CHALLENGE:

As music lovers, we were delighted to create record sleeve designs for one of Blue Note’s up-and-coming artists. But, up against tight timescales and tighter budgets, how could we do justice to this rising star and her prestigious label?

Sabrina Starke was already a platinum-selling neo-soul artist by the time EMI Netherlands / Blue Note asked us to design the packaging for her second album. They hoped that, by perfecting the physical elements of the release – all the more important in the days before everyone had Spotify – we could help take her career to the next level. The thing was, deadlines and budgets were extremely tight. And the brief, as is typical in the music industry, was much looser than ‘normal’ commercial briefs. These things could easily have led us to strike the wrong note.

But that’s where our hard-earned experience was so important. Having first worked on record sleeves in the 90s, we knew that we needed to create something that would not only suit the music but stand out from other LPs on the racks. Working with one of our trusted designers, based in Milan, we created a look and feel that was feminine without being soft, classic without being conventional. Something where the visuals worked in harmony with the tracks themselves. This album ultimately saw its soulful songbird soar to even greater heights.