For the project brief, click here.

In the Ravel Day EP Artwork project, my concept was to interact with the public in a visual way and use a central theme for multiple installations to provide people with a sense of recognition when they saw them. The end result was a photo series of street art that we put up in neighborhoods in Brooklyn, with each photo being a unique representation of the surroundings. Drawing inspiration from Sam Horine and Elbow Toe, I collaborated with Brett Tieman who produced the paste-ups and graffiti that I photographed.

The main objective for the project was to create final album artwork for The Mugs album, called “Ravel Day EP”, and I worked in collaboration with Brett Tieman.  The photographer, Isak Tiner, took a series of photos of each band member with the intention that they would be used for the album.

After reviewing these photos, I made the following suggestions:

• Reinterpret or heavily alter the original source photos in an abstract way , while still maintaining a 4-square series.
• Paste these pieces up in public spaces at multiple locations.
• Take a photo/Polaroid of these pieces in this new context.
• Print a series of these photos and use them as the front cover image.
• Include a Polaroid of the publicly displayed pieces as well as a print out of the original source photos in the final CD package.

My concept was to have more presence in our neighborhood, interact with the public in a visual way, and use a central theme for multiple installations to provide people with a sense of recognition when they saw them.  We chose to do this project in Park Slope, Gowanus, and Dumbo because we live in the neighborhood, and we chose paste-up street art because it is low-cost and has a high-impact.  I was also influenced by the work done by Sam Horine.

Based on my concept for the package design, Brett Tieman created an entire series of 4-square pieces to paste-up throughout the neighborhood.  After he pasted each series , I traveled throughout the neighborhood with my digital and Polaroid cameras documenting each of Brett’s paste-ups.

At the outset, we planned to place an individual Polaroid of these paste-ups in each CD package, but after seeing a group of Polaroid photos I had taken, I also created an online photo set that documented the full series of paste-ups.  I wanted to provide each person who obtained a copy of the album the ability to see the Polaroid they received in their album within the full photo set and know that it was part of a larger set, or a part of a larger story told with the photos.

As the project progressed, I took less and less photos of the street art, and more and more photos of the band, people involved with the music, our rehearsal space and its surroundings. At the outset, the project had a limited Polaroid photo scope (paste-ups only), and the scope grew throughout the process. I began documenting things that were happening around us while we finished the recordings, such as the family that live in their car just outside our rehearsal space and the new condo developments that are sprouting up around us.

While resting at home and recovering from surgery, I was also able to see the full scope of the pictures (which were done with a Polaroid camera) and decided to create an online photo set that documented the full series and illustrate the wider spectrum the photo project had become. We ended up with something that moved beyond the original goal; seeing fragments of the project on the streets where they live, obtaining a version of the source photo, and viewing the collection of photos online, listeners could better identify with and contextualize the music. They could be reminded of a larger story. In the end I felt that in accepting new ideas, the end result of the packaging better informed the listener of the music it contained.

When I had taken approximately 100 Polaroids, we began the next step which was putting the CD packaging together.  I purchased card-stock weight paper in two colors (white and brown) to print the images for the front cover.  We chose 4 digital photos which we felt best captured the spirit of the project,  and we printed them 4-up on the card-stock paper using a Canon Ink-Jet printer.

This is 1 sample of the 8 different covers.

After printing approximately 40 pages, the black ink began to run out.  The colors began to change for each page, and every cover had a unique coloring.  We cut out each photo and glued it to the outside of a plain, white digipak CD case.  A special thanks to Naomi Donabedian for suggesting the appropriate glue.

As the black ink ran out,  a massive benefit was that we could make use of the altered colors to print the “source” photos, which we printed last.  As I over-road the warnings the printer continuously threw regarding the lack of appropriate ink, the best piece of the packaging was developed.

These photo strips were folded and included with a single Polaroid on the inside front-cover pocket.  In seeing the source photo, my hope was that the listener would be encouraged to create their own paste-up, or even better, start their own paste-up project.  Instead of conveying an elaborate and complex package, the simplicity of the Ravel Day EP would inspire others to do the same.

You can see the full set of polaroids that were included in the Ravel Day EP packaging here. To read more about the project, you can go to my portfolio website or The Mugs website.