‘BREAKING RECORDS’
       ALBUM ARTWORK

2022 / RMIT UNIVERSITY / BRUNSWICK

This brief called for a redesign of album artwork within the stylistic codes of various genres. In particular it called for research into typographical detail as a primary vehicle of said codes.

The first of these designs involved an artwork rebrand within the album’s original genre, and a reflection upon the reproductions of visual stereotype in this genre. My chosen album was COUCOU Chloe’s Naughty Dog, which takes place in the electronic subgenre of Deconstructed Club. This genre represents a deliberate rejection of traditional EDM formats, in favour of severe electronic beats and unstable tempos. Deconstructed Club music is situated largely within the avant-garde queer scene, emerging out of New York and London’s queer underground, and is often expressed aesthetically through industrial mutations of the queer self. COUCOU Chloe’s musical style more specifically demonstrates a fusion of R&B and Industrial music, with a signature deadpan sensibility and dissociative priority.

The second design involved a rebrand of the same album within the visual codes of a prescribed alternate genre, reflecting upon the potential of graphic imagery to shift impression. My prescribed genre was Hyperpop–a newly emergent subgenre of pop music, characterised by highly synthetic and maximalist instrumental arrangements. The subgenre is specifically driven by online queer youth and characterised by a saccharine commercial rhetoric, one that toys with embodiments of the artifice. This is frequently communicated through euro-pop, glossy visuals.