NEW WORK! Artwork and creative direction for DAYS, the newest album by our old pals @mountaingoatsmusic . In which we visually explore/visit the era of 1970s paperback self-help books (the album itself is lyrically much more broad). We’ve worked with the Mountain Goats on a number of occasions in the past but this is the first time where it’s kind of all SEEN, package-wise. An honor, as always.
We also made a bunch of merch for the roll-out, including a pretty direct nod to vintage Dead bootleg shirts in honor of “Going to Fennario.” Gus our first ever hat design!
Big thanks to John Darneille, Ryan Matteson, Kevin O’Halloran and the many folks @tenatoms who pushed things along.
NEW WORK! Package design for C McAlister “Music From the Fire Ant Mound 1994-1997” 4 LP box set, out June 1 on @passwotrace . This one is very very meaningful to yours truly.
Back in the 90s I had started a little record label called Catsup Plate. I was very into the home recording/“lo-fi” movement that was percolating up from the underground via little cassette and 7-inch labels and I wanted to be part of that. So I started reaching out to different folks asking if I could release music by them. One of the first folks I reached out to was Charlie McAlister. We talked not he phone about my little label and then less than a week later a cassette arrived in the mail; it was the master tape for Letting Go the Hatchet, Charlie’s first release for Catsup Plate. I still have no idea how he put it together so quickly — the music was so inventive and catchy and weird. And I keep wondering why he trusted me — a kid who literally was making it up as he went along — to release this music into the world. But Charlie was like that.
Anyways this set compiles 4 of Charlie’s very best releases:
Suburbian Beachtown, 1994, Flannel Banjo
Southern Promenade Porch Party, 1994, Flannel Banjo
Letting Go the Hatchet, 1996, Catsup Plate
Mississippi Luau, 1997, Catsup Plate
My work here was trying to make things look as “Charlie” as possible. Much of his visual work took place at the local copy shop and I strove here to be true to that. Charlie would not have liked having his work displayed as pristine artifacts so in replicating all of the artwork from the original releases I just cut it all up and splattered it around in the way Charlie would have.
I cannot recommend this music enough. Charlie, who passed away in 2018, opened up so many new aesthetic paths in my life. His music has been a companion since the early 90s, his art and video work have shown me whole new way of being a creative person in this messed up world.
Many thanks to @charlie_mcalister_archive , @passwotrace and @exodusjam for all the hep in corralling Charlie’s stuff. And, biggest, deepest thanks to Charlie himself, a great artist who I was lucky enough to call my friend.
NEW WORK! I’m a little late in announcing the artwork for Croz Boyce, the new project by @aaaveytttare and @geobriensystem of @anmlcollective fame. And wow, what a record, this has been a near-constant spin here art SEEN Studio HQ. Some folks are calling this music ambient but to my ears its actually pretty intricate and involved while still being sort of dreamy and peaceful.
The heavy visual lifting was done by Avey and his collage work but we were brought on board to lay everything out and sure things up to make a cohesive whole. One of those situations where the job is to stay out of the way of the already great visuals.
Preorders are up now and the album will be out May 8th on Clear LP, Cd and cassette. All love and thanks to Avey and Geo and the @dominorecordco massive.
NEW WORK! J-card design for a cassette release of “Preface” by Clark Coolidge, released by our heroes over at @wrypress . A clear visual nod to the OG John Cage album that Coolidge’s used to create this piece. Simply but stunningly printed on the Wry garage letterpress. Big ups to @driftinglament what a fun project to help out on.
Only 100 of these were made. So get to ordering folks.
Here’s Wry’s rundown of the piece (for those who have read this far):
“Preface” is a tape work in which poet/drummer Clark Coolidge samples and then manipulates the spoken introduction to composer John Cage’s 1966 lp, “Variations IV”, with David Tudor (Everest 3132). Produced by Charles Amirkhanian, it originally appeared on Coolidge’s KPFA radio program, Words, on September, 29, 1969. A roughly five and a half minute version of the piece was edited by Amirkhanian and included on the seminal 1975 compilation lp, “10+2: 12 American Text Sound Pieces” (1750 Arch Records). This cassette release presents the entire sixty-three minute performance in its entirety.
Over the piece’s sixty-three minutes, Coolidge uses only the roughly two minute and forty-five second long introduction to the John Cage album, which was spoken by an anonymous male presenter (which intriguingly sounds as if it could have been created by an early text-to-speech program). At first you hear this male presenter’s voice as you would hear it on the source album; delivering a “preface” comprised of highly informational or descriptive language of what you are about to hear. As his own piece progress, Coolidge then introduces various cuts, splices, & repetitions to this brief passage. Meaning begins to devolve, parts of speech are broken down, word sounds become cellular.
NEW WORK! LP package design for our heroes @animalcollective (Geo and Deaken in this incarnation) and their soundtrack to Jetty, a beautiful film directed by Sam Fleischner (@howfollowswhat ). The album is out today to stream and despite its soundtrack-ness it’s a super engrossing listen, at least to these ears. Imagery all comes from the film itself and the type treatment is an expansion of the film’s already kind of perfect visual style.
Physical copies of this will be super limited so get not act pre-order train if you are interested. Thanks to @deakin_joshmin and @geobriensystem , Sam and the @dominorecordco massive for the opportunity and the support.
NEW WORK! Poster design for the upcoming WINTER’S WAKE event, a celebration of the seasonal ghost story to be held on Pender Island. A digital collage, using among other things, fantastic photos by @rachellenkowski that I very rudely put through the digital ringer! All attendees of the event get a copy of the poster, so books you flights/ferry trips/etc to Pender Island on Dec 21st...!
Thanks to @kierlajanisse for bringing me on board!
NEW WORK! Logo design for the great @jessdamuck and her YOLK project: both an ongoing Substack series of new recipes and entertaining ideas as well as intermittent dinners/events/workshops in the lovely geodesic dome she built on her property. She described YOLK thusly:
“YOLK to me, is the warm feeling of being at home somewhere. To be taken care of, to be at ease. It’s blobby and yellow and warm in my world, but YOLK (not to go there too hard) is also the meaning of the Sanskrit word yuj (the root of yoga). The yolking of mind, body, spirit, and working together for a common purpose.”
Jess is a fount of creativity and hospitality and insight and it is always so much fun to be drawn into her world for a bit!
NEW WORK! Logo design for @olczakgroup , an architectural design and build company based in the Bay Area. Conceived with a ton of situation-specific flexibility — changeable color combinations, variable opacities, rendered in both filled and outlined versions — for use across the various mediums and situations (and vibes) that Olzak Group specializes in.
A fun and intensely focused project. Many thanks to Zach and the OG team. And to @johannamcmana )for the connection!
OLD WORK, EXPANDED AND MADE NEW AGAIN! Twenty freaking years ago when I was just a pup and was still very much figuring out how to be a designer the crew from Animal Collective were some of my biggest supporters. There was so much creativity pulsing about between them and the homies in Black Dice and my internal antennae was picking up all this energy and piecing together how to be a visual person without any sort of training and years and years of telling myself that visual creativity was for other people. It was a time of real growth for me.
I remember Avey getting in touch with me, telling me that they were finally done with their new album — FEELS, it would turn out to be — and how excited he was about what they had made. And would I want to help him put together the art for it? Of course I agreed to help and he came with a pile of papers and we set about figuring out a way to suture everything up into a cohesive whole. Will crystals scan on the cheap-ass flatbed scanner I had at the time? Would these lovingly messy collages gel together? We were figuring it all out on the fly in my little bedroom office on Powers Street in Brooklyn.
After 20 years it was so cool to really dig into the art on this again. I had forgotten so manny of the tricks I had used to make things work. Turns out my instinctual moves back then actually kind of made sense. For this, new and deluxe 3LP version I found some unused pieces and was able to expand the artwork. Which felt like a conversation with my younger self. I’m proud of that guy.
I owe the AC family so much. Their trust and friendship has given me so much. I could not be happier to have helped a bit in bringing this new version of a truly excellent record back out into the world. Thank you Dave, thank you Brian, thank you Joshmin, thank you Noah. And thank you to the Domino massive for their willingness to make this package a true celebration of an amazing record.
NEW WORK, ALSO BELATEDLY POSTED! Somehow, way back when, in the days where the algorithm didn’t do all sorts of crazy things to IG posts, etc, etc, SOMEHOW we never posted about our work on PROM KING by @skylarspencemusic . It was/is kind of a left turn for us visually but one we’ve always liked. And now TEN YEARS have passed and Prom King is now getting a 10 year anniversary deluxe pressing. So we have updated the artwork a little bit — some (not all!) new photos, a slightly more immersive background color way, etc. Plus a second whole disc of newly unearthed stuff.
Big thanks and respect to Ryan DeRobertis, the force behind Skylar Spence! And to the folks @carparkrecords for bringing me back after a decade...
NEW WORK, BELATEDLY POSTED! Album art direction, collage and package design for 20 Years Of Into the Rush, a new live album by the wonder duo @alyandaj . Hot on the heels of their Silver Deliverer LP (see earlier post for those deets), This album captured Aly & AJ performing songs from their first LP, 20 years after the fact. And pressed on Sparkle-ey Purple wax, the first time I have seen that as a possibility...!
Photography was taken by the excellent @auhasardspr . And with flourishes and accoutrement that were originally created by @mackenziekmoore for the original show posters. Many thanks to @iamaj , @iamaly and Stephen for the opportunity.
