Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - physical album design

UK cover

US cover

Psst... Design and layout for the physical album release of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. Welcome to the shady world of British Cold War espionage! Adopting the look and feel of the movie's promotional campaign, I had to devise a murky, secretive world for Alberto Iglesias's splendid soundtrack, full of the film's stills and behind the scene shots, drawing on the confidential nature of piecing together evidence and delicate information, and pulling together an overview of the film and soundtrack's feeling of tension and paranoia. Available from Silva Screen Records. But you didn't hear any of this from me...

Click here to purchase

Music From The Transformers Trilogy - physical album design

Album design for 'Music From The Transformers Trilogy'. With this release I used a combination of subtle image based references to the Transformers films (glowing mechanical eyes and metallic-looking cosmic spheres) along with 3D, mechanised, angular pieces of typographic shapes, seemingly fitting together to form letterforms and whole words in a similar action to that of an Autobot changing form.

The letterforms began as a study of the type of typography associated with the Transformers films (very prominent and blocky, with straight edges and sharp corners) and then modified so that each letter fit next to each other to make up words and complete titles, as if each letter was a component forming a whole. In some cases geometric pieces of type were arrange to look like they were constructing / deconstructing 3D letter blocks themselves, creating almost illegible, alien looking symbols and glyphs.

Album available from Silva Screen Records

The Music of Michel Legrand - physical album

Design and illustrations for 'The Music of Michel Legrand' album artwork. The album features music written and conducted by Legrand including works from the 1964 French film 'Les Parapluies de Cherbourg'' (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg), which is essentially a musical love story whereby one of leading love interests in the film works in an umbrella boutique…










This album can be purchased from Silva Screen Records

CD Singles artwork concepts for Danny & The Champs

Single CD release concept artwork for Danny & The Champions Of The World, using tattoo styles as a theme. The first single "Heart & Arrow" has a far more 'dirty' rock & roll look to it while the second, rather wordy, single "You Don't Know (My Heart Is In The Right Place)" is more in keeping with the band's front man's interest in the style of Sailor Jerry tattoos. Both designs started off as hand drawn studies before being put through Illustrator and Photoshop to create the final outcomes.

The album, from which these two songs are off of, is available to download on iTunes and purchase physically on Amazon.

Film Music of Hans Zimmer Vol.2 - physical album

'Film Music of Hans Zimmer Vol.2' is a two disc compilation of some of Hollywood composer Hans Zimmer's finest film scores. From the unhinged strings of The Dark Knight to dream-state arrangements from Inception.

It is the visuals from Inception that inspired the design of this album artwork, drawing on the themes of building vast, maze-like landscapes and complex impossible patterns mirroring the intricate networks of the mind, with a very German-industrial-architectural-angular feel to it.

The maze background itself started out as a 2D repeat pattern before being rendered into 3D in Illustrator, while the 3D block text was again created first in 2D as a maze-like typeface (which gave me a headache) before again being converted into it's 3D perspective and then photoshopped to look like it was rising out of the surface of the maze like skyscrapers towering above a city street level.

The physical album is available for purchase via Silva Screen Records and Amazon UK

You can also download the album via iTunes which comes with a digital booklet of the artwork (not as fun though is it)!

Great British TV Themes - physical album

'Great British TV Themes' is a two disc compilation of some of the most memorable and catchy (albeit annoying) theme tunes from some of finest television shows from the 50's all the way through to the 00's. Included in the track listings are the likes of soaps (EastEnders, Coronation Street); Sci Fi (UFO, Doctor Who, Red Dwarf); Drama series (The Bill, Casualty, The Sweeney); game shows (Countdown, Blockbusters, The Crystal Maze) and of course comedy (Only Fools and Horses, Fawlty Towers, Monty Python etc...) plus many more (54 tracks in total)!

The design therefore had to be quite colourful and striking, reflecting on the quirky nature of some of these retro television shows.

This physical release is available at Silva Screen Records and Amazon UK

The Music of James Horner - physical album

Here is the final, finished product, "The Music of James Horner Performed By The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra". I created the album cover with an Avatar-esque feel to it (one of the more recent films Horner has scored), which I then transferred across the rest of the album design including an eight page booklet, back inlay and disk graphics. This Silva Screen Records release is available to purchase from May 16th 2011 but you can pre-order it online now from the following sites; Silva Screen Records / Amazon UK / HMV / Play.com / Zavvi

Update:
It is now also available to download from iTunes

Soundtrack album cover designs

CD cover designs for Silva Screen Records. The album is a collection of James Horner's soundtrack work performed by The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. The artwork draws heavily on the theme of the composer's most recent work, Avatar, using familiar colours and floating bioluminescent shapes and organisms in comparison to the mystical alien world in James Cameron's film. The 'eywa seed' also mirrors a classical string instrument, like a harp.

Some of the other films that James Horner has scored include Apollo 13, Cocoon, Aliens, Deep Impact, *Batteries Not Included and Titanic!

I'll post the final outcomes of this project once finished and printed.

Font Aid V: Made For Japan

'Font Aid V: Made For Japan' is a collaborative design community project which aims to help raise funds for victims of the earthquake and tsunami that struck on 11th March 2011.

My first glyph design is a representation of the scale 9 Earthquake that devastated Japan, fracturing the country and leaving it to be pieced back together through aid and support.

While the second glyph hints at the Tsunami and the dramatic effect it had inland, while also communicating hope as the Eastern Sun rises once again over the waves and horizon.

Combined together these two glyph designs form "9.0" (the magnitude of the event), portraying both the severity and aftermath of the situation, yet also expressing optimism and hope for Japan in the future.

Please donate here: Red Cross

Patterns of Power ident #1

A brief ident animation for the "Patterns of Power" logo I designed. The logo and graphic symbols felt like they would translate well into motion graphics, so I thought I'd have a bit of an experiment in Flash and then finished it off by composing 'a little something' in GarageBand. Enjoy!