Filtering by Category: New Store Goodies,Photography

It's been busy here at IC, to say the least, and we haven't been updating the blog as often as we'd like. To make up for lost time, here are a handful of new albums we've been working on over the past 6 months. Enjoy. woven_cover

WovenWar I've been friends with these guys ever since we toured together in 2010, but never had the chance to work with them on a design level. I couldn't be more pleased with how smoothly everything went. We knew we wanted a cover image that centered around an icon, and the WW mark is something that came to mind instantly after our first conversation. As always, I loved working in simple black and white. Each image is comprised of abstract painted shapes to convey a ink-blot/rorschach vibe. Pre-order the physical package here.

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Tedashii Below Paradise Taking a page from the late, great Storm Thorgerson book of "doing it for real," we ventured out into the high desert of Southern California in early 2014 to create this album cover. Caleb Kuhl did a killer job on the photos, Neil Visel was particularly handy with the forklift, and I put too much lighter fluid on the car and we had to call the fire department. Apparently they saw the smoke from a neighboring county. Oops. Grab the physical album here.

Propaganda Crimson Cord Our pal Prop gave us free reign on his (amazing) new album - we wanted the packaging concept to feel as organic and layered as his music. What may look like paint drips and splatters are (mostly) images of his iconic dreadlocks. Our goal was to blend his soul into the art as much as possible - which was inspired by the album title and album concept. Grab the physical album here.

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Memphis May Fire Unconditional The guys in MMF came to me with this concept, which I thought was great - that of the bond between father and child. Since my dad happened to be coming to town around this time, I thought it would be a great opportunity to photograph his arm for this cover... and I was able to talk one of my brother's children into giving us a "hand" as well. Grab the physical album here.

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The Atlas Moth The Old Believer I’ve always enjoyed creating imagery that is “more than meets the eye.” I also love concepts that allow for some real hands-on interaction. Ideas like this have kept music packaging exciting for me through the years. When The Atlas Moth came to me with a concept that would change the cover image when wet, I thought there was no way we'd get the necessary approval to make it happen. Thanks to the folks at Profound Lore, who, in rare fashion, believe in going the extra mile in the name of artistic endeavor, this amazing idea is something you can now hold (and drench) for yourself. Above are both "before" and "after" versions of the cover. Grab the physical album here.

Lecrae Anomaly One of our favorite clients, Lecrae (and his label - Reach Records), asked us to work on the follow-up to his last album Gravity, which we had the pleasure of working on in 2012. We enlisted the help of our friends at Shinbone Creative to create Crae's likeness in 3D wireframe (spot gloss varnish!) form for the cover. The physical packaging will def. be worth checking out. Pre-order that here.

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Killer Be Killed Working with an entire band of metal visionaries isn't something I get to do every day. Needless to say, I jumped at the chance. The aesthetic that we really bonded over, and seemed fitting for this project, was that of crusty, gritty, photocopied punk. The real fringe - Discharge, Man Is The Bastard, Doom, Crass, etc. It was a blast getting to work in a style that I love, for awesome guys that totally get it. Grab the physical album here.

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Grieves Winter & The Wolves Another album cover that's more than meets the eye. We worked with Grieves to create something really special for 2011's Together/Apart, and we knew we wanted to do something amazing for this record as well. The actual cover (top image here) features a die cut hole right in the center, where a standing Grieves shows through. When the cover is opened, we see that he's surrounded by wolves. Careful out there, buddy. Grab the physical album here.

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Insense De:Evolution I had the pleasure of touring with these guys in Europe during the spring of 2012. We spoke a bit on the road about working together for the artwork on their new record, and I'm stoked that we were able to make it happen. Not to worry - no babies were harmed in the making of this cover. Grab the physical album here.

As we enter into our seventh year here at IC, we've decided to give our iconic mummy mark an upgrade.

The reenvisioning of our logomark is something we have been considering for some time. With a consciousness for particularly small uses (social media icons, products, packaging, clothing tags, etc.) we sought out for a bold, timeless mark that stands strong in every possible scenario. With a handful of new projects/products on the horizon, we decided that now is the time.

The original mark I created in 2006 was inspired by skateboard graphics and other pop art from our coming of age. Although it feels somewhat classic in its own right, the detailed style has proved to be limiting over the years.

Our goal was to create a simpler, more streamlined version of our classic "cyclops mummy," keeping its overall concept (and hopefully its recognizability) in tact, but modernized and with a broader range of usability.

We explored a variety of shapes for the head itself - a perfect circle, a rectangle with rounded corners, etc. In the end, it was imperative that it truly convey a head shape, so we landed on what we refer to as the "egg."

Aside from the logo's core theme, we also knew we'd be sticking with our classic color scheme. It feels as integral to our brand as the mark itself, and allows us to maintain our focus. Another benefit of this new mark is our ability to explore varying combinations of these colors depending on its use. The solid white or yellow wrap will be the primary marks, while the shaded versions - with white highlights on the yellow wrap, and yellow lowlights on the white wrap, give us more detailed options as well.

A minor but important detail was the small piece of wrap peeking around the backside of the mummy head. It's a subtle inclusion, but it truly helps the read. It was necessary that this piece be included, but without jeopardizing the true center of the new mark.

You'll also notice the inclusion of an ® mark. With the recent registration of our brand name and identity, it's time to make it official.

And of course, we celebrate this momentous occasion with some swag. New T-Shirts are available for pre-order (shipping mid-late September) as well as new silk-screened die-cut stickers.

We're excited to reveal our new cover for Minorville, the upcoming album from Nashville's finest: Derek Minor. With the help of Curtis Clark (or 'Dad', as we like to call him), we designed this from the ground up in approx. 2 weeks. With over 100 feet of basswood and baltic birch, Dad took our design and created an entire city in 50 hours. Each structure arrived safely in Seattle, ready to be constructed in the shape of Derek's profile. When we were initially presented with the challenge of creating this album cover, this was the first concept we pitched - Many thanks to Derek and Reach Records for sending us off and running. Stay tuned for a full comprehensive "Making Of" film coming in the next few weeks, but for now - enjoy the teaser (Processed using VSCO film emulation):

To commemorate Demon Hunter's ten years, we've created a silkscreen poster featuring imagery from all six studio albums. This is a limited pressing of 100, signed by Ryan Clark (me), and is available in the store now. Order by December 20th for holiday arrival! (orders for this poster do NOT include IC Holiday Giveaway print)

As we celebrate IC's 6 year anniversary, we are thankful for 2012 (our bestest year yet!) and the amazing projects we've had the pleasure of working on. So we thought we'd spread the joy a little by creating "The Lookout", a sequel (of sorts) to 2010's Snowballer print. With every purchase over $25, we'll be sending out a signed 11" x 14" giclee print until December 20th, which also happens to be our last day of shipping before Christmas.

Special note - International orders: Due to shipping costs, we are only able to send "The Lookout" with poster and print orders. Offer doesn't apply to T-shirt or toy orders. Sorry!

We'll have the set of 2 available to purchase after the holidays. Go in peace!

Our friend, photographer John Keatley recently commissioned us to create a poster for his upcoming (and aptly titled) Un-Workshop. John is known for thinking outside the box with his high-concept and innovative portraits - so we thought it'd be fun to envision just what is going on inside his head on any given day. Unfortunately you'll need to wait until Feb. 2nd and 3rd to actually find out (sign up here!), but in the meantime we can all just imagine it looks a little something like this. Limited edition, signed and numbered 5 color silk-screened posters printed on French Muscletone available at the workshop. Go!

Back To School? Naw, forget that. It's an endless summer. Soft inks printed on American Apparel Tri-Blend T's. Ships on or before September 18th. Grab them all here.

Spirit Of '77 printed on Tri-Indigo Blue.

Mummy Jr. printed on Tri-Black.

Leroy's Boy printed on Athletic Gray.

Respect printed on Tri-Black.

Mummy Classic printed on Tri-Coffee.

Live To Draw printed on Tri-Black.

Mummy Jr. (Kids Sizes!) printed on Tri-Black.

Scratch & dent. Overstock. Printing errors. Old posters. We got 'em and we need to get rid of 'em. For the remainder of the summer (or until we run out of stock) we'll be stuffing tubes full of posters and prints for a measly $10. Unfortunately we can't list which posters and prints we'll be including in the sale as we just have so many to choose from. Most have slight blemishes or some sort of minor printing error, while others have just been sitting on the shelves for awhile.

The risk? You may just hate every band listed on the posters your receive. The payoff? Your walls aren't that picky. Act now!

So it's kind of a long story, but when my buddy Vijay, who owns and operates Artist Series Guitar, mentioned that his good friend, Ryan Hurst, would be doing a photo shoot for his custom Demon Hunter and Throwdown guitars, I had to make sure I was there. For years now, people have said I look like Opie, a character that Hurst plays in the always-enthralling Sons Of Anarchy TV show. All of us in Demon Hunter have become huge fans of the show over the years, so this was a really cool opportunity. Oh, and my wife made the dope leather vest Hurst is wearing in the shoot. Checking off that bucket list, one day at a time.