Retrieval and Transposition - Side 1, Track 1

I guess I was thinking about this scene from High Fidelity when I decided on what to title the first print in this series (and subsequently this first blog post on this site). It may seem like low-hanging fruit or an “obvious” choice… but to me it was perfect to describe the start of something new and to signify the beginning of a body of work that I planned to produce over the coming year.

If it’s not obvious already, this “art project,” or whatever you want to call it, is heavily indebted to my love of music and my desire to constantly make playlists of songs that I am listening to at a given time. And it’s really just the natural evolution of my fun little habit of designing “covers” for said playlists. Couple that with a dormant screen-printing hobby that I wanted to reignite after recently moving all of my gear and supplies back into my home, and you have the essential ingredients for this hair-brained idea.

I decided upon the name “retrieval and transposition” for this project after reading this quote from English designer Peter Saville, who is best known for his work with Factory Records (especially this album cover):

In 78, I thought I knew everything that was happening graphically in the world,” he tells me. “I felt I was pioneering retrieval and transposition—I wasn’t, really. I didn’t know who April Greiman or Wolfgang Weingart were, but they were already exploring these things. But I was doing it in pop culture. I was working more like a fashion designer than a graphic designer. And Factory afforded me the unprecedented autonomy of free design.

The words stuck out to me… and I felt they described what I was doing here. I was retrieving songs that existed in their own bodies of work and arranging them in a way that suited me. Having not actually played an instruments or performed in a band for some time, this was how I could still express myself musically and practice my other loves, design and printmaking, free of the constraints of client’s expectations. I’m not trying to reinvent the wheel here—I’m just trying to “play” with color and line and shape and typography and texture and arrange them into compositions that are interesting to me.

I gave myself a few rules… or guidelines… to help me begin to create. 1: Each print would be printed out on 12.5 inch by 12.5 inch paper (the approximate size of a vinyl album cover). 2: The actual artwork would be constrained to 7.5 by 7.5 inches (roughy the size of the artwork for a seven-inch single, coincidentally). 3: Dividing that 7.5 inch square into halves and 4ths and other fractions and then drawing intersecting lines and shapes from those points helped me create a grid or matrix from which I would make creative decisions. 4: I’m going to limit myself to 3 or 4-color prints, but the intent is to explore the effects of overprinting and how that can create the illusion of additional colors. 5: While designing the print, I will compile a playlist lasting an hour or more and explore how the music on that playlist can also influence any visual aspect of the print.

There’s more minutia to get into if you really want to get nerdy about it. But at the end of the day, It’s really just one person listening to lots of music and making art for himself.

If you, dear reader, have actually made it this far—I thank you. And I hope you enjoy any further updates. If you like any of the artworks you see, they will be available as limited edition prints.

Take care!

-Brett