Typography

Carwyn Ellis & Rio 18 – Yn Rio

Working with Carwyn Ellis is always a pleasure. I’ve been designing and developing his websites and laying out album artwork for the past 5 years or so.

When it came to designing his new album with Rio 18, a live album recorded with the BBC National Orchestra Wales, Carwyn’s vision aligned perfectly with mine.

Using a painting by Michael Gillette as the centrepiece. The inspiration was taken from 1960’s record design, mostly from Verve Records (Stan Getz/Luiz Bonfa). The combination of bold colours and Helvetica typography delivers a timeless and classic feel and suits Rio 18’s music perfectly.

Photography for the back and inner sleeve is by Adam Whitmore.

Led By Donkeys

Print, Typography

Led By Donkeys

Ctrl Alt Design has been working with Led By Donkeys since 2017. Following on from the the Brexit referendum, the team at Led By Donkeys began producing bodies of work and guerilla campaigns to point out the hypocrisy of the Government and politicians, and to hold them to account.

We work closely with them to turn their ideas into reality and have worked on a number of campaigns over the years. Here are a few examples of the billboards designed by us.

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – Europe ’19

Illustration, Music, Print, Typography

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – Europe ’19

‘Europe ’19’ is a collection of tracks taken from King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard’s European bootlegs from 2019. Ctrl Alt Design put together the packaging for this release on Bubblewrap Collective.

Original artwork for the live bootlegs by Jason Galea was converted to fit into 3 colours to match up. The typography and overall layout style was designed to be a nod to Grateful Dead’s ‘Europe ’72’ album design, albeit a darker theme.

A logo was also designed to combine the lizard image with the welsh flag. This sat alongside a Welsh translation of the band’s name and was included on the cover and as a free sticker.

Quodega – Only Forward

Arts, Illustration, Music, Typography

Quodega – Only Forward

We used a laser cutter to etch out shapes in the album sleeve to represent the sides of the record, and the track lengths, keeping the design minimal and clean, with a colourful, gradiented inner sleeve to compliment.

Quodega’s ‘Only Forward’ is a departure from their scintillating post-rock debut, instead adopting the form of super-charged, perspicacious electronica. It is the brainchild of award-winning composer Tom Raybould, whose work has previously been released by Rough Trade and Warp Records, and infamously been sampled on The Weeknd’s hit, ‘The Hills’.

Cotton Wolf ‘Ofni’

Arts, Bilingual, Music, Print, Typography

Cotton Wolf ‘Ofni’

Following on from their 2017 ‘Welsh Music Prize’ nominated debut ‘Life in Analogue’, ‘Ofni’ is Cotton Wolf sophomore album. Set against a thematic backdrop of social uncertainty, the album’s darker material is simultaneously imbued with anxious paranoia and hopeful positivity. The new tracks from the Cardiff duo showcase a bolder production with faster tempos and purer electronic sounds, alongside hypnotic, abstract and melodic ideas inherent to their previous release. Whilst the bulk of the album is instrumental, the title track features an ethereal vocal contribution by Adwaith’s Hollie Singer.

The cover artwork is by Louise Mason. Layout and Typography is by Ctrl Alt Design. The cover is printed with a magenta foil and the vinyl is pressed on red vinyl.

Juniper

Arts, Bilingual, Music, Print, Typography

Juniper

Leading on from their award-winning fulldome film, Liminality, Cardiff based creative collaborators Matt Wright and Janire Najera immerse audiences in the music of Slowly Rolling Camera. Commissioned by Ffotogallery to premiere at Diffusion 2019, Juniper explores how sound and moving image merge within live performance. The unique show saw Slowly Rolling Camera performing their critically acclaimed third album Juniper in its entirety, accompanied by a visual score created by 4pi Productions.

Ctrl Alt Design created the posters and marketing materials for the live show at the Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff.

Independent Venues Week 2019

Arts, Bilingual, Music, Print, Typography, Web

Independent Venues Week 2019

Independent Venues Week promotes music at grassroots venues across the UK each year. We were approached to design posters and social media graphics for the 2019 schedule in Wales.

Pipedown Magazine

Arts, Illustration, Print, Typography

Pipedown Magazine

Pipe Down, aims to be an insight into the “stigmatised subject of addiction” while “bringing recovery into the world, and the world into recovery”.

Editor Araminta Jonsson said the magazine aims not only to target people who are in recovery, but also families of those in recovery or people who work in the sector, for example. The aim is to hook the readers with humour and then touch on something that can help with recovery.

Wales at London Book Fair

Arts, Corporate, Print, Typography

Wales at London Book Fair

For ‘Wales at London Book Fair’, Ctrl Alt Design created a brand to showcase the publishing houses and literary institutions in Wales. We created a logo and a gold embossed booklet to give out during London Book Fair, and worked with Ongl to create a unique, branded exhibition stand.

Tafwyl 2017

Arts, Bilingual, Branding, Illustration, Music, Print, Typography, Web

Tafwyl 2017

Since 2012, we have been working with Menter Caerdydd to visualise their annual Welsh Language Arts & Culture festival, Tafwyl. The event is held in Cardiff every July and on this page you can see the range of design and web services provided by Ctrl Alt Design.

Our work with Tafwyl ranges from print materials such as programmes, maps and street flags, to fully customisable, Wordpress integrated website.

Visit the website at tafwyl.cymru