10.14.2006
CRAZY+BEAUTIFUL
THE ART OF ALBUM COVER DESIGN ACCORDING TO ELECTROLYCHEE
If you frequent music stores, you may have noticed evolution occurring: a certain art form has, here and there, gotten more imaginative, more stylish, more beautiful and unpredictable. I’m not talking about the music itself—although, in many happy cases, that holds true as well—but about the skins the music comes in. I’m talking about album covers and packaging.
Gone are the days when local album packaging meant boring studio shots, generic fonts, and standard stapled inlay cards. These days, among many other design elements, you can find digitally-created worlds, repurposed found objects, a quirky design sensibility and hand-drawn goodness parading across a CD’s cover. Jewel cases are no longer necessarily the order of the day; recycled materials and multi-layer fold-out cardboard sleeves can play their part as well. Part of this is due to technology: being exposed to work from all over the world via the ‘Net stirs inspiration, and digital tools bestow empowerment. But much of it has to do with good old-fashioned talent and drive.
Their design work has been nominated for awards (their design for Paramita’s “Tala” won Best Album Packaging at this year’s Awit Awards), and these high-voltage lychees are also full-time visual artists, who frequently showcase their pop-inspired artworks in the metro’s alternative galleries. Besides “painting, participating in design conferences and collaborating with both local and foreign artists,” the design studio also produces Electrolychee-branded Strange Creations merchandise. According to them, “it’s a do-it-yourself endeavor that’s part of our long-term goal of being a design studio and a lifestyle store in one.”
What is Electrolychee? When and how did it form?
BRU + MARCUSHIRO: Hatched last September 2005, Electrolychee is a local studio that merges illustration with design. Previous to that, we spent five years doing commercial design for other people, and our various works could be seen in books for children and adults, magazines, web publications, album covers and clothing brands. Our works play within the realms of slick, computer-generated vector art (electro) and organic, hand-drawn imagery (lychee).
Both of you have established reputations on your own. Why join forces?
BRU: Ika nga ng Spice Girls, “two become one,” hehe. But seriously, I thought from the start that our works complement each other. And now, a year into Electrolychee, we’ve realized that our styles offset each other as well. My uncompromising self-taught ways (in terms of tone, I sometimes can be more soft and abstract) balances with Marcus’ degreed and designed finesse (naks!) We’re each others’ biggest fans.
MARCUSHIRO: Working closely with each other inspires us to work on things other than our projects.
What are some of the highlights of your art-partnership so far?
BRU + MARCUSHIRO: Nike projects like The Three Laws and recently, Born From Obsession. Nike was our biggest break thanks to AJ “Dandy” Dimarucot of Collision Theory. They’re also one of the few local brands that strive to uplift local design culture and make it at par with the rest of the region. Also, that we’re able to put out our own “Strange Creations” merchandise.
What is Electrolychee working on now?
BRU + MARCUSHIRO: The second Sound album. But it’s really Paolo Lim’s super steady watercolors that steal the show.
BRU: Better sleeping habits.
MARCUSHIRO: Never-ending redecoration of my studio.
Drip [5-song EP]
BRU: I remember watching Drip for the first time at Fete de la Musique three or so years ago. Totally blown away. I was so in awe that I went up to the gorgeous and sweaty Beng Calma and asked if I could design their album and she said yes. Wow. It was my very first album design (as in ever). I drew the EP inside art (of the band) on the spot at their next gig in Big Sky Mind, so that’s why Cyril of Silverfilter’s there too, wearing a Wolfmann shirt :) I loved that cover (of two hands grasping a cup); it juxtaposes how electronic music can still be so human. Thanks God at natuwa naman sila, and trusted us to do their full-length release, Far Side of the World.
Chillitees, Extra Rice
BRU: Another juicy fan girl moment in which giddy chinita falls in love with indie band’s music and asks if she could concoct the visual to the aural. Amazingly, the Chillitees said yes and let me go totally bonkers. We stuck to the first study because they went totally bonkers :) Chillitees’ music is so Pinoy and organic that I wanted to do this by hand with lots of drawings and collages, thanks to glue, lined paper and those swirly drawing toys I used to have as a kid and recently rediscovered in Divisoria. Marcushiro actually bought extra rice at a fast food place (guess which) just so I could scan in the receipt for the album (the receipt also says “Ang Sarap Maging Pilipino!”). This is my favorite album design to date kasi, ika nga ng Chillitees, “wala siyang katulad.”
Imago, Blush
BRU + MARCUSHIRO: Imago’s latest release is very pop, so we came up with something similarly light and upbeat. This project had to please a lot of parties, so it got pulled in a different direction from where we originally started. The band’s photos were also the main elements here, as opposed to our other bodies of work, which relied on illustrations. We really insisted on the die-cut because it’s never been done here before. [Tidbit: We tried copying Aia’s moves at home, but Marcushiro was more successful at it than Bru.]
Cambio, Derby Light
MARCUSHIRO: Raimund “Squid9” Marasigan saw a teaser poster of Bagetsafonik in a local bar where we usually hang out and asked the owner who did it. He then remembers that I was also the same guy who approached him during one of his Squid9 gigs and gave him one of my Analog stickers. Then he gave me a call.
I took inspiration from the title of their album and their band name. It just so happened that their music really reflects both. Quirky- high- octane- indie-rock.
The process was a masterpiece on its own done D.I.Y. Some inside photos were shot while on a road trip. We stuck out our heads from a moving car trying to capture the sides of buses passing the opposite direction. I guess this is what the thrill of derby racing is all about, baby!
I photographed the CD face of the driving wheel of an abandoned car I saw in an empty lot. I then composed the photos and my illustrations on the computer. Nothing can compare to doing album packaging for people who trust me to make it look good. Thanks guys!
THINGS ELECTROLYCHEE HAS LEARNED BY DESIGNING ALBUMS:
Don’t be shy. DO offer your favorite bands your design services (be it a poster or flyer for their gigs, album design, button pins, shirts, etc).
DO design independent albums. They’re almost always more fulfilling creative projects.
In the same way you don’t like musical copycats, DO NOT rip off somebody else’s designs (we’ll know and call you on it)
DO try new things (pink can be a guy thing too, just ask the emo kids)
DO push the boundaries. Try to experiment but always remember that concept is 50% of the equation. Execution could be a daunting task, so try to work according to your strengths. Or else it’ll look forced.
DO visit electrolychee.com and drop us a line at our blog!
TAGS: pulse.ph The Lowdown
