OUGD601 - Tape cassete production

Following research and feedback I decided tape cassettes would be the most appropriate medium to visualise and present the music, as if Kraftwerk were releasing the music today. Additionally, I feel as though tapes link to my research in the essay about Warp Records, and how I discovered further in practical research that they release ultra rare tapes.

Tape cassettes offer more of an opportunity for design too, as floppy disks are constricted in space.
As before online music cultures such as Spotify, record sleeves and cassette cases were an all-important canvas for communicating the vibe of an album or single. Cassettes and vinyl act as an outlet for a band’s aesthetic tastes and product design prowess, giving consumers something physical to cherish at a time when unique album art and liner notes have become obsolete.

Therefore, for inspiration I looked into examples of tapes today which caught my eye due to contemporary design.

I looked into a number of articles talking about the tape revival etc, what I found interesting and useful can be seen below:

An interview with Stuart Coupe

So what's driving the drift back to cassettes?

"I just think it's an object and people love objects," author and music journalist Stuart Coupe said.

"And I think that's a big part of why vinyl has become so popular again.

"There was something romantic about the cassette that you would give it to someone and go 'This is my favourite, these are the songs'.

"I'm sure a lot of romances started by boy-gives-girl, girl-gives-boy, boy-gives-boy, girl-gives-girl a cassette selection of their favourite tunes."

But he cannot see a lasting revival for the cassette tape despite its charming idiosyncrasies.

"If the cassette revival takes off it will be a boon for people who manufacture pencils, because a pencil was the one thing you had to have nearby with cassettes in case they started to unwind and go everywhere," he said.

I also looked at the resurgence of tapes through sales and discovered vinyl has helped bring cassettes back, seen here:

The resurgence of vinyl has been a centerpiece of the physical media story for years now, but records aren’t the only format that’s steadily rising back to relevance. Cassette tapes, a majority of which are sold online in direct-to-consumer settings, are experiencing a bit of a comeback, according to Nielsen’s year-end music report. In 2016, cassette sales rose 74 percent, to 129,000 units. That’s a paltry amount when compared to vinyl’s 13.1 million unit sales, and the declining CD market still notched 105 million units. Yet similar to vinyl, a cassette sale bump represents a healthier appetite for physical goods only playable on now-vintage hardware.

I noticed from looking at tapes that space for artwork isn't constricted to just the front cover. Once you take the cover out the cassette box, it can unfold into numerous panels which can help further communicate the album and its concept. This space can include track titles, lyrics and album synopsis etc. The space for front cover artwork is more narrow compared to vinyl and CD, so normally the original artwork from vinyl would be squared on the tape cover. However, I prefer the constricted space of tape covers which measure out at 64x100mm.

Now that I was decided upon using tapes as the medium to present the music, I had to prepare for the production of the artwork to accompany the cassettes. Luckily enough I was given some cassettes for free which are Maxell UR90 Audio Cassettes, then from here I decided upon a cassette cover style. I was surprised at how many different styles of covers you can fit into such a small case, with the maximum size potentially being 8 panels. For this process I looked into old cassette covers belonging to friends and family, to see the most frequently used and best suitable to my idea. I had to bear in mind how much content can actually accompany the music, so I decided to include cover, track titles, album synopsis and lyrics depending on album. This led to me considering two options which can be seen below:

I decided to use the J-Card with 2 extra panels as it offers more flexibility for content, and due to it having more flexibility for content then I feel it has more of a zine-like feel to add a bit of warmth into the visual language of the album. If the user and listener can do a number of things with the music before actually listening to it, such as reading the lyrics then I assume it creates more enthusiasm and engagment.

Indesign template for cover design