MNEMOPHOBIA BOX SET
YEAR OF NO LIGHT

For their 20th anniversary in 2021, French post-metal band YEAR OF NO LIGHT released via Pelagic Records a limited wooden box set containing its entire discography of new album Consolamentum and 4 previous studio albums, with an exclusive compilation album of previous EPs and collaborations. The band hasn't released anything for the last 8 years and its members thought it was the right time to propose a renewed imagery.
They commissioned me to rethink the band’s visual identity by designing their new album & box set, and their emblem.

After brainstorming with band members, art direction has been based on brutalist architecture and 1970s optic art, accompanied by a refined yet impactful minimalist typographic work and a one-color palette: red. Their supportive and enthusiastic record label was also ready for doing special packaging.

The band’s emblem is a symbolic expression of light & sound waves. It has already evolved twice in the band’s history, and I designed this new version by revisiting the optic art of the 70s, heavily inspired by Vasareli's work.

By a common desire for consistency and strong graphic identity, band and label agreed with the idea of unifying the previous albums artworks by color. All previous packaging designs were reworked through the color palette defined for this box set: red / black / and shades ranging from beige-ivory to yellow-orange. An obi-strip was created for more coherence and in order to make out each album contained in the box.

CONSOLAMENTUM

My intent was to create something different from previous album covers, and to avoid typical visual codes of the musical genres the band is usually related to. Architecture, Brutalism especially, was mentioned by the band, and was an unexplored and very exciting field to me. I also wanted to express this instrumental music through abstraction, and bring a very graphic and contemporary, almost pop art feel to it.

The opportunity of a special die-cut on the front cover guided me to the idea of playing with all printed parts of the vinyl edition. Center labels, inner sleeves with center holes, and the front of the gatefold sleeve would all be essential to create the final cover art, the whole picture. Even more exciting and playful, a 2-LP album would mean four center labels and four sides of inner sleeves with center hole to offer 16 variants of the cover art.

Cover design needed to be an intriguing and minimalist setting, with the die-cut as main element, to contrast with the inside elements.
The die-cut shape, evoker of some kind of unearthly and powerful monolith, was designed based on a canine tooth, bringing the ambivalence of its shape and meaning: the beauty of its conception, something very smooth and streamlined, but also a dangerous tool.

Inside spread of the gatefold sleeve was also an important part. We wanted something different from the rest of the artwork. Something more illustrative and spectacular.

For inner sleeves, I worked on shapes of brutalist architectures and started to deconstruct, colorize and mix them into abstract graphic compositions. And to match with them while having their own aesthetics, center labels have been conceived with curves and color shadings to bring a psychedelic touch and look like some kind of glowing membrane.

In addition to a very symbolic cover art and the new design of the band’s emblem, and to stick with the brutalist/totalitarian style the band was looking for, I used a Gothic font and customized it for the band name and track titles. I tried to bring modernity and make letters appear levitating.

MNèME

Compilation album Mnème is exclusive to this box set, and contains everything the band recorded and released between 2009 and 2015 outside of studio albums.

The original idea was to use what you currently see on the inside spread as the cover side (left panel would have been the front cover). Minimalistic typographic work instead of anything visual, and keeping the visual effect for the inside. But record label was clearly against the idea and asked us to do something slightly more conventional.

POSTER

As for any box set produced nowadays, other exclusive elements were designed: a slipmat, a woven patch and a metal pin representing the new emblem, as well as this 12 x 24” 2-color screen print poster on black art paper.

CD EDITION

The box set has also been available on CD. With the same care for quality products, designed and manufactured as close to the ones of the vinyl edition as possible. No slipmat available here, and screen printed poster has been replaced by an offset printed folded square poster.