I designed and created the packaging for BLÆRG’s “Auspices & Vagaries”. BLÆRG is a solo electronic project by Scott Wehman.
When listening to Scott’s recordings, I picked up a very retro-futuristic vibe in the jazzy orchestrations. It reminded me a bit of the space station sequence in “2001: A Space Oddessy“, so that inspired the color pallet I went with.
I opted to go with an extremely basic color scheme: pure white, black and red. Instead of diving straight into a sci-fi design, I steered the idea into something more whimsical and broke the starkness of the color pallet with a clear shot of a fortune cookie.
We discussed doing a unique, hand styled bit of packaging. I found CD cases with translucent red hard plastic and used that for the tray. I then peppered the tray artwork with fortune cookie quotes that were printed in red, so the text was mostly (though not entirely) obscured.
The CD was limited to 50 copies, which I painstakingly crafted using a printer and my hands. The design was laid out in Photoshop.
The music was printed on a 3″ CD-R.
Ever watch a 60’s movie set in the future? The kind where the sets are stark white with oddly shaped chairs in bright colors that don’t look the least bit comfortable, where the cars fly but are roughly the size of pontoons, where people get their meals by speaking into little boxes and out pops a plate with a small, unnaturally colored cube on it? Yes, it all looks futuristic and ultra-modern but it still, without a doubt, is stamped with the impression of an era long past and it’s still really cool.
BLÆRG’s latest release, a 3″ CD by the name of “Auspices and Vagaries” is the perfect score to a meal of Soylent Orange or for a drink at the milk bar. It stirs together bits of futuristic rhythms, strains of jazzy flavor and a splash of retro flair into a wonderful little breakcore appetizer that leaves the palate whetted and the appetite craving more.
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