I wanted to write some stuff about the artwork on the
cover of the new record, because a lot of people have
said stuff like 'nice drawing' or asked 'what's an
intaglio print anyway?'
To clear things up a bit, I'd like to introduce y'all
to Mr Brett Bolander, our wonderful designer
friend (see pic 1.) For those of you that don't know,
BB worked on the first record - notably designing the
original Minibar logo, as well as a bunch of layout
stuff - and has gone on to work with us on each
subsequent release (the EP and Radar) as well as our
merch. He and his wife Heather now have their own
design company Paver - I seriously recommend checking
out their site! (paver.us)
So, on the 'Radar' project we wanted to try something
new. We both have an strong interest/background in
traditional printmaking - a very archaic thread of
fine art that includes lino and wood cuts, screen
printing, lithography, dry point and etching. Each of
these kinds of printmaking have very specific flavors
and can acheive very unique, organic visual effects.
With so much graphic design created entirely on
computers from start to finish, we've got pretty used
to seeing 'perfection' in album artwork; we wanted to
use printmaking both to showcase a lesser known
artform and make a cover that had a real handmade
character.
The form we settled on was etching (as in 'come
upstairs and see my...'), something we both had plenty
of experience in (me at school, Brett at college.)
Here's the process in a nutshell: take a metal plate
(in our case, zinc.) A 'ground' is applied to the
surface - a sort of varnish. The planes and faces were
then engraved by me with a 'needle' (a scraping tool)
which cuts through the ground and makes a fine line on
the plate below.
Next is the etching process itself; you submerge the
plate in an acid bath which 'bites' into the lines
made by the needle and makes them deeper. The ground
is resistant to the acid, allowing for a flat, clean
surface everywhere else on the plate. After you're
satisfied with the depth of your line, the ground is
washed off.
Now you apply the ink; Brett rubs it into the whole
plate, then strategically wipes it clean. There are
options here - how much ink you leave on the flat
plate surface and how much in the line itself. (i.e.
the engraved faces and planes.) On the cover version,
the lines are slightly over-wiped, giving them a
softer, ghostlier quality (look closely at the faces
to see what I mean.)
For the background color we used ink rollers (see
pic.) We were intentionally going for any
imperfections/character that we could create - in our
case, the rollers themselves were old with flawed
rubber surfaces - perfect! (take another look at the
yellow background color on the album cover to see what
I mean.)
For the print itself we laid slightly damp handmade
paper over the print then ran it through the press
(imagine an old fashioned mangle.) The plate is
stamped into the paper at pressure and the ink/image
tranferred. Nothing quite compares to the 'moment of
truth' as you peel your final print away from the
plate! (see pic 3)
Each print requires an enormous amount of labour
(mainly preparing and cleaning of ink) - despite this
we managed a good six or seven variations of color and
tone. Hope you liked the one we picked!
