Relicários de São Tolosa's Album Cover Is An Exciting And Abstract Art Piece
When it comes to album covers, there are a lot of different avenues a band or artist can take with its design.
For many artists, they go with a design that features their likeness in some way. They try to capture their personality, their identity or their values.
Album covers of the 21st century often feature photography, through minimalism and on-trend elements. They're fresh and clean and modern in a very mainstream way. They have some fun, but overall they are a rather direct way to connect the audience with the content within.
But with the group Relicários de São Tolosa, they went in a more creative and out-of-the-box direction.
Relicários de São Tolosa is a Brazilian rock band that mixes a variety of different musical elements into its creations. It’s a group that loves to have fun, get deep and impact its audiences on a fundamental level.
For the band's last album, the team turned to designer Carlos Bauer to commission album art that had as much as an influence as the music itself.
Carlos Bauer is a successful designer based in Brazil. He specializes in using art and design to display visual messages in an innovative, enchanting and exciting way.
According to designer Carlos Bauer:
Relicários de São Tolosa mixes classic, progressive and psychedelic rock among other references from music, cinema and literature in their sound. I was commissioned to design the sleeve of their first album — homonym —, witch is the materialization of their first authorial production and physical manifestation of much energy accumulated.
This is a very raw and powerful album. It’s an album that leads listeners on an auditory journey, and in a similar fashion, this album cover art tells a story of its own that matches the fluidity and chaotic nature of the music playing through the speakers. Explore some of the best singles’ cover designs.
Relicários de São Tolosa’s Album Cover Uses Color To Represent Musical Climax
This album color certainly stands on its own and stands out from the crowd. It’s loud. It’s chaotic. It’s disorganized. It’s anxiety-inducing. It makes you feel excited and intrigued and a little bit wary.
It evokes an emotion — from its bright splashes of color to the strong imagery that sits on the design. And emotions matter. They stick with viewers and keep them interested. They resonate and sit with viewers long after the design has physically left their gaze.
The bright pink fuschia of the design certainly grabs your attention, but it’s what the color and surrounding drawings represent that is truly inspiring.
The image in this graphic design is that of a shattered glass. The blank background is perfectly clean, almost a dull and numb backdrop to the splashes at the forefront. A glass sits at the center, its pink liquid sitting calmly in the shape of the glass. Only the glass no longer sits strong. It has exploded, with shards flying in all different directions.
This design sits like a snapshot, a moment frozen in time. The liquid remains unmoved like it hasn’t quite felt the effect of the glass that has fallen apart. It’s loud and bold and bombastic. And it mimics the chaotic climax of the album
There is more to this shattered glass imagery than meets the eye. According to the creative mind behind this print design:
I defined 3 concepts to guide the design: reliquary, as envelope or container to present the band; search, linked to the questions proposed in the lyrics; and explosion, to express the climax that the album represents. A glass shatters while the liquid remains unshaken. From the cover, the narrative unfolds through the other images, full of details and subtleties. The visual is directly connected to the process of drawing from an intentionally broken glass and using the same shards to produce the back cover image by playing with different languages. Just like the album, the graphic result is poetic, surreal and open for readings — an invitation to audition.
This album design is an example of art in action — it details the creative process, both in visual design and in musical design. It’s raw and unfiltered. It’s in-depth and insightful. It takes some understanding and unearthing. It takes some care. But the resulting understanding is so very worth it.
This album tells a story. It makes an impact. It walks viewers through a journey of artistic expression, and it beautifully pairs with the journey of the music.
The Relicários de São Tolosa Prints Tell A Story Through Abstract Illustrations
The meaning behind this album color is deep. It’s strong. It’s mysterious and enigmatic in a way that is thought-provoking and vague. But at the end of the day, it gets you engaged and that’s exactly the point.
But the deeper meanings of this design wouldn’t matter if it wasn’t for the visual aspects that grab attention initially.
This design is bright, creative and interactive. Using vivid colors, clever imagery and a mix of illustration and photography, this album color is an intriguing and enigmatic design that promotes free-thinking, open-mindedness, and lightness.
The bright pink coloring is instantly eye-catching. You can’t look away from the soft and subtle watercolors, or the way it sits in a broken glass in an abstract and unbelievable way. Similarly, on the back of the color, this bright pink shines again. Only this time, it’s in the form of a photograph.
This album cover came from an actual, real-life image. And the artist behind its creation included this into the design to add a realism and an authenticity to the design.
The bright pink makes you feel happy. It makes you feel enthused. It reminds you of a positive time. And it’s paired with the image of a broken glass which contrasts with those feelings. In place of that lightness, there’s stress and anxiety. There’s a clear discrepancy that causes anxiety within the viewer.
Anxiety isn’t always a good thing, but here it works.
The broken glass shattering is compelling and engaging. It’s not something you see every day. And seeing it in this way, frozen in time, it’s surreal and captivating.
And the way it is drawn is too creative not to get a second glance. The color is bright and determined, and looking at the simple, almost amateur drawings of these glass shards doesn’t seem to fit. Or you don’t want it to. Either way, it sits strong and powerful and unrelenting.
The creative elements of this design in their technical creation grab attention and pull viewers in. And if it weren’t for such compelling colors and illustration, the deeper meaning would be lost.
These Relicários de São Tolosa Album Print Designs Are A Creative Narrative Tool
These print designs are dynamic, abstract and strong. They take users on a visual journey that matches the auditory journey this music itself leads its listeners on.
The colors on the cover are innately impactful and engaging. There’s no denying their ability to excite and inspire a reaction that is powerful and unique. A bright fuschia makes up the focal point of this design, sitting in a delicately drawn out and abstract shape.
Print designers often play with texture to enhance the artwork's visual appeal, and the watercolor technique is mesmerizing. It adds an artistic edge to the piece that pairs beautifully with the artistic nature of the music.
It ebbs and flows along the pages. It’s diluted in some areas, matching the cracked and broken nature of the cup it was once sitting in. But it adds a brightness and a personality that refuses to be ignored — much like the songs on this album itself.
Color has a way to excite and amaze. It evokes a deep emotion that sits with you and leaves a lasting impression. And when you can form an emotional connection with something, you’re more likely to remember it.
In addition to the color, the illustrations certainly make you stop and stare. A shattered glass makes up the theme of this design. It’s frozen in time, exploding in the air, with pieces of glass flying across the album color. It all happened so fast, it seems, as the liquid within remains in the form of a cup. It has yet to be disturbed.
On the back of the album, there is a more realistically example of this shattered glass — instead of a painted illustration, you see an actual photograph of a broken glass with the vivid pink liquid pooling around it.
And this image is more than just a statement. It isn’t just an eye-catching image that has no connection to the music within.
This broken glass imagery connects intimately with the band and the lyrics within the album. This shattering glass represents the climax of the music and the beautiful chaos it inspires. It’s raw and unfiltered and real.
This design beautifully combines the essence of the band and its album into its artwork in a creative, engaging and colorful way. There is not ordinary to this design. There is no common. There is not familiar. It's a shining representation of design experts' ability to push boundaries, challenge norms, and create designs that captivate and intrigue.
It stands on its own as its own artistic masterpiece and adds another layer to the album it represents.
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