DECADES PASSED (2012-2013)
“Much time has gone by since the 1980’s signature sounds were alive and well… or so we thought. Decades Passed is a collection of tracks by artists from around the world who currently aim to keep the aesthetics of that decade alive. Brought to you by Telefuture.”
A few months after the launch of my experimental electronic music record label, Telefuture, The New LoFi reached out and asked if I would curate a mixtape featuring our releases and tracks that inspired the genre as a whole. The first episode of Decades Passed featured the releases we had with done with Makeup and Vanity Set, Perturbator, Garth Knight, and bunch of other artists that I was really into. Our fans really responded positively, leading to 3 additional mixtapes/podcast episodes being produced quarterly over the course of a year.
Aside from curating the music and producing audio, I also created the cover art. I wanted the art to have a hazy, nostalgic vibe, like a distant dream of memory that one might struggle to remember. The logo was a simple sans serif typeface to give a sort of timeless feel, so that no distinct decade would be associated with the mixtapes… I was sick of people expecting bright neon colors that were often associated with the ‘synthwave’ genre.
As a backdrop for the logotype, I used vintage photos that I had taken as a kid on vacations in the ‘80s. Color gradients were used on the type, using hues sampled from the images to give it a pseudo-blended effect. The repurposed, double-exposed photos gave the artwork a distant feel, further removing the viewer from a time or place where this kind of music might exist. Maybe it was from a few decades ago, or maybe just a few days ago. To further add to the feeling of passing time, each piece of cover art features the logo oriented in a clockwise orientation.
Later, the podcast’s namesake would be adopted for a regularly occurring DJ night in Portland, for which I happily designed the poster. The event featured ‘80s inspired music from the Telefuture roster alongside many of its contemporaries including the legendary Rossa Corsa collective and Aphasisa Records; both similar figments of a faded and distant memory.
