A Positive Life — Synaesthetic

November 2021

Artwork for the vinyl reissue of an early 90s ambient techno/dub/trance classic on re:discovery records.

This was a job I got after Stefan (A Positive Life) reached out on social media for a designer and I was recommended. He was open to ideas but wanted something with a minimalist aesthetic that also had a connection to the original artwork. In the moodboard he supplied, which featured lots of spherical geometric elements and sci-fi graphics, images of an astrolabe and a United Federation of Planets graphic from Star Trek inspired the reissue's cover.

 

Front cover
Back cover

My concept involved creating a circular graphic made of green overlapping and interconnected circles with each of the eight tracks in purple. The placement of every element was considered so that I could split the graphic up over the four centre labels. Only the purple circles and those connected to them are on each label. Plus signs had also been used on the original artwork so I worked a subtle one into the graphic.

The purple key lines from the original cover were repositioned to wraparound onto the back, going from thick to thin – reminiscent of a circuit board. The Rota font family helped to complete the updated look and feel.

cover and vinyl
A subtle plus sign is hidden in the graphic
spine close-up
Track positions between the lines is a nod to how the track times on the original cover are shown
Track listing
The lines under the titles represent track length
credits
The lines wraparound from the cover with individual track production credits in between
The old and the new
The artist wanted the new artwork to have a connection to the original 1994 release (design by Mark Bunegar/zerodesign)
Side A label
Side B label
Side C label
Side D label
Labels animation
The cover graphic is split over the four labels — eight tracks/eight circles

As with other re:discovery releases, an insert was included (layout by Lou Karsh) featuring extra information from the label and artist.

Insert layout by Lou Karsh

Other designs I have done for re:discovery records include Neural Network — Excerpts EPs trilogy and Off The Sky — Gently Down The Stream.