Part one of Collective’s look at sleeve designers.

Julian House, Intro
(Primal Scream, Stereolab, Broadcast)
Julian House works out of London-based design house Intro. He was enlisted after impressing them with a portfolio of college work and freelance designs for the group Broadcast. Working mainly on “music industry projects and art gallery identities”, his sleeves for Primal Scream, Stereolab and Broadcast fuse retro images with rough computer edits. He is also co-editor and designer of the "Sampler" series of books on contemporary music graphics, and acts as Art Director on a number of video promos for Doves and Radiohead. He is a keen record collector and DJ.

ehquestionmark
(Tes, Lex, Boom Bip)
ehquestionmark is a UK-based artist collective united by a “DIY ethos” and a “passion for letter funk”. Well known for providing jaw-dropping sleeves for Warp's hip-hop imprint Lex records, they blame “audio love” and a “respect for music packaging as an art form” for inspiring their career choice. “The actual music has to be worthy of the time and effort gone into its façade, or else it's just a faecal polishing job. Financial circumstances often sway this. There are only a few talented musicians - they either have their mates working on the packaging or take it upon their, often deluded, selves to do it. The coupling of a decent piece of music with a polished sleeve makes a well crafted product, something to be treasured.”

Non-Format
(Red Snapper, Asa-Chang and Junray, Connectors)
Kjell Ekhorn and Jon Forss began their professional partnership as Non-Format after social discussions revealed a “similar agenda”. Both hailing from formal design backgrounds, they initiated stunning graphics for Lo Recordings and the Leaf label by focusing on a very pure aesthetic. They confess to “sporadically hitting” their creative prime and note that “what is increasingly apparent is that you have to work with people who are sympathetic to your designs – we are not very good at doing things to order”. Non-Format were also responsible for the overhaul of austere and informative music magazine, The Wire, in April 2001.

James Rutledge 09 May 03