Mat Maitland has been invited to exhibit as part of Art Vinyl 2011. The show, at Jonas Gallery in Brussels, features the best album sleeves of 2011, and includes Big Active’s work with Noah and the Whale, Das Pop, Nero, and Sneaky Sound System. A range of Mat’s personal work is running alongside the album covers.

We’ve updated Mat Maitland’s portfolio with a selection of new personal work and commercial commissions. See more here.

Big Active’s Mat Maitland describes his blog - Leopard Tree Dream - as “a crystal ball of record covers from my private collection…”. With frequent and insightful postings, celebrating the eclectic image-making that defined landmark releases by the likes of Grace Jones, Blue Oyster Cult and Vangellis, Mat shares his enthusiasm for an inspirational period of album sleeve design. Enjoy.

Above: GRACE JONES “MUSE” (1979) Art Direction by Grace Jones & Richard Bernstein. Cover art by Richard Bernstein.

In addition to our success at the European Design Awards, we are also pleased to announce Mark Ronson’s ‘Record Collection’ has featured in all of this years major design awards. The project was selected for the 2011 Creative Review Annual, nominated as a finalist in the Design Week Awards and chosen to appear in the 49th Edition of the D&AD Annual. To take a closer look at Mark Ronson’s ‘Record Collection’ as well as a selection of projects from our music design portfolio please click here.

The recently relaunched Grafik magazine just keeps on getting better! The current issue features an in depth profile by Robert Urquhart on our lettering designer Letman and his journey from from graffiti kid to serious designer. Also featured is Big Active’s Mat Maitland and Will Sweeney in conversation with Angharad Lewis. They discuss Mat’s intriguing design references behind Das Pop’s new album, “I was thinking about Cluedo and Russian roulette…”, as well as exploring the story behind Will’s animated video for the album’s title track ‘The Game’. www.grafikmag.com

Big Active has just been awarded a Gold Prize at the European Design Awards for our art direction and design work on Mark Ronson’s ‘Record Collection’ album. The awards were announced by Ugne Skonsmanaite at a ceremony held in Vilnius on Saturday. The work was described by this year’s jury as “the perfect way to reference the musician’s influences and the collecting habits of the customer”. This trophy marks the latest in a run of nominations for the project at this years design awards – it was also short listed as a finalist at the Design Week Awards in March, and is currently featured in the 2011 Creative Review Annual. The 2011 European Design Awards book will be published next month.

The new album by Das Pop is released this week. ‘The Game’ is the second campaign for the Belgian four-piece to be designed by Big Active. “The cover fuses graphic elements in a way that echoes the playful nature of the music,” says art director Mat Maitland, “with the cover almost appearing to be thrown together by the juggler depicted on the sleeve”. You can see more of the project here.

The band’s frontman Bent Van Looy visited London recently and came into Big Active to chat with Mat about the artwork in a feature for Cobra TV. While he was here he also caught up with Will Sweeney who directed the video for the title track (see last weeks post). You can watch the interview with Bent, Mat and Will here.

The December issue of Vogue Gioiello Japan features a new illustration from Mat Maitland using jewelery from designer Justin Davis. Out now.

The new Mark Ronson album ‘Record Collection’ features many different record covers that are used to create the actual design. The album campaign was directed and designed by Big Active with collaborative imagery by Mat Maitland, Jasper Goodall, Will Sweeney, Jesse Auersalo, Parra and Markus Karlsson. The ‘Record Collection’ is available as a CD, 12″ Vinyl, iTunes Interactive Format and Collectors 7″ boxed set – featuring the individual sleeves from the album collages and housed in an 80’s inspired leatherette record carry case.