Everywhere At The End Of Time
Album Cover by Liam Kearton.
Rosie Hoad
Liam Kearton
The Album
‘Everywhere at the end of time’, which is an album created by the Caretaker, focuses heavily on the human experience of dementia. It is with this concept in mind, that UON student, Liam Kearton has created the distorted and warped album cover that will never fail to capture the unimaginable and uncontrollable nature of this brain disfunction.
The inspiration
Inspirations included "Boys Don't Cry”, a magazine created by frank ocean. Keaton utilised this by using a similar style of font stretching through scan warping.
Keaton also explains that the six different covers were made specifically for the six different stages of the album. He did this as he liked the way it evokes a sense of familiarity, but you can't quite put your finger on why, as this is about the decent into dementia.
The Concept
Kearton tried to replicate what the original artist created; with each cover holding a sense of similarity to the type but the audience still are unable to read it properly. Artist, Liam, wanted the audience to recognise that this is meant to say something but are unable to interpret or decipher what it reads; doing so reinforces the topic of the album, that being dementia.
In addition to adopting the original artists concept and process, Kearton also opted to reusing the final cover of the album that is just an ominous piece of cardboard with tape on it on a blank background.
Typographic Treatment and Overall Execution
Kearton has demonstrated the exploration of kinetic typography through his album cover design. He has utilised this concept by scanning type through a scanner and “smearing” it as it is run through, generating a warped effect. Kearton explains, “This method alludes to an illicit sense of familiarity when looking at the type”.
By this he continues to explain this design was intended to be recognised as an album cover and title, however he wanted the text to still be very undecipherable. This is a metaphorical representation of the underlying theme of the album – the experience of dementia.
“My design was entirely made on photoshop, using displacement maps to emulate the process of scanning the type through a scanner and warping it”
The specific font used in this artwork is 'Playfair Display, Black', which is then very much distorted and difficult to comprehend, however the simpleness of the font makes it, so it is possible to guess or assume what the title of the cover is, without 100% assurance.
Beneath the type, Kearton placed an original oil painting by Ivan Seal, and adjusted the greyscale, and continued to use this method throughout his designs and mock-ups, with only touches of colour coming through where the scan is involved.
The typographic treatment is eye grabbing, difficult to read and metaphorically very interesting due to the intense distortion and ineligible writing. If you’re an existing fan or a new listener, I think the album artwork has the desired effect and is enticing to an audience and is a great example of how kinetic typography can create an exciting foundation to any design.
Branding / Design
The design is coherent in that the artist has maintained the same font throughout each element of the branding. The distorted nature is carried out through all of the different platforms; however, the record design is slightly more distorted and even more undecipherable. The branding is kept black and white, which is practical in that the design is already very disruptive.
