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Blog - Bringing Back The Joy & all things Gutter

Marie Kondo coined the phrase, "sparks joy" with her decluttering method 'KonMari'. Along with half my house I went on a journey going through each item asking it if it brought me joy...hence a headache and many dump runs later, output was quite a revelation to my tendency to hoard. Transfer this concept to my business, I decided to rebrand! I wanted to expand to offer more than PA services, to include the more creative side and wound up delivering an album cover to boot! Read more about the experience here..

Claire Stewart

2 min read

TALK OF MANY THINGS - CASE STUDY

At a recent gathering of friends, we did one of those quizes where it tells you what type of animal your personality is. Hilariously I came out as a Clownfish. My Motto was, "I've got an idea". Far too close to home. With enough ideas to create a new world order, and domain names to cause a divorce, I found identity in that 'for a bit of fun' quiz.

It reminded me of why I love to create. Life is always full of new possibilities and new things to try. So when my brother-in-law, Mark asked if I could design their bands new album cover, I was honoured.

Where to start? Listening to the album again for inspiration (I had previously known all the songs back to front as my husband is a music producer and also produced the album) I was reminded of the history of this band. From the mid 70's they were up and coming rock/punk band from their home town in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. With their own language and a number one knocking Michael Jackson (One Day in Your Life) off the charts, gravitas should have been their middle name.

This album however would be a special kind of album, meant as a tribute to their team player 'Punkbjort' who tragically died the year before. I wanted to play with the concept of The Beatles' album cover Sgt. Pepper, combining all the years, tears and the crazy, that this off the wall, punk band had brought to many a fan both past and present. The finished article seemed to do the trick.

Mark wrote "We (Gutter, the band) worked with Claire Stewart on the artwork for our third album Talk of Many Things, and the result was exceptional. Claire has a strong visual instinct and understood the background and context of the album providing a collage of striking imagery, capturing the identity of the project perfectly.

Throughout the process, she was professional, responsive, and open to collaboration, delivering several options for us to choose from that helped us to focus in on what was important and not only met the brief but significantly enhanced the overall presentation of the release. The final artwork plays a key role in how the album connects with its audience and we have received many plaudits for the cover and its emotional connection with our fans past and present.

I’d confidently recommend Claire to any artist or label looking for distinctive, high-quality visual work".

Wowzas. Praise indeed. Thank you for trusting me with such a prized possession in your band's armoury.

Till next time,

Claire