Record Sleeve Design – Inner Dynamics

Art direction, artworks, packaging and graphic design: Alexandra Alexandridou
Project Type: Produced
Client: United We Fly
Printer: En Typo Erga
Project photos: Mariza Kapsabeli
Location: Athens, Greece
Packaging Contents: Vinyl Records
Packaging Substrate / Materials: Paper
Printing Process: Offset, Emboss

Record sleeve design for ‘Inner Dynamics’ by Theodore. Edition limited to 100 copies.

‘Inner Dynamics’ is a conceptual music album exploring the two sides of one’s personality, the conscious and subconscious one, with strong references to the artist’s personal experiences and thoughts.

When we think of conscious, we tend to imagine something well organised, constructed and easily conceivable. On the other hand, subconscious brings to mind blurry, disoriented and confusing images. Some processes of understanding these two brain functions require from one to gain better knowledge of primary schemes and meanings.

Starting with these general points, I thought of creating a blueprint of the human brain, with two views of it designed, the top and the side one. The top view is fully symmetrical with sharp edges and clear linear paths. The side view, though, is more relaxed and movement goes on all directions, following circular paths.

The packaging consists of 4 parts; a hand-made thick box, a hand-bound booklet and two heavyweight 12’’ LPs. The aesthetics had to remind of old hand-written geometry notebooks, kept safe inside strong and valuable cases. The illustrations are pretty detailed, so the colours were limited to dark blue and white. The typography is inspired by old books and the text layout follows the same scheme, while ornamenting patterns are included in the pages. Some original artist’s notes were added over the songs’ lyrics, in order to amplify the personal aspect of the album story.

Another value point, as presented by the album story, are the connections of these two personality sides. To render that through the packaging design, a puzzle game was added, found on the back sides of the booklet pages. The puzzle can be completed only if the binding screws are removed and the pages are separated.

What’s Unique?
All parts of the packaging and the artwork reflect a part of the storytelling of the album, and the usage of the product goes beyond the standard, having the user/fan having an actual role in the unboxing.