Goldfrapp ‘Headfirst’
We have directed a short trailer announcing the launch of the new album by Goldfrapp – the teaser introduces the new campaign which we have created for the band. The website goes live next Monday and the physical album is released on the 22nd March. More to follow in the coming weeks…
10 March, 2010 - Posted in Art Direction & Design, Moving Image, Music | - Tags: Goldfrapp, Headfirst', Music Design, Mute Records | Permalink
Marina And The Diamonds
Marina And The Diamonds much acclaimed debut album ‘The Family Jewels’ is released this week. Big Active have worked closely with Marina since her first single to art direct the imagery for the campaign. Photography by Rankin. Cover art and lettering by Mat Maitland. Featured below is the album cover and a special edition 7″ package of the new single ‘Hollywood’. To see more please click here.
23 February, 2010 - Posted in Art Direction & Design, Mat Maitland, Music | - Tags: Marina And The Diamonds, Mat Maitland, Music Design, Rankin | Permalink
EYE Design for Music
This Friday Big Active’s creative director Gerard Saint will be talking about our studio’s art direction and design work at Eye Magazine’s Design for Music Conference at St Bride’s Library in London. For more information please visit St Brides Library or Eye Magazine / Events.
27 January, 2010 - Posted in Art Direction & Design, Gerard Saint, Music | - Tags: Eye Magazine, Gerard Saint, Music Design, St Brides's Library | Permalink
Images For The People
You may remember that earlier this year we collaborated with Berlin based artist Andreas Nicolas Fischer to create the design for The Enemy’s ‘Music For The People’ album. Andreas has been busy developing more images in this series for his latest solo exhibition “Lichtzeichnungen” at the Galerie im Medienhaven in Bremen. To create the work Andreas has developed a program to explore his technique:- “All the drawings from that series are based on this program…” he says, “every time I run the program, I let it generate a couple of drawings and I decide which parameters should be altered. This means that every “final” drawing has gone through hundreds iterations of program code. For every finished computer drawings there were hundreds of predecessors. What I find interesting is the “autonomy” of the software, which can make decisions and thus create results which I cannot anticipate”. You can see more of the exhibition here.
23 November, 2009 - Posted in Art Direction & Design, Music | - Tags: Andreas Nicolas Fischer, The Enemy | Permalink
Destroy/Rankin Auction
To mark the climax of this year’s Youth Music Week, the Phillips De Pury Gallery in London auctioned 25 of the original artworks produced for the Destroy/Rankin project. First under the hammer was Mat Maitland’s’s work for Basement Jaxx which fetched the respectable sum of £800. Other key works included Damien Hirst’s ‘Joe Strummer’ and artwork by by Debbie Harry, Kylie Minogue, Mat Collishaw, Douglas Gordon and Mariianne Faithfull. The evening’s entertainment also included an exclusive performance by Jarvis Cocker and a DJ set by Lemon Jelly’s Fred Deakin. The night raised a total of £50,000 to benefit Youth Music projects. Destroy/Rankin designed by Big Active’s Gerard Saint is available from bookstores with all proceeds also going to the youth charity.
16 November, 2009 - Posted in Art Direction & Design, Illustration, Mat Maitland, Music | - Tags: Gerard Saint, Mat Maitland, Rankin, Youth Music | Permalink
Destroy/Rankin
Destroy/Rankin is launched today. The book designed by Big Active creative director Gerard Saint features 70 of the world’s leading musicians who have ‘destroyed’ Rankin’s iconic photographs of themselves to create new pieces of artwork in support of Youth Music – the UK’s leading music charity for young people. “I wanted to hear the voice inside that the camera doesn’t always catch” say Rankin. “…with that in mind,” says Saint, “I planned the book to look quiet on the outside and loud on the inside”. Musicians and contributors include Jarvis Cocker, Ian Brown, Fred Deakin, Kylie Minogue, Debbie Harry, Douglas Gordon and Damien Hirst. Big Active’s Mat Maitland also created a piece in collaboration with Basement Jaxx. The work will be on show at Phillips De Pury London, for free, between November 9 – 21. Collectors can bid online for the work from November 7, or attend the Open Auction on November 14 to bid for 25 key pieces. See more here…
09 November, 2009 - Posted in Art Direction & Design, Mat Maitland, Music | - Tags: Gerard Saint, Phillips De Pury, Rankin, Youth Music | Permalink
Jody Barton Democratic Pop-up Show
Posted by Jody Barton
I painted 28 super-quick A2 posters in support of a new campaign in Copenhagen, Denmark called X-Felt. The point of X-Felt is to encourage young people and politicians to talk to each other. Then hopefully, young people get what they want and also get involved in the political process. There was a private launch in the Cafe Gallery ‘Din Nye Ven’ and I put up the posters for a one-night-only surprise show.
There’s a good story behind some of the images – to find out more visit my blog page.
28 October, 2009 - Posted in Art Direction & Design, Illustration, Jody Barton, Music | - Tags: Jody Barton Democratic Pop-up Show | Permalink
Spandau Ballet Once More
Yes it’s true – Spandau Ballet have have reformed and ‘Once More’ is the band’s first studio release in 20 years. We’ve aimed to update the Spandau aesthetic for 2009 with an album package that is elegant and visually vital – both in terms of the physical and digital formats. The album, which is out today has been designed by Markus Karlsson at Big Active. You can see more of the artwork here.
19 October, 2009 - Posted in Art Direction & Design, Music | - Tags: Ar Direction & Design, Markus Karlsson, Spandau Ballet | Permalink
Basement Jaxx Album
Basement Jaxx release their new LP ‘Scars’ today. The album has been art directed by Mat Maitland at Big Active and features his distinctive imagery in the form of five fantasy warriors developed especially for the package. We’re currently working on a limited edition poster to accompany the release – more news on that in a couple of weeks.
21 September, 2009 - Posted in Art Direction & Design, Illustration, Mat Maitland, Music | - Tags: Art Direction & Design, Basement Jaxx, Music Design | Permalink
Ibiza Rocks with Big Active
Ibiza Rocks is THE festival of the summer – andover the last 12 weeks the new venue at the the Ibiza Rocks Hotel has seen sell out shows fom the likes of Ting Tings, The Enemy, Dizzee Rascal and MGMT. This years season wraps up next week with The Klaxons in what we can imagine will be a pretty amazing closing party. Big Active’s creative director Gerard Saint and designer Markus Karlsson have just got back from the island after a pretty crazy 36 hours – respect…
04 September, 2009 - Posted in Art Direction & Design, Music | - Tags: Art Direction, Branding, Design, Ibiza Rocks, Music | Permalink
