SPADE.
Graphic and communications designer

 

 

A good album cover conveys the spirit of the music. For example, The Supersonics’s (Calcutta-based rock group) Maby Baking (2009) is a great album and people talk about the cover only because they love the music. The idea of the album art came from the music. The cover is a photograph of an unknown masked cyclist who rode through wartime London, broadcasting impending attacks.

The posters for The Supersonics are a visual off-shoot of their music... irreverent, with something dark lurking under the infectious riffs and melodies. Some of the posters crack jokes (the ‘I’m a giant metal fan’ poster features a giant metal fan). The posters express the raw energy of the band’s sound.

her Design sense

I grew up listening to mix tapes and if I liked the music, I hunted out visual references that helped recreate the scene. Rock art has always functioned as a window to another world and it will continue to serve this purpose. Parameters for design will change; it’ll have to look great as stamp-sized thumbnails in the iTunes library but it (album covers) will never become obsolete.

Spade’s picks

The grainy, out-of-focus photo of Paul Simonon (member of The Clash) smashing his guitar juxtaposed with the almost comical pink-and-green lettering borrowed from an Elvis record (his self-titled album from 1956) make the coolest album cover. It symbolises everything rock ’’ roll stands for — anger, decadence, loud noise.

David Carson (graphic designer) broke rules, experimented with typography and photography with his signature ‘dirty’ style. His ideas also pushed the boundaries of communication design by changing the way the audience interacted with the piece.

Devika Dave
Illustrator

 

 

Post-punk band Gandu Circus has a personality that you can’t ignore. It’s bold, it’s punk, it’s loud. I mostly worked with images for these posters and they too took a life of their own at some point.

her Design sense

Devika’s cover for Neel And The Lightbulbs’s 2012 EP

There will always be a charm about the physical product that brings music and art together. I love holding album covers and going through the details while listening to the music. Music-related artwork will not become obsolete. It will take its natural course and we’ll all adapt to new forms and styles. I will keep creating and so will others.

Devika’s picks

Devika’s cover for Neel And The Lightbulbs’s 2012 EP

A great album cover/artwork is also a stand-alone representation of an artist’s idea (like French trip-hop band Chinese Man’s single, Miss Chang). It can make you thoughtful, curious, angry, nostalgic, sleepy, bored, overwhelmed or indifferent. The idea is to invent, improvise and have fun while doing it.

I like Carson Ellis’s work (children’s book illustrator, inset). I am a huge fan of line drawing, ink drawings, collage, photo manipulation and texture-based illustrations.

Nishit Arora
designer & event promoter

 

 

Each poster gives people the basic information and tells them what to expect [above, the one he designed for a hip hop event in 2012]. It is the first information that goes out to a person about the event and it should make them want to attend it.

his Design sense

I use a lot of visuals and images which are not obviously connected to the event but encourage viewers to connect the design with the event [like the posters he creates for Jam Steady concerts that take place at Princeton Club]. I am a Photoshop junkie who mixes several layers and texts to come up with something relevant.

For me, every single poster design must speak for the music, the artist... something that gives you a flavour of what is going on. Finally, I make sure I keep it simple and clean with good aesthetics.

Nishit’s pick

The Mothership (2007) album cover is done by Shepard Fairey, so there is no reason to not like it! I like his style, use of colour and his imaginative content.

Antara Ghosh
Graphic designer

 

 

 

A good poster must be highly eye-catching [right, her creation for Shaair+Func’s Calcutta gig]. It should tell you something about the music that it represents. Most of my inspirations come from unknown, uncelebrated artists on websites like deviantart.com. Esao Andrews is my biggest inspiration.

her Design sense

I really like ink illustrations [right, she designed this notebook for a friend who loves the American rock band Circa Survive]. I am a big fan of typography as well. So posters/album art which combine typography with amazing photos or illustrations work for me. Minimalist designs also leave an impression and have great recall value.

Antara’s pick

I don’t think album art will ever die. It might, in fact, end up becoming more of an exclusive thing (her fave is Circa Survive’s 2007 album cover On Letting Go). But no matter how much we like to download our music, it indeed feels special to hold the CD or DVD in our hands. Since we have such an abundance of online art thrown at us each day, printed posters and artwork will eventually carve out its special place.