Hard Format features Birch Book release

The lovely Damien at Les Disques du 7éme Ciel just forwarded me a link to the Hard Format website where the Birch Book release has been showcased. Hard Format is beautiful site dedicated to highlighting the best in music design. I have been a fan of the site for a while now and regularly check out its pages, so it is a great honour to have a piece of my work featured there alongside great sleeves by the likes of Ian Anderson, Barney Bubbles, Non Format and Mark Farrow.
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Birch Book: The fox and the tree

Last week I got my hands on a copy of the latest release from Paris based label Les Disques du 7eme Ciel and took a few photographs of the EP.
The release is a 6 track 10" vinyl by Birch Book and is housed in a recycled board gatefold sleeve complete with a version of the EP on CD, a woven patch and two art prints. As always I was given free reign on how the release should look, the only limitations being that it would be one colour printed on a recycled board and that the artist liked it!
I had been trying out a new illustration style for a while and felt that this release was a perfect partner for that style. The illustration style draws on Irish Celtic illustrations as well as Inuit folk art with a touch of psychedelia.

A sketchbook doodle of a bird with something of a fish about him

From the same sketchbook a detail from a drawing of a hare

…and from a few pages later my first go at drawing the fox

I loved the idea of one thing existing with in the space of another, this was partially triggered by the groups name Birch Book. I felt a link between the two words, a tree and an object of paper; the same thing manifesting in two different states. I loved the idea that a tree growing in a forest could already contain the essence of a book and one day metamorphose into that form when the conditions were right.
With this bubbling around in the back of my mind I started to doing the fox drawing. 

I wanted a sense of balance between the animal and vegetable and to include something of the tree within the fox and vice versa. This lead me to here…

and to here.

back cover of 10" vinyl

Front cover of CD version

Back cover of CD version

Side B vinyl label

Fox print detail

Tree ring print detail

Anyway if you want to listen to the tracks or pick up a copy then just pop over to the label's website.

Birch Book sleeve pics

Damien up in 7eme Ciel Towers has just emailed me some photos of the Birch Book sleeve fresh from the printers press. Not one for direct sunlight he braved the almost summer conditions to take these pics and that makes them even more special.

Birch Book printed

Just got some snaps of the new Birch Book sleeve from the printers, not the best quality images but it's looking good.

Birch Book

Back in 2009 Paris based label 7eme Ciel set out its stall with it's first release for cult English group And Also The Trees. The aim of the label was to work along side the musicians to create a series of special releases. As a music fan myself I can't tell you how many times I have been let down by poor quality sleeves, badly pressed vinyl and graphic ideas that went no further than a photo of the artist(s) with their name written in whatever was the font of the day, so as a graphic designer I was thrilled to be involved.

The labels first release sold out in a matter of months after it went on sale and now I have just finished designing the next release which features an Oregeon based muscian called B'ee recording under the name of Birch Book. Like the previous release it will be on 10" heavy vinyl, housed in a gate-fold sleeve and accompanied by an embroidered patch, two ltd edition prints and a version of the release on CD. Here are a few snaps of how it is looking, I'll post more when the final version is in hand and talk about the ideas behind the illustrations.

Gate-fold interior mock-up, 1 colour print on greyboard

Fox illustration in full for the ltd. edition print

Tree ring illustration for the CD on body and the ltd. edition print

Embroidered patch

Embroidered patch, detail

This is how the last release for 7eme Ciel looked you can see more shots over on their website