There are many jobs that technology has rendered obsolete in the last few decades. When it comes to music, the move to downloading and streaming has put the kibosh on many ways to earn a living from physical music formats. There’s still a market for CDs and records, but it’s dwarfed by the emphasis on digital formats.
You would be forgiven for thinking that this means a sticky wicket for those who produce visuals and artwork for record sleeves. If the move from vinyl to CD downsized the impact of their work, digital is a beast where you sometimes have to squint to make out the sleeve.
Yet record sleeves retain an allure for musicians, fans and the designers themselves. The resurgence in vinyl sales may be partly due to the tactile appeal of the format in a digital age, and 12-inch sleeves remain the best billboard for an album’s artwork.
Fantasy 12 is a forthcoming exhibition of album artwork in Dublin. Curators This Greedy Pig and Choice Cuts approached artists, designers and record labels behind some of their favourite record sleeves and asked them to produce a sleeve for a record from any iconic artist past or present.
Those who have responded to the call include Stephen Serrato (who designed Flying Lotus's You're Dead sleeve), Cecilia Martinez aka Teti (creative and art director at Lobster Theremin Records), Nick Gazin (Vice's art editor and illustrator, who has worked on the Run The Jewels project), Dewey Saunders (Anderson .Paak's Malibu) and more.
Persistence
Another of those who accepted the challenge is Vlad Sepetov. The US designer is probably best known for his work with Kendrick Lamar, but he has also worked on sleeves for Schoolboy Q, Vic Mensa, Freddie Gibbs and J Cole.
He believes that persistence is key for anyone seeking to work as a designer in the music business today.
“It is very hard to break into this field,” Sepetov says. “A lot of guys and girls start off doing design for friends. They do posters for their bands or album covers or whatever but it never really transforms to something bigger.
“A lot of what I was doing came down to a love of music and an interest in the industry side of it, so it was kind of useful for me to do these other things, like scout for some labels or work at a radio station. It was all building a relationship so I could say, ‘Hey, I know you know I do this, but I can also do design’. What sets you apart from everyone else is having a skill set which enables you to be able to navigate the industry.”
His own immersion in design began at an early age.
“Both my parents are scientists and do hard sciences, so there was a part of me who wanted to do the opposite and pursue something totally different. The designs which first caught my eye were jazz record covers on Blue Note. That label’s whole approach to design was stunning. Going to modern art museums was also influential,” Sepetov says.
“All these little facets in my life inspired me. It was innate for me, but it took me a while to fully realise this was something I wanted to do and it was something I was good at. When I finally got to a point where I had to decide what to do, it made sense.”
He did a degree in design at the University of Washington, but it was internships at the Interscope label that really got him started.
“I initially interned for Tunji Balogun at Interscope after my first or second year of college. He was in A&R and was involved in so much stuff and was great. He introduced me to the guys at Top Dawg and they vetted me and had me do a lot of work to see if I could do it in the first place,” he says.
Collaborative
Top Dawg is the label that Kendrick Lamar and Schoolboy Q call home and Sepetov has struck up a prolific working relationship there.
“It’s hugely collaborative. Q’s music is dark and gritty and that lends itself to having more of a gritty design and aesthetic,” he says.
“With Kendrick, the music feels nostalgic and it feels of an era and classic and timeless and a lot of the design around what he does is meant to feel like that. All the albums are photography-based and they have all those feelings and they really do add to that aesthetic.
“Kendrick and Q have the final say on everything, but there are a lot of backroom people involved in sketching out that vision and look. Like, Dave Free who is Kendrick’s manager and the president of Top Dawg has a really great eye and knows what he is doing. Sometimes it starts with a photo shoot, sometimes it starts with colours and sometimes it’s the music which sets ideas off.”
Sepetov believes artwork is still vital when it comes to guiding listeners.
“When physical mediums were prevalent, the album cover was key. It guided how people bought music in shops. I was born in 1993 and I wasn’t around in the vinyl era at all, but when I went to CD stores or Borders book store or Tower Records with my mom, the album cover guided how I felt about the music and what I expected,” he says.
“It’s changed since then with Spotify and downloads, and the album art has taken a backseat to the music. But I still approach the work with the idea that I want someone to look at the album cover and appreciate the aesthetic and image and let the artwork guide their listening experience.”
Visual elements
Artwork tells a story and it gives people a way into the music, he says.
"Look at Anderson .Paak's Malibu. That album cover is a collage of visual elements and his album has a ton of different sounds. The album cover is sunny and beautiful and psychedelic and the music seems the same way," Sepetov says.
“But if the album sleeve was a black square or a red square, I think you’d totally take the album in a different way and you’d think about in a more simplistic or minimalistic way and I wouldn’t really be paying attention to the little elements which Anderson has throughout the album. I think you can apply this to any album you come across: that first look at the sleeve tells you how you are going to listen to the album.”
Sepetov intends to stay in the record artwork game, but believes a designer needs to work on all visual aspects of a campaign.
“I feel a lot of designers get pigeon-holed working with just album art. You get artists and labels reaching out to you for just that one thing,” he says.
“More and more, it’s imperative to me to work on something from A to Z. I want to oversee the whole visual story and all the bits and pieces. Whether that means I’m on the cutting room floor helping to edit a music video or designing a logo or doing the packaging, I want to be there doing that.
“If what you do helps to determine how people feel about the music when they read the credits or see the track listing, whatever will change a person’s opinion of music, I want to be all over that.”
- Fantasy 12 opens at the Copper House Gallery, Dublin on October 13th. Vlad Sepetov will take part in a discussion on album artwork at the Sugar Club on October 15th. See fantasy-12.com
