Kemmler Part One: Album Art

The next album to be released on Sidedown Audio is mere weeks away. It will be first available at the DIY Trunk Show, on November 21st, 2009.

The album is by Kemmler, and is titled Eleven Fifty-Nine. Let me take you through the design process...

With albums on the label, I tend to let the music guide the artwork. With electronic music, I always have a strong desire to bring something organic or human into the artwork, so that it portrays something to the audience.

My first thought about Kemmler's Eleven Fifty-Nine was that it is fun, and intense. My first iteration of the design was this:

I'm not sure exactly why I wanted animals on there, or why I chose an eagle, otter, and warthog... but I did. I planned from the start to use the letterpress to print this album art, so I wanted to make sure I had colors that overlapped.

Ultimately, the text felt too cartoony, so I tried a few other layouts with a new type design:

This felt almost too organic and not at all as intense as I felt the music was, so I quickly scrapped this. I decided to forego the animals and try to create a design that incorporated more of the overlapping of colors that the letterpress would provide.

Third time is the charm for me. The next design clicked:

Four color letterpress, bold design, a more intense type, evocative of the edgy, somewhat minimalist electronic music contained on the album. This is what I wanted.

In anticipation of the album's release, I also used the design to create two one-of-a-kind digital prints:

These will also be on sale at DIY (hopefully! I still need to get them back from the printer!!). No two prints will have the same colors, and if I do more that will continue to be the case.

So, there's that. Next time, I'll talk about the music!