Plaid – Stem Sell

I starting off by thinking about how a remix could be interpreted as rearranging a track's genetic code and explored giving each remix it's own DNA barcode. This idea suited the remix album concept and gave me good scope to create something visually interesting.

In a very unscientific way I created 28 DNA barcodes (shown in the banner above), making the height of each relative to track length. I gave the image some depth and fuzziness, similar to a photo being developed. This ended up as the background on the CD case – another version, featuring just the barcodes of the vinyl tracks, appears on the picture disc. Wanting to create something slightly unique for the vinyl, I redrew the Plaid logo in the DNA style for the A side. The CD album comes in a DVD size matt finish digipak case with spot gloss DNA barcodes on the front and back. For the digital format I created 28 individual covers featuring each track's DNA barcode.

The A side of the picture disc features the circular Plaid logo drawn using DNA barcodes

The Plaid logo again on the B side, the same size as a centre label

The double CD comes in a DVD size digipak case

On the back the dashes in the track listing form the spiral shape of a DNA double helix

Matt varnish with spot UV gloss DNA barcodes on the front and back

Close-up of the DNA sequence styling of the Plaid logo on the picture disc

The double helix shape in the dashes on the vinyl track listing

The CD on body design features the barcodes of the tracks on each disc on white, echoing the vinyl A side but here they are clean and crisp to represent the digital medium

Track duration is shown in the graphic behind the CDs

Individual track art for the digital release highlights each track's DNA barcode

Hand screen printed t-shirts and hoodies featuring the DNA Plaid logo

The picture disc and CD formats sold out almost instantly but digital is still available (with individual track art). This release has raised over £10,000 for Macmillan Cancer Support.