Logan Walters is an American designer/illustrator, and like most right-thinking people, he loves Wu-Tang and Blue Note Records. But being one of those finickity visual/aesthetic types, he has some issues with Wu-Tang sleeve design. Explains Logan:
A little while ago I put a bunch of Wu-Tang (both group and solo) albums on my computer. 21 of them, in fact. I inherited some mild OCD from my mom, and as anyone who has seen my iTunes can attest to, it manifests itself in weird ways. I need to have decent-quality album art for every album on my computer, which currently equals over 90 gigs. The problem was that almost all of the Wu-Tang album art was horrible (ODB's two albums being the only real exceptions) -- no offense to the original designers, but as iconic as they might be they're looking pretty dated these days.
So what does an enterprising and mildly OCD designer/illustrator do about such a thorny problem? Why, he remakes the covers in question in the style of Blue Note covers, of course!
Not sure i agree entirely with Logan's contention about the original covers looking dated and horrible – the likes of ...36 Chambers still resonate with the weird, outlandish sense of danger you got on first viewing, ...Cuban Linx is an iconic classic, and even the later likes of GZA's Beneath the Surface have their own quiet charm.
But there's no denying the class that those old Reid Miles covers drip with, nor the ace hat-tips Walters deploys in the likes of his Return to the 36 Chambers sleeve (above, and fantastic whether you rate the original cover or not). Some of the more uninspiring Wu covers such as Forever (above) are improvements, and it doesn't seem like it'll be hard for Logan to improve on the frankly pretty rubbish likes of Tical 2000: Judgement Day (incidentally the next one on his hitlist, him being up to Cappa's The Pillage as i write).
Also, for some odd reason the redesign of Ghost's Ironman puts me in mind more than anything of Drowningman's Still Loves You (and therefore the Hydra Head aesthetic) than anything else, but then again, maybe Aaron Turner's a Blue Note fan too.
But there's no denying the class that those old Reid Miles covers drip with, nor the ace hat-tips Walters deploys in the likes of his Return to the 36 Chambers sleeve (above, and fantastic whether you rate the original cover or not). Some of the more uninspiring Wu covers such as Forever (above) are improvements, and it doesn't seem like it'll be hard for Logan to improve on the frankly pretty rubbish likes of Tical 2000: Judgement Day (incidentally the next one on his hitlist, him being up to Cappa's The Pillage as i write).
Also, for some odd reason the redesign of Ghost's Ironman puts me in mind more than anything of Drowningman's Still Loves You (and therefore the Hydra Head aesthetic) than anything else, but then again, maybe Aaron Turner's a Blue Note fan too.
— Keep up with Logan's ongoing Wu-quest at his Flickr page.
1 comment:
These are quality! I love blue note cover copies in general!
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