Soulful Culture

Soulful Culture is a series of compilation albums curated and mixed by Zepherin Saint of Tribe Records. Having worked with them in the past, I was approached again to design a cover layout that was flexible enough to work across multiple volumes, while also standing out from the other releases on the label. Animation was also required to breath life into the design, sync to the music, and help the cover stand out during promotion.

Goals

Create a cover design that would carry across multiple releases.
Incorporate simple animation to help it stand out during promotion.

Challenges

Building the design as individual elements to help with animation.
Finding a layout that is flexible but also different to other releases on the label.

Solutions

The colour overlay was a great, simple solution for giving each volume it’s own identity.

Cover Design for a compilation series

Client

Tribe Records

Scope

Cover Art

Promotional Banners

Animation

Cool Points

This was my second project with Tribe Records, continuing our work from the Afro House Classics Project.

Volume 1

The design for the introductory volume was going to set the tone for the rest of the series – meaning we had to nail it! Taking inspiration from previous compilations on the label, we explored some colour and font choices before landing on the final design. The focus was on the photography of the dancers with a single colour overlay differentiating each volume. A pulsing, animated variation was also created which synced to the bpm of the tracks.

Volume 2

Continuing the visual themes outlined in Volume 1, we used a new dancer image and a different colour scheme to help give this second volume it’s own identity.

Soulful Culture Playlist

Zepherin Saint curated a playlist in the same spirit as the Soulful Culture compilations. This being the case, we created a playlist cover design that nodded to the rest of the covers in the series.