Every other Monday, our chief Karousel artwork Komrade and music industry Design Director Scott Jones will be firing us over something from his artwork blog Future Music Formats. Recently he’s been looking into the potential uses for future technologies in artwork and sleeve design. This wee post is concerning conductive ink and printed resistor circuits – something that Scott is experimenting with so it can be utilised to make some seriously ace record sleeves. Conductive ink is exactly that – ink that conducts electricity. Doesn’t take much imagination to see why that could be exciting for posters and album sleeves!

The above photo illustrates working out a circuit to form a matrix display with conductive ink.This was connected to a simple aruduino sketch outputting random sequences, with the aim to scale it to scroll through text/images.

Below is a Bartok record cover – A wonderful resistor design could be made for this beautiful sleeve for Bartok’s Piano Concertos. The interlocking circles could be used as a potentiometer to control variable settings.For more reference material go to… http://www.projectthirtythree.com/

Hibou Patterns Experiment

Talking about printed resistors – this gilded radio from Hibou used conductive materials to control on/off, volume and frequency on ceramic structures. Although these are not exactly printed circuits, it does the same thing, using resistor patterns to trigger events for an arduino that outputs the sound. Super cool!

HIBOU – Patterns experimentation from Raphaël Pluvinage on Vimeo.

Scott is a creative director with over 15 years experience in the music industry, focusing on visual identity, print, digital, social and marketing for emerging artists and legendary acts. Art directing some of the most recognised sleeves of recent years, Scott has put the visuals to the breakthrough releases of The Coral, The Zutons, The Klaxons, Bombay Bicycle Club, Cave Painting and most notably The Arctic Monkeys. He has also worked on high-­‐profile digital campaigns including Nirvana 20 and John Lennon 70 as well as social campaigns for legendary artists such as Marvin Gaye. With extensive experience of marketing campaigns across most major/independent labels for both print and digital across several world territories, Scott has a very specific skill set for artist branding and marketing. In addition, Scott founded a social network that used online communities to encourage real-­‐world creative connections, manifesting in a newspaper, live events, a co-­‐work space and a live-­‐music venue. Now working as creative consultant to emerging/established artists and brands, Scott is delighted to be part of Karousel Music and the opportunities it brings for both artists and labels in the UK and beyond. Check out what’s going on in Scott’s world at www.scottjonesstudio.com