Gary Burden Designs Monsters of Folk
Posted: 01/04/2010 @ 8:00 AM in Art,Packaging,Uncategorized
Legendary album cover designer Gary Burden, nominated for a 52nd Annual Grammy Award for designing the Neil Young Archives, takes no breaks between masterpieces. His latest work for American supergroup Monsters of Folk is no less beautiful or brilliant. Burden says the collaboration was like “another flood of love, trust, innocence, brotherhood, and the spirit of fun and play common to being a child.”
Hardly monsters at all, the four indie rockers that make up Monsters of Folk [1] have been on the music radar in the form of other bands and solo gigs for a while — Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis of Bright Eyes [2], Jim James of My Morning Jacket [3], and solo artist M. Ward [4]. John Pareles of the New York Times [5] says, “Monsters of Folk are all-roots rockers… a band of philosophers. Its songs don’t tell stories or profess love; they ponder existential questions.” This is done much in the style of singer-songwriters Neil Young and Bob Dylan, whom the band is so often likened to.
Looking for a “classic and craftsman” style, designer Gary Burden [6] took inspiration from the ink illustrations of Aubrey Beardsley and the nature-inspired paintings and textile designs of William Morris. He collaborated with illustrator Matthew Hollings [7] and photographer Autumn de Wilde [8] to create what Burden calls the “beautiful natural looking twisty vines” and drawn portraits found on the album cover and CD jacket.
[9]
Both the album cover and CD jacket are produced on 80% postconsumer waste and carbon neutral Mohawk Renewal, Vellum, White. The sturdy and uncoated surface of Renewal Vellum was the perfect sustainable choice for the high ink demand of the Monsters of Folk album design, adding richness and depth to the hand-drawn illustration of the intersecting vines and artists’ portraits by Holdings and the inside explosion of color photograph by de Wilde. The CD and record booklets were printed on 30% PCW Mohawk Via, Vellum, Bright White.
Gary Burden is a renowned album cover designer who has detailed his work on Monsters of Folk, the Neil Young Archives, and others on his blog [6].
More about Mohawk Renewal [10].
More about Mohawk Via [11].
More about all of Mohawk’s environmental papers [12].
Download tips [13] for specifying sustainable papers.
Article printed from Mohawk News: http://news.mohawkpaper.com
URL to article: http://news.mohawkpaper.com/2010/01/04/gary-burden-designs-monsters-of-folk/
URLs in this post:
[1] Monsters of Folk: http://monstersoffolk.com/
[2] Bright Eyes: http://www.thisisbrighteyes.com/
[3] My Morning Jacket: http://www.mymorningjacket.com/
[4] M. Ward: http://www.mwardmusic.com/
[5] New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/09/arts/music/09monsters.html
[6] Gary Burden: http://garyburdenforrtwerk.com/
[7] Matthew Hollings: http://patternsofreason.com/
[8] Autumn de Wilde: http://autumndewilde.com/
[9] Image: http://news.mohawkpaper.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/cd-cover-spread300.jpg
[10] Mohawk Renewal: http://www.mohawkpaperstore.com/paper-product-lines/MOHAWK/renewal
[11] Mohawk Via: http://www.mohawkpaperstore.com/paper-product-lines/MOHAWK/VIA
[12] Mohawk’s environmental papers: http://www.mohawkpaper.com/environment/landing/
[13] Download tips: http://www.mohawkpaper.com/pdfs/Tips%20for%20environmentally%20preferrable%20paper.pdf