Big Active’s creative director and founder Gerard Saint has just returned from Athens after speaking at the Design Panorama conference. Saturday’s headline talk focused on Big Active’s music design output – and why we believe an integrated approach is essential to produce effective creative work. “Music design is the glue that holds together all the fragmented aspects of the way music is currently consumed – from digital to print – so it’s really important that each adds a new dimension to the story…”. Examples of this way of thinking include campaigns for Beck, The Enemy, Keane, Goldfrapp and Mark Ronson.

Design Panorama is organized annually by +Design Magazine and Sunday’s main presentation featured Anne Miltenburg from the Dutch design studio Lava who have been named European Design Agency of 2010. We’d like to thank Demetrios Fakinos and +Design for their superb hospitality.

06 December, 2010 - Posted in Art Direction & Design, Gerard Saint, Music | - Tags: +Design Magazine, Art Direction & Design, Design Panorama, Gerard Saint, Music Design | Permalink

Voting has now gone live for this years Best Art Vinyl Awards. The nominations for best vinyl sleeve created in 2010 features two works by Big Active in the form of Goldfrapp’s ‘Headfirst’ and Mark Ronson’s ‘Record Collection’. The winning sleeves are decided by public vote and will be announced soon after Christmas. All 50 nominations will also be on show at several galleries in the UK, France, Belgium and Sweden throughout November and December. For more details and to cast your vote (for us of course…) please visit www.artvinyl.com

09 November, 2010 - Posted in Art Direction & Design, Music | - Tags: Art Direction & Design, Art Vinyl, Big Active, Goldfrapp, Mark Ronson, Music Design | Permalink

The summer edition of Eye magazine focuses entirely on design for music – from the first sleeve graphics by Alex Steinweiss to the performance art of Laurie Anderson. The special issue also features an extensive profile on the work of Big Active and interview with creative director Gerard Saint – discussing the challenges of packaging music for the digital age – and why in his opinion design will always have a compelling role to play in making music visible. Eye #76 is out now.

04 August, 2010 - Posted in Art Direction & Design, Gerard Saint, Music | - Tags: Art Direction & Design, Eye Magazine, Gerard Saint, Music Design, St Brides's Library | Permalink

Mallorca Rocks is the bad-ass brother of Ibiza Rocks. The brand new Mallorca Rocks Hotel opened it’s doors with a sell out show by The Kooks, Zane Lowe and Bombay Bicycle Club. Designed in collaboration with Big Active the hotel features more shows this summer by The Prodigy, Dizzy Rascal, Calvin Harris, The Courteeners and Pendulum. ‘The look and feel of the hotel are a natural extension of the work we’ve developed for Ibiza Rocks for over the past four years’ says creative director Gerard Saint, ‘these last few months have been a really busy time getting everything together, so it’s amazing to now see the place really come to life…’ Designer Markus Karlsson described the opening as ‘an absolutely crazy party – no sleep for 24 hours…’ Big Active are design directors for the Ibiza Rocks and Mallorca Rocks brands. Respect.

21 June, 2010 - Posted in Art Direction & Design, Gerard Saint, Music | - Tags: Art Direction & Design, Ibiza Rocks, Mallorca Rocks, Music Design | Permalink

‘Saturday Night’ is the strictly limited new 7″ release from Das Pop – and it’s out this week. Designed by Mat Maitland for Big Active.

14 June, 2010 - Posted in Art Direction & Design, Music | - Tags: Art Direction & Design, Das Pop, Illustration, Music Design | Permalink

The new album from Foals is out now. ‘Total Life Forever’ is the follow up to their 2008 debut ‘Antidotes’ and sees an evolution in the band’s sound which is reflected in the new imagery created for the band by their good friend and outsider artist Tinhed. The underwater shots of the band are by Steve Guillick. Big Active made the art work.

15 May, 2010 - Posted in Art Direction & Design, Music | - Tags: Art Direction & Design, Foals, Music Design, Total Life Forever | Permalink

This month’s Grafik magazine features a provocative special report on the future of music design – essential reading we think. Gerard Saint our creative director shares his opinions on page 65. More…

07 May, 2010 - Posted in Art Direction & Design, Gerard Saint, Music | - Tags: Art Direction & Design, Gerard Saint, Grafik Magazine, Music Design | Permalink

We were recently invited by Caroline Roberts at Grafik to participate in the magazine’s Olympik project (39 sports, 39 designers, 39 posters). The brief was to make a poster about a given sport – Caroline tasked us with ARCHERY. “I was toying with some ideas and it occurred to me that the essence of the games is not just the winning but about really getting involved -  the idea of participating really appealed to me” says creative director Gerard Saint.  “We knew absolutely nothing about Archery; none of us had ever done it before – so what a great opportunity to give it a go – and for our poster to be the evidence of our efforts – for better or for worse”. Applying some reductionist thinking Saint designed a simple archery target within the specified poster format (in C,M,Y,K colours of course just to be smug). Grafik kindly obliged by asking Team Impression to prepare a litho set of posters for us to work with. On Monday we had these delivered to the 20/20 Archery Range in North London and set off for an evening of elementary target practice under the watchful eye of our instructor Gemma. “We certainly stepped up to the challenge, and Gemma noted that we all had good potential and ability, but the real star of the range was Markus Karlsson who walked away with top score on the night”. As a result the used targets (by now all battered an bruised) testify to our initiation into the world of archery. We’ve selected 25 of these to form our poster edition and – method or not – each is unique. Grafik’s Olympik project is exhibited as part of this year’s London Design festival at the German Gymnasium in Kings Cross and the posters are for sale with all profits being donated to children’s sports-related charitys Right to Play and the GB Paralympic fund. For more information please visit www.grafikmagazine.co.uk/ok

24 September, 2009 - Posted in Art Direction & Design | - Tags: Art Direction & Design, Gafik Magazine, Gerard Saint | Permalink

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