.

Thundercat - Apocalypse 10 Year Anniversary Edition (2024)

Sean says, “This one took the remaining few hairs left on my scalp. Six months of getting it to where it is now, but I’m really happy with how it’s turned out. The brief was to create a sleeve of the existing portrait front cover, that somehow showed Thundercat's portrait skull with holography."

The mark of 90s print processes associated with comic book and cartoon collectables has run through the artworks of Thundercat’s back catalogue of releases, married with striking portrait photography that is often dark or dark-humoured.

Sean told us, "Thundercat is really into holography, constantly pushing the boundaries of what is realistically achieved. With the previous Golden Age of Apocalypse reissue we even had to work with the company that makes tiny holograms for VISA’s credit cards!”

He continues, "The issue we have today is that a lot of the old techniques are no longer workable. Print has streamlined and that often means "holographic print” is actually just standard litho printing on top of reflective cards and that wasn’t enough for us here. Brainfeeder’s Adam Stover came up with the idea of working with implementing a holographic aspect to the original front cover portrait that would present a sort of x-ray of Thundercat, in which a skull would be visible in certain lights. The challenge was to print both the standard colour portrait as per the original, and the holographic skull, which should only be visible in certain lights."

Our conversation with Sean reveals that what at first brief appeared to be an unattainable outcome for this Anniversary edition, in fact culminated in a blend of two quite ordinary techniques to get to an extraordinary finish - a deluxe rainbow holographic sleeve with gold foil detail, housed in transparent PVC outer slipcase with “x-ray” holographic skull print.

Thundercat - Apocalypse (2013) and Apocalypse 10 Year Anniversary Edition (2024)

Sean explains, “We needed to create something new, which is so hard to achieve these days. Holographic techniques don’t really provide the ideal for what we wanted to achieve. Light exposure ink isn’t really at the point where it would create something with the effect of depth and transition we were looking for. I find sometimes the desired effect needs to be unpacked and rebuilt, so when the initial tests didn’t get us to where we wanted to be, we married two fairly traditional print methods in a way that I don’t think has been done before.”

Sean elaborates, “Though we wanted the skull to appear beneath the portrait initially, I found a way to achieve the desired overall consequence of a skull appearing from a portrait, was to have two separate sleeves engage with each other, and in a way that created something we could consider be a new, or at least unique to this release.”

We asked Sean about the techniques used on each sleeve to create this final synergy between them.

He told us, “The first sleeve is a standard print onto a rainbow mirriboard (like silver wrapping paper that presents a rainbow effect under light). By printing the first card sleeve with the original front cover portrait of Thundercat on the iridescent mirriboard, we could get much closer to our ideal by printing a second outer sleeve to cover the first, on a clear APET (a more environmentally friendly plastic) sheet with a process called Cast & Cure. This process is nothing new, but is usually employed on its own, or as an alternative to varnish, but usually as the primary feature of the packaging. It leaves a holographic impression on the clear material which isn’t immediately obvious on its own, but it does react well to light.”

The process didn’t stop there however, as Sean tells us, “Of course, in attempting to create something unique, where the two components will actually land in print, takes us to the unknown, and as such requires a fair amount of testing and development. We wanted something that had more depth in certain areas - aiming for that x-ray aesthetic. We eventually applied a small partial white base in areas and took further measures with the portrait printed mirrirboard cover to increase its vibrancy. Something that really ties the room together from my perspective is the fine gold lacquer (like a gold foil) that we applied for Thundercat’s crown. So regal!”

Sean Preston is an award winning product designer and artist from London. He is Head of Production at independent record label Ninja Tune, a bastion of ground-breaking music since 1990, working with artists such as Black Country, New Road, Bonobo, Thundercat and more. Sean founded Fiction magazine and publisher Open Pen.

Sean Preston, Head of Production at Ninja Tune

With creatives like Sean pushing boundaries and reimagining tried and tested processes to achieve the music artists' end vision, we the humble vinyl collectors, are rewarded with a unique album artwork to cherish. He says, "What I love about this is that in a record shop, you’d approach the record sleeve and it would just look like a slightly iridescent version of the original cover - but on closer inspect and interaction, the skull effect comes to life and reveals the x-ray effect." 

APOCALYPSE - TEN YEAR ANNIVERSARY EDITION BY THUNDERCAT is released on 15th March 2024 on Brainfeeder and Ninja Tune. Album FlipFrames by Art Vinyl

Art direction & design by Stephen Serrato – reworked for the Anniversary edition by Adam Stover. Design by Ninja Tune. Cover photography by B+.

[artvinyl]

The Record: Contemporary Art and Vinyl Exhibition

       For all West Coast vinyl fans, The Record: Contemporary Art and Vinyl exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston is in its final days.

"Organized by the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, this the first museum exhibition to explore the culture of vinyl records within the history of contemporary art. Bringing together artists from around the world who have worked with records as their subject or medium, this groundbreaking exhibition examines the record's transformative power from the 1960s to the present.

Through sculpture, installation, drawing, painting, photography, sound work, video and performance, The Record combines contemporary art with outsider art, audio with visual, and fine art with popular culture.

The exhibition features 99 works by 41 artists, including rising stars in the contemporary art world (William Cordova, Robin Rhode, Dario Robleto), outsider artists (Mingering Mike), well-established artists (Jasper Johns, Ed Ruscha, Carrie Mae Weems) and artists whose work will be shown in a U.S. museum for the first time (Kevin Ei-ichi deForest, Jeroen Diepenmaat, Taiyo Kimura, Lyota Yagi)."

Catch it before September 5th.

www.icaboston.org

[artvinyl]

Ever wondered how your favourite vinyl records are made?

[artvinyl]

Check out our competition in association with the 12"/80s compilation series. Win an Art Vinyl frame and Limited edition 12"/80s T-shirt. Follow the link for more details.

[artvinyl]

Who are Art Vinyl?

  For many years the music industry has predicted the demise of vinyl, with tapes, CDs and more recently MP3s being cited as the final nail in the coffin of the 12-inch. However, vinyl records provide a new generation of discerning music fans with an aesthetically pleasing and all-round experience that a download just doesn't provide. In short, vinyl records are making a major comeback.

  At Art Vinyl, this concept of taking existing objects and making them new and fresh again is something we’re familiar with. Using our unique frames music fans are able to celebrate the synergy between graphic art and music: utilising vinyl records as a contemporary art form, as well as creating an exciting and innovative storage and display option for any 12” collection.

  Play & Display Flip Frames are the first home framing device, which allows music lovers to change the contents instantly without taking the frame from the wall. Unique in its design, it is the first framing solution designed to specifically hold vinyl records, accommodate for the differences in album and 12” sizes and give the owner instant access to the playable contents. Available in neutral black or stunning white, Play & Display Flip Frames retail at £39 for one or £99 for a triple pack.

  Art Vinyl has had numerous exhibitions in the past with labels such as Mute, Domino, ZTT, Deejay Gigolo, legendary night club the Hacienda and presented the Art of 60’s London as part of Swinging Carnaby.

  To find out more, visit our website www.artvinyl.com