Nuts + Berries EP cover unveiled!

Here it is: the cover of the Nuts + Berries debut EP, due in January:

Sara Dillon did great work designing the cover after some freewheeling discussions about what it should look like. I think music has reached the point where it’s sold as a confection, like a Happy Meal. And if you’ve been to the iTunes store lately, you know songs are selling for less than kids’ meals.

In keeping with this cheap and shameless commercialism, I wanted something sleek and striking on the cover — a sort of Nuts + Berries corporate logo. The Puma emblem was an inspiration. I think Sara nailed it, and she added an extra element with the leaves in the bottom right corner. (We have a back cover drawn up but it’s unclear if back covers will survive 2009, or if the EP will ever appear on CD or any other physical format.)

With each new Nuts + Berries release, we’ll rebrand the band and create a new logo for the cover. Sara and I are already kicking around ideas for the forthcoming LP.

Other inspirations for the cover concept: the Smiths’ distinctive but endlessly flexible cover stars, Peter Saville’s minimalist cover art for Joy Division and other bands, and various European soccer team emblems.

Kanye and New Order

The new Kanye West album “808s and Heartbreak” has a conspicuously colorful border running down the side of the cover:

I think it’s a tribute to New Order, a band that did lots of pioneering work with drum machines like the 808. A lot of the music on 808s and Heartbreak updates the big, booming electro sound from the early 80s. Here’s the cover of their classic 12″ single “Blue Monday”:

Blue Monday

Famously, the sleeve for Blue Monday cost so much to produce that New Order lost money every time they sold a copy — and it was the best-selling 12″ of all time. The cover art was designed by the great Peter Saville, and I think Kanye’s album has a little of the minimalist look Saville is famous for. There are lots of variations on this story, but Wikipedia tells it well enough here.

Shameless self-promotion: The Nuts + Berries EP design by Sara Dillon looks a little like a nod to Saville’s art for the New Order single True Faith, though it was unintentional.