I recently designed the packaging for R. Weis’ new CD, Excitable Audible.
I met R. Weis this past spring through a Pittsburgh-based arts program called Flight School. The program is designed to help regional artists learn to be sustainable and to familiarize artists with some of the resources available within the local arts community. The group was comprised of 20 artists of various backgrounds and disciplines. My favorite aspect of the program was seeing everyone’s work and learning about their processes and ideas. Out of this sharing, R. Weis, an artist who composes with manipulated sounds, and I began talking about his latest music project. That ongoing conversation culminated in this design.
This is the back cover:
This is the CD label:
After talking with R. Weis and looking at a variety of design motifs, I had some direction. I started creating roughs using typographic elements. The sound compositions on the Excitable Audible are comprised of a small number of very simple sounds, like a rubber band, a bouncing ball, or electrical buzz from track lights. I wanted to maintain this concept in the design. Unlike some of his more experimental work, this album features music that is more pop-influenced, so it was important to communicate that aspect in the design as well – something I tried to do with color and texture (again trying to create a complex design from very simple elements):
Out of this thinking, emerged the idea to use simple shapes as design elements, such as triangles, circles, and squares (perhaps a nod to Ed Emberly, whose work I had been thinking about at the time):
R. Weis responded favorably to this concept. And after some revision, we had a CD package. One of the best parts of this project was receiving tracks as they were mixed so I could listen to the music while working. You can give it a listen on rweis.com, order it from CD Baby, or download it on iTunes.
