Footballers today are very much on the same level as rock stars. But what if the connection were more explicit? Designer James Campbell Taylor explores this idea through a series of vinyl album covers inspired by iconic footballers.
During our interview, I asked him about the links between football and music.
Well, historically the two things have not mixed well, at least outside the stadium. In the past several footballers attempted to make records (usually with horrendous results), but I chose to forget that and imagine the players as credible singers or musicians. I wasn’t thinking of their music literally; my interpretation was more abstract. I was interested in inventing an alternate universe. What would these players’ icon status been had they pursued a music career?With this in mind I tried to evoke the period for each LP, assuming the record would be released to coincide with their success on the pitch. I also considered where each player was from, and what the popular graphic or musical trends at that time were in that particular country. In this sense the challenges were similar to those faced with my World Cup poster project. But since we can’t hear the records the “music” is left to our imagination. This left me little option but to attempt to design the album covers to reflect the players’ personalities. In this way I was reminded of the famous Blue Note designer, Reid Miles, who didn’t even like jazz and relied on the studio engineer’s descriptions of the music for inspiration.
Click through the gallery and pretend you’re thumbing through the vinyl section at your local indie record store.
All posters are available as prints through Taylor’s Society6 storefront.
This article was written by James Patrick Gordon for www.pastemagazine.com
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