Archive for April, 2009
Wu-Tang Design Remix Project pt.1 Revisited: I Love the Internet
Thursday, April 30th, 2009
Wow, big thanks to everyone who checked out my covers and gave me feedback. The response has been great -- in fact I was so psyched about it I went ahead and made #8. This is the only individual one I will post here, the rest will go up on Flickr as they are completed (although don't expect #9 til maybe next week, paying freelance takes priority). Special thanks to Ghostlaced at the Wu-Tang Corp message board and Tom at FreakyTrigger, who went so far as to name the project (Blu-Tang Clan [but maybe I prefer Wu Note Records?]) and offer some analysis:
Sample-based hip-hop is a conversation between the past (the records producers draw on), the present (the scene it emerges from and the audience who embrace it), and the future (its reception, and the possibility of crossover). Remaking Wu-Tang sleeve art as Blue Note sleeve art is making a point: this music, like that music, is classic African-American art.
Whoa dude. The reaction has been almost entirely positive, although a few people pointed out that the Raekwon cover either looked lazy or just didn't "fit." I'm only mentioning this because I felt pretty much the same way and posted it anyway, which I now want to rectify. The original was relying too much on the photo and as a result looked out of place. Rather than redesign it entirely I've tweaked it a bit and replaced it in the original post and on Flickr. From now on I'm going to be much more careful about calling something "done." In the meantime, enjoy, and I'll be back soon with some new stuff.
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Wu-Tang Design Remix Project pt.1
Tuesday, April 28th, 2009
A little while ago I put a bunch of Wu-Tang (both group and solo) albums on my computer. 21 of them, in fact. I inherited some mild OCD from my mom, and as anyone who has seen my iTunes can attest to, it manifests itself in weird ways. I need to have decent-quality album art for every album on my computer, which currently equals over 90 gigs. The problem was that almost all of the Wu-Tang album art was horrible (ODB's two albums being the only real exceptions) -- no offense to the original designers, but as iconic as they might be they're looking pretty dated these days. So, armed with inspiration from what Olly Moss and others are doing (as written about by me here, and later by Kottke here) and a book of Blue Note Records covers, I set out to remake all 21. The first seven are here (click for full-view):
I've changed the art for these in my iTunes and love the results:
So seven down, fourteen to go. From here on out I'm going to start uploading them to my Flickr Photostream as soon as each is done, so you guys can bug me if I'm not making them fast enough. I'll post the next set of seven here when they're done. In the meantime, enjoy, and let me know if you have any comments or suggestions.
Tags: album covers, blue note, Design, remix, wu-tang
Posted in Design, Music, Portfolio, Uncategorized | 104 Comments »