Artist: Icarus
Title: Carnivalesque
Label: Not Applicable
Year: 2005
Designer: Ollie Brown, Sam Britton
Carnivalesque’s CD packaging is a great example of anti-design.
They used discarded albums of other artists then scribbled and erased info on each page with a black marker pen. Its presentation is meant to intrigue and confuse.
It makes us think about (and possibly question) the concept of CD packaging, aesthetics, media and commerce. Brilliant? Check it out and tell me what you think.
This one right here is originally CD packaging of Survival-Music of Nature, released 1997. Take a look at how they ‘murdered’ it.
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Their label suggests that the packaging is about the deterioration of the absolutism of ‘shifting units’ in the 21st century music trade; transitions of associated identity throughout the lifetime of musical articles; the musical work as carnivore or cannibal; and, simply, the recycling of negligent waste.
Here are the other CDs:
You can either love it or hate it but certainly it is something you cannot ignore.
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James Hill is a veteran of the music industry. He first worked at Warner Reprise Records then later joined Interscope/ Geffen Records where he managed producers and songwriters and got his first platinum record for Keyshia Cole’s The Way It Is. He is now helping indie artists with branding and manufacturing through his company Unified Manufacturing, a CD/DVD, custom vinyl records and merch company in LA.
