I know, I know… I have not written on here in some time. Not for lack of content, but mostly just because I’ve been really, REALLY busy. I still love you, blog & blog readers. I do kinda hate this particular blog format. But I digress…
Anyway, here’s a quick post about my now-deceased band, The Felix Culpa’s posthumous vinyl reissue of our first full length album, Commitment through Hundo.
The original album cover that I designed way back in 2004 was actually one of my first album projects ever, done when I was just considering diving into the freelance music design waters. I thought it would only be fitting/interesting to see what it would look like if I re-imagined it now, after nearly a decade worth of practice and 100′s of projects under my belt. Also, I just really wanted an excuse to do one more big Culpa related piece as a farewell gift… a bit of closure perhaps… for the other guys in the band, our friends & fans and for myself a little bit too. It’s design-therapy, a new field I’m pioneering.
So here’s a before and after of the old 2004 Commitment cover followed by the new 2012 one. I was intending the redesign to be a surprise for the people that ordered the album. They’d receive it and open it to find the artwork completely redone, and all go “whoaaa…”, but unfortunately the process of finding the original audio masters and having the vinyl lacquers cut and approved has just taken wayyyy too long so I figured I’d post something to tide everyone over.
2004
(click to enlarge)
2012
(click to enlarge)
I wanted to re-do the cover using the exact same methods that I did for the initial cover to keep the spirit of it as similar as possible and to just have it be more of an “upgrade”. I also wanted to go with a darker color scheme because as sappy as it sounds, where the initial artwork represented the birth of this band, this release really represents it’s death. It seemed fitting. The detail in this piece is what I’m most proud of. I knew it was going to be a 12″ x 12″ LP cover, which gave me a lot of room to play with small things. All of the text is handwritten, and there are a bunch of easter eggs hidden throughout. Here’s a look at the full jacket wrap, front & back. I’m not going to spill the beans on the rest of the artwork and packaging just yet, but rest assured, Culpa fans, it will visually be the coolest thing we’ve ever put out.
Click to check out the front/back detail.
Thanks to everyone who bought our music, came to a show, gave us a floor to crash on, sang along, shared a stage with us, or even just had a fleeting interest in our music. It was some of the best times of my life and I’ll always wish I could have given more back to you guys. Hope you enjoy these records when you get them. I know I’ll keep my copy forever.
-Marky