Category: Work

How Sweet!

Posted on by Ricky

Hey look! Here is my cover artwork for Danny Byrd’s new release ‘Sweet Harmony’! It’s only a single, but it appears to be getting a bit of attention- yesterday I discovered it has been playlisted on Radio 1, which means it’s getting daytime airplay by the likes of Fearne Cotton (Fun fact: she went to the same high school as me, and was a pretty good artist. Agh! Digression!) on the country’s biggest young radio station… Pretty cool! And not only that, but Dev, the early morning breakfast DJ, has nominated it as his record of the week- Imagine waking up to that at 6 in the morning if you weren’t expecting it!

Anyway, here’s a little bit about the cover art, as I am pretty pleased with it!

I was thinking about doing something rave-related, as the original is a classic of the early 90s rave era. This got me thinking about candy ravers, which brought me around to sweets. I told Hospital about the idea, who immediately saw the pun in the track’s title, which I had overlooked until it was pointed out to me. Agh! I got to work on the idea as the visual pun was too good to ignore, but after several trips to the local sweet shop and many cover ideas using all things from red rope liquorice to candy bracelets, it just wasn’t working.

It wasn’t until the weekend, when Lilly was baking, that I found myself staring at her collection of cake decorations, thinking how much I liked the colours of them, when suddenly the idea clicked with me, and I realised the decorations were essentially tiny sweets in themselves.

To the right, you should be seeing a tiny video. It is a (very short!) timelapse I took while putting the cover together. I made a reverse stencil using the lovely new typeface Tungsten (I couldn’t resist after it was noted as an answer to Compacta, which I have been using for Danny’s artwork for a while now), which I backed with sticky labels for the sugary treats to stick to. I guess it was a bit like giant glittering really!

Sweet Harmony will be out at all your favourite physical and digital record stores on 1st February 2010.

Lights+Camera Action!

Posted on by Ricky

I got a couple of finished copies of some of my new housebag designs through the post this morning, so I decided to use it as an excuse to see what I can do with my new strobes (aside from pratting around with lighting gels and colourful cakes) and try and take some nice pictures of them!

Mmm- luxury double-sided print action for Critical!

And here is the 31 Records sleeve I did late last year.

I am experimenting! Wooo!

A graphical tribute to Laika, or The Future Sound of Russia

Posted on by Ricky

laika

I went to Hospital’s offices at The Purple Gates today, and while I was there, I managed to pick up some finished copies of the new Future Sound of Russia album. I think it isn’t out for another two weeks yet, but Hospital themselves have started Pushing it around the internet, so I figured I could do the same too!

As you should be seeing above, I managed to slot a tiny drawing of a space dog into the artwork as a tribute to Laika and her contemporaries. Poor animals! It’s probably not too hard to find now you’ve seen the above image, but see if you can spot it if you have a copy of the album yourself.

Anyway, like all good Hospital record covers, the artwork is a nod to another obscure artist- under the usual direction of Chris Goss, this cover is based on a really handsome old poster by a Russian designer called Alexander Rodchenko. Hopefully my Sputnik additions and hand-drawn type add a bit of my own artistic merit to it though!

So if you’re into Drum & Bass (and let’s face it, you probably are if you’re sitting here reading this, as nobody seems to know me outside of this little world), go buy the album!

DSC_0280

31 Records Refresh

Posted on by Ricky
31-Housebag-Spineless25031r250

It’s been in the works for a little while now, but I’m pleased to say I got a new housebag sleeve for Doc Scott’s 31 Records signed off today!

It was nice to work with a label from which I own a few releases from my record-collecting days. The 31 Records identity hadn’t seen a refresh pretty much since it started back in 1995, so it was extra-satisfying to bring it into the future!

The artwork isn’t so meaningless- if you pay close attention, there are actually 31 of every point in the pattern!

I’ve also attached another idea I had, that I think was a bit jazzy for the label, but I’m rather fond of nonetheless, so there you go! It’s pretty literal, but I like it!

Wrangles

Posted on by Ricky

Hello, internet world! As usual, it has been aeons since I wrote anything here. I’m quite sure I have a reasonable amount of stuff to write about to show for my time between writing here. so let’s see what we have!

Stopmotion

moustillMouse Stopmotion

I’ve been having rather a lot of fun with my Nikon, as you may have been noticing if you follow my Flickr, as heaven knows it gets updated a lot more than this. Although I don’t think I’m taking anything particularly exciting, I’m enjoying hiding behind a nice big peice of glass wherever I go. Anyway, that’s mild digression. Following a bit of inspiration from the Lilliship, I have found myself dabbling in stopmotion animation, which I’ve put some of the fruits of up on YouTube– They’re only a few seconds long but I’m rather fond of them, so check them out!

Black and Red

icarusSyncopix – Icarus
rcpLogistics – Reality Checkpoint

Like the first felt tip markers in the pack to run out on you as a child, the past three album covers I have made have all ended up mostly black with red detailing, by some freak coincidence. This includes the long-coming Icarus album cover. When Syncopix told me he was calling his album Icarus, I decided to take the title semi-literally for the art and ended up sculpting a pair of wings, casting them out of wax and melting them back down again for the cover imagery, photographing it all along the way.

 
John B - Mr. FreudJohn B – Mr. Freud

There are smatterings of new works throughout the portfolio for those who are looking for a new reason to shower me with money and to entertain you Trickartt-stalkers out there, in various sections. A couple worth talking about are the sleeve for John B’s new single, ‘Mr. Freud’, and the Sausage Bracelet. Mr. Freud appears to be a runaway popular sleeve, and despite my apprehensions when I made it, it turned out rather nicely. I was worried it was going to be a bit too much like a cheap blue monday, but it ended up holding itself up. When I received the finished copies, it made me feel like I was holding a giant floppy disc, which in my eyes qualifies it a success. The sausage bracelet was a valentine’s gift for Lilly (aren’t I sweet?), modelled on her sausage dog, hand-sculpted by me. It’s not perfect, but i don’t think anything I make by hand is.

As usual, there are other random bits forthcoming that I’m not really in a position to talk up, as well as a whole world of incertainty. I guess if you’re interested, you’ll find out whenever the time is appropriate. So that’ll do for now!

Been a while…

Posted on by Ricky
coverSpeeka – Bonfire

speekaprintingScreenprints from Speeka cover

asephotoAll Sounds Electric Boxset

boxesAll Sounds Electric packaging

NHS129Polo mint

eelteeEeeeels

nhs130Smashed

apronUtensil Apron

nicesunsetMmm relaxy

Bonjour, weblog readers! It’s been a while since I wrote here last, but it’s been a busy few months! Since I last wrote, I have moved house to a much more humble dwelling (complete with great sunsets!), done a couple of albums, a load of singles, and tinkered with this site a lot. you may notice the format of this page has changed, but that’s gonna be explained in another article (it will help test the redesign!). Basically, it’s all about the pictures, so here the are!

To my right, you should be noticing these pictures, starting with the Critical album All Sounds Electric in all it’s finished luxurian glory, the Speeka album (which is my first non-D&B album!), which was actually a hand-screenprinted effort, some new singles for Hospital that I’m rather proud of, some new glow-in-the-dark garments and anything else I can remember to put in, like the apron I hand-screenprinted and -stitched for Lilly!

Who knows, I might even go and update my flickr soon! I’ve taken a handful of reasonable photos in the past couple of months… I’ve discovered the wonders of a tripod!

I’ve also leaned up my Portfolio a little, removing a lot of the cruft in favour of a more logical layout. My favourite new addition though is the trinkets section. There are more to be added when i think of them and get the opportunity to photo them too, so keep checking back if you’re interested!

Bon Appetite!

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