Covering Album Covers

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Heston
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Re: Covering Album Covers

Post by Heston »

Dr. Medulla wrote:
28 Aug 2017, 8:35am
What would you do to improve it?
Bury the fucker under 3 miles of concrete to make sure I never have to hear them again.
There's a tiny, tiny hopeful part of me that says you guys are running a Kaufmanesque long con on the board

Dr. Medulla
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Re: Covering Album Covers

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Heston wrote:
28 Aug 2017, 10:16am
Dr. Medulla wrote:
28 Aug 2017, 8:35am
What would you do to improve it?
Bury the fucker under 3 miles of concrete to make sure I never have to hear them again.
:lol:

Note to self: Place Swans' collected works in Heston's burial tin for the afterlife.
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Flex
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Re: Covering Album Covers

Post by Flex »

Dr. Medulla wrote:
28 Aug 2017, 8:35am
Returning to this thread, I offer Swans' iconic Filth cover. The teeth x-ray is almost certainly the most recognizable image associated with the band. The typography, tho, mars the impact. What would you do to improve it?
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0397/ ... 1431713840
If you really want to amp up the discomfort level, give the lettering more of a Futurist feel - the creeping sense of fascist aesthetic would probably put the artwork over the top (in a sense).
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Dr. Medulla
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Re: Covering Album Covers

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Flex wrote:
28 Aug 2017, 12:31pm
Dr. Medulla wrote:
28 Aug 2017, 8:35am
Returning to this thread, I offer Swans' iconic Filth cover. The teeth x-ray is almost certainly the most recognizable image associated with the band. The typography, tho, mars the impact. What would you do to improve it?
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0397/ ... 1431713840
If you really want to amp up the discomfort level, give the lettering more of a Futurist feel - the creeping sense of fascist aesthetic would probably put the artwork over the top (in a sense).
That does make sense in that the Swans aesthetic is about the visceral effect of the music, much less cerebral. You're supposed to feel something in your gut. Which does lend itself to fascism's glorification of power and violence. (Gira is going in a different direction with its purpose, mind you, tho in those early years he was more ambiguous.) So there is a sensible aesthetic connection.

A lot of those posters utilzed the type at odd angles. Is that what you would do, or keep it horizontal?
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

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Re: Covering Album Covers

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Those red bars really ruin what should be a striking-as-fuck photo. I would ditch them, turn the text red, and either leave it where it is or center it above and below the image.

BUT what I'd really like to do is cut the text altogether. The album cover is just black with teeth on it in the center. Way more effective that way.
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Re: Covering Album Covers

Post by Kory »

Kory wrote:
28 Aug 2017, 2:16pm
Those red bars really ruin what should be a striking-as-fuck photo. I would ditch them, turn the text red, and either leave it where it is or center it above and below the image.

BUT what I'd really like to do is cut the text altogether. The album cover is just black with teeth on it in the center. Way more effective that way.
I'd also mask out that line on the left side. I guess that's the apparatus that keeps the lips out of the way? It distracts from the brutal simplicity of the teeth.
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Re: Covering Album Covers

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Kory wrote:
28 Aug 2017, 2:16pm
Those red bars really ruin what should be a striking-as-fuck photo. I would ditch them, turn the text red, and either leave it where it is or center it above and below the image.

BUT what I'd really like to do is cut the text altogether. The album cover is just black with teeth on it in the center. Way more effective that way.
My inclination, too, would be to get rid of the text—leave it for the back sleeve—but Flex's idea of a fascist aesthetic with the text is kind of intriguing.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

Dr. Medulla
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Re: Covering Album Covers

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Image

So, Kory et al, what say you? I'm iffy on the typography, yet the whole thing works for me, quite early 20th c. futurist. I'd love a mounted and framed poster of it, in fact.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

Marky Dread
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Re: Covering Album Covers

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Dr. Medulla wrote:
30 Oct 2017, 4:04pm
Image

So, Kory et al, what say you? I'm iffy on the typography, yet the whole thing works for me, quite early 20th c. futurist. I'd love a mounted and framed poster of it, in fact.
That mustard yellow is very GEERish.
Image

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Dr. Medulla
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Re: Covering Album Covers

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Marky Dread wrote:
30 Oct 2017, 4:47pm
That mustard yellow is very GEERish.
Tho I don't care much for the album, GEER is far and away my favourite Clash sleeve.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

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Re: Covering Album Covers

Post by Flex »

Dr. Medulla wrote:
28 Aug 2017, 2:21pm
My inclination, too, would be to get rid of the text—leave it for the back sleeve—but Flex's idea of a fascist aesthetic with the text is kind of intriguing.
My ideas are always extremely the best imho
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a bowl of soup
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Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a ton of lead
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Kory
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Re: Covering Album Covers

Post by Kory »

Dr. Medulla wrote:
30 Oct 2017, 4:04pm
Image

So, Kory et al, what say you? I'm iffy on the typography, yet the whole thing works for me, quite early 20th c. futurist. I'd love a mounted and framed poster of it, in fact.

I like it. My only suggestion would be to have the figure invade the text space a bit to make them interact more.

The O in that typeface is kind of funny—I'd assume the type designers were either trying to make sure the O didn't cause confusion with a capital D (though the face looks to be all lowercase. I'd be interested in the uppercase version—the O may be from that), or just trying to be quirky. It makes it more difficult to read, but the poster demands attention, so you wouldn't be skimming it anyway.
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Re: Covering Album Covers

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Flex wrote:
30 Oct 2017, 4:51pm
My ideas are always extremely the best imho
Flex in 2001 wrote:They should do a Star Trek prequel series about the first Enterprise and get Scott Bakula to be the captain.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

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Re: Covering Album Covers

Post by Dr. Medulla »

Kory wrote:
30 Oct 2017, 5:06pm
I like it. My only suggestion would be to have the figure invade the text space a bit to make them interact more.

The O in that typeface is kind of funny—I'd assume the type designers were either trying to make sure the O didn't cause confusion with a capital D (though the face looks to be all lowercase. I'd be interested in the uppercase version—the O may be from that), or just trying to be quirky. It makes it more difficult to read, but the poster demands attention, so you wouldn't be skimming it anyway.
What about having the name of the group three times, especially all in the same place? How would you justify that?
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

Flex
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Re: Covering Album Covers

Post by Flex »

Dr. Medulla wrote:
30 Oct 2017, 5:07pm
Flex wrote:
30 Oct 2017, 4:51pm
My ideas are always extremely the best imho
Flex in 2001 wrote:They should do a Star Trek prequel series about the first Enterprise and get Scott Bakula to be the captain.
IT WAS SO PERFECT ON PAPER
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a bowl of soup
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a rolling hoop
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a ton of lead
Wiggle - you can raise the dead

Pex Lives!

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