What Is the Cover Art of Bon Iver 22 a Million
Bon Iver — 22, A Million
Information technology seems plumbing fixtures, or rather, necessary that my first post here focus on Bon Iver's release of 22, A Million. The intimate relationship between Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) & Brooklyn based creative person Eric Timothy Carlson was definitely a catalyst for the creation of this blog; & I can't call up of a better case study on the importance of synergy between design & music.
Carlson is an artist & designer, originally hailing from Minneapolis. He began working as a designer in the music industry while nonetheless a higher student; creating band posters for his friends, & picking up a fascination with symbology forth the way.
It was a whole five years prior to working on 22, A 1000000 that Vernon discovered Carlson's work, & reached out to work together.
"One of my first album art projects was with this hardcore band, Edifice Better Bombs. And [Gayngs founder] Ryan Olson was in that band, and later on I did the Gayngs logo, which was a project largely organised past Ryan Olsen and Justin. …and I just got an email [from Justin] one mean solar day that said, 'I like what you're doing, and I desire you to know that. Nosotros have to work on something together erstwhile.'"
The shut collaboration & ideation of the 22, A Million artwork & the expansive array of accompanying visuals largely took place in Vernon's home in Eau Claire, WI. In an interview with Walker Art Center in his dwelling house town, Carlson details the extensive process of visualising each track on the album, which he reveals all began as numbers;
"…multiple numbers at first. So we would mind to each song, talk most the numbers, talk nearly the song, sentry the lyrics have course, makes lists, make drawings. Real references and experiences are collaged in both the music and the artwork. I was able to interview and interrogate each song — digging into weird cores — and by the end of each visit, each song would develop a matrix of new notes and symbols."
The symbolism behind each track was a result of several calendar week-long sessions at Apr Base-the recording studio-in Eau Claire.
"…each fourth dimension was a unique feel focused on that phase of the music. Normally with an intimate group of two or three guests (musicians, writers, chillers, curators) and the studio crew …to brand a unique creative infinite, where each of u.s. would be a office of defining that menstruation of cosmos."
For Carlson, these sessions produced a plethora of sketches, which ultimately became a reference point for the last body of work.
"There was an honesty in the notes and drove process that very much influenced the final work."
In the lead up to the release of the album, Vernon & Carlson worked on a vast range of promotional collateral; on the largest scale were x murals, painted in cities all around the globe, each representing an individual track.
The site of these murals became the venue for 24-hour interval-prior-release listening parties — a nostalgic anthology stream, with crowds gathering effectually a small stereo, listening to the anthology on a cassette record. Attendees were also given a newsprint zine featuring more of Carlson'due south supporting artwork for each mural.
These murals cemented the visual theme that we saw with the get-go 2 lyric videos, published by Bon Iver prior to the release date, & continuing with each track throughout the following month. Carlson spoke on the lyric videos;
"The lyric videos initiative came from Justin. I'1000 not sure they ended upwards looking like what he was imagining, only that's 1 of the things that has been so smashing about the project: the trust in the piece of work of everyone involved. I was originally a fiddling hesitant well-nigh the lyric video concept, largely due to the quality of lyric videos in general, and because I was dreaming of an entirely abstruse/ambient visual component to alive with the music online, without typography. Merely many lyric videos found online are made by fans — iMovie/Subsequently Effects motion graphics form projects. I feel that that amateur aesthetic has gone on to inform what official, professionally produced lyric videos look like."
Watch the lyric video for 10 d E A T h b R Eastward a s T beneath:
View the lyric videos for the unabridged album on YouTube.
With the cosmos of the music videos, typography became an immensely important chemical element to 22, A Million. But Carlson explains that his choice of typeface (Optima) throughout the project, came with very simple reasoning;
"I didn't want annihilation as well tricky. A system font felt skillful, since I was working with the lyrics in text-edit documents. Optima only looked and then right spelling out "BON IVER." It sung the showtime time I saw information technology."
Subsequently establishing that the graphical component to the artwork (symbols, drawings, etc.) were to be showcased on the jacket of the release, it was decided that the booklet would be limited to just typography. Perhaps the virtually minimalist component of the concrete release.
"By the time I was working on the volume I had listened to the album in process nearly a hundred times, and then the layout decisions proved natural and intuitive, knowing where the phrases broke, making visual decisions in response to the music of it, using parallel columns where the lyrics overlapped."
The terminal artwork for 22, A 1000000 is a drove of all of these private components; icons, motifs, symbols, ideas — all capable of standing on their own, but coming together to form 1 coherent body of piece of work.
"The proper album packaging is the legend of symbols, where you find everything all in one place."
You can purchase 22, A One thousand thousand by Bon Iver digitally on iTunes, or physically at boniver.org.
If y'all'd like to see more work by Eric Timothy Carlson, yous can visit his website or follow him on Instagram.
For farther reading into the artistic process behind 22, A Million, this excellent interview is definitely worth reading. It delves much deeper into Carlson'southward piece of work & it's basically but everything I want this blog to be.
Source: https://medium.com/@mattserif/bon-iver-22-a-million-55ffae4fd947
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