I’ve always liked this design, it works well at the large format of a vinyl sleeve too. The artist said of her own design; “as usual I was given free reign on what I wanted to do. I worked with the Motif’s from the single design and used layering and stained colours to build up a texture that could wrap around the sleeve.” I think in addition i would say that the imagery here is tailored to the artist’s sound on this particular record, (Zomby being a man of many sounds) the 8 bit inspired glitches and bleeps, and cut up choppy beats being reflected in the vibrant colours and sparse angular shapes respectively. The logo is also designed by Kate, which i really like, it has a similar thing going on working with broken shapes and negative space. Kate has also created covers Zomby’s previous release, and for L-Vis 1990, which are featured below the Zomby work.

This is a highly respected release within the drum & bass scene, and I have always admired the minimal design of the cover, by Aaron FitzGerald. He comments himself that, “The artwork was designed to reflect the minimalist nature of the music featured.” This hits the nail on the head really, it’s simple (perhaps over simplistic) and clean, and when you listen to the music this cover makes a lot of sense. The graphic on the front of the sleeve seems to have an almost code-like appearance, and the continuation of this motif from DAT:MUSIC I to II re-enforces this message. I believe that this is something of a forerunner in visual style to the now massively influential Autonomic lot, and their snappy futuristic image. What i like here also, is that the size and layout of the design is so clear in all formats, it works well as a little iTunes artwork logo, and looks really good in the larger format vinyl release. (Pictured below is DAT:MUSIC II, front, then back, and below that the vinyl release of DAT:MUSIC.)

This is another sleeve designed by FitzGerald, the cover for CosminTRG’s ‘Now You Know’. This utilises a clever type trick with both sides of the vinyl sleeve, which I really like, and the beautiful illustrative type he has created really works well with the stock and colour of the cardboard sleeve. As well, he has kept to a rough template/style laid out by GiveUpArt’s genre defining work for Tempa, keeping the very light grey sleeve and minimal type, although opting for a different typeface to the original brand’s religious use of Helvetica. What is interesting here is that is a bit of a departure from the labels normal sound, and the slight departure in aesthetic style is therefore a fitting change. This record has quite a London sound, and I think this is carefully and precisely communicated in the artwork used here. (Pictured below are two images of the CosminTRG release and then some more selected design work from Aaron.)