Kisschasy: United Paper People
Normally we wouldn’t post two album covers for the same band so close together but it just so happens I was sent supporting artwork for both covers at the same time and they are both uniquely different. They are both Aussie two which means that many of you might not have seen these covers.
This is actually Kisschasy’s first album so we’re posting these in reverse chronological order.
I was lucky enough to catch the designers David & Aaron talk at Semi Permanent Sydney and they took everyone through a few of their favourite projects. Kisschasy’s United Paper People was one of them.
The detail in the cover is amazing. David spoke about how the artwork was actually a water colour painting and then treated to look like an oil painting. It’s an amazing looking piece. Here’s a 100% crop to show the amount of work that went into it.
Below is a series of slides they showed documenting their process. I’ve tried to leave these as big as possible.
This was the initial sketch book they had after the first meeting. They noted that they went down the literal sense initially “paper cut-outs of people” but moved away from that quickly. They didn’t have an explanation of how they stumbled into the idea of the hot air balloon but once they did they stuck to it.
It’s interesting to see the process and how the artwork evolved.
Debaser also mentioned that when the initial designs were presented to the label there was talk about trying to make the band’s name larger and easier to read (ie ruining the atheistic) luckily the designers won that battle although when in the shops a large sticker was placed in the top left with the bands name and album details.
Here’s the actual CD slip and disc label.
The album cover was just one of many artworks created for the album. The amount of work produced for this is quite overwhelming. Below are the pages of the booklet. Each one more work than some covers receive in isolation.
How’s your scrolling finger? Tired…. I’m getting woozy just uploading this much artwork and we’re only half way. Let’s press with the singles artwork.
Now if it was me I would have just kept a few of these beauties and used them for singles. But Debaser went ahead and produced 6 more artworks for the three singles off the album. Here’s the single cover and the insid spread.
Debaser explained that this cover for “The Shake” is for the most laid back song on the album yet the cover depicts a violent tornado.
Those of you who think this looks familiar might be aware that a US based band Circa Survive’s 2007 album “On Letting Go” seems to have been “inspired” by United Paper People with a little dash of the Hymns album.
I’ll let you all be the judge if this is a rip but keep this in mind.
The artist Esao Andrews actually has some very creative work in his portfolio and the old version of his site from 2003-2005 features a hot air balloon as it’s loader. Check the site BTW as it’s quite nice. The girl flipping her dress is charming.
He’s also done a T-shirt for “TV on the Radio” (from the same band naming class as “Panic at the Disco”) which features a balloon. Although this would have been done post 2005.
The band could have simply made ill-informed artwork decision? Although the type treatment and ornate frame though don’t help their case much.
Here’s the other painting from the series by Esao Andrews titled “Other Half of Letting Go”
That said, it might be safe to say that Kisschasy and Circa Survive are the same band? Check these two photos and tell me which is which. Hint: Circa has 5 members :)
Sorry to end on such a negative note. I hope this post has given everyone a better insight into the album and also the process involved in creating an albums artistic direction. I don’t even want to speculate the amount of hours involved in the entire process or who much was done for the “pitch stage” before any money changed hands.
