The Bitches Present... Album Design
2020 | Design ➝ Branding
Editorial and album design for the album The Bitches Present... New Baby Iron Age
Cover Illustration by James Watts
The New Baby Iron Age Deluxe Bundle includes "The Bitches Present...Notes from a Scattered Mind" Broadsheet and New Baby Iron Age on vinyl. The 40 page broadsheet contains 66 incredible pictures, drawings by James Watts, poetry by Kyle Menschel and Saam Akbarkhanzadeh, and a brilliantly written history of the band. The record is a 2-disc double 180 gram thick vinyl housed in a heavy duty Japanese double gatefold cover.
Edition of 50 Vinyl Records/Broadsheet pairings.
Here's a blurb about the band from the lead singer that describes them better than I ever could.
"The Bitches Present was a funk, jazz, fusion, spoken-word, jam band from San Francisco, California. We had 4 core members: Kyle, Victor, Saam, and Sina; and a rotational 5th spot that cemented with the ever-lovely Joey Natiello. Originally a classic garage-style house-party-playing band, The Bitches Present grew into a cult favorite among the local San Francisco music scene. We played shows, hosted art events, threw parties. It was important for us to foster community and provide spaces where people could connect and share ideas. We read poetry, had live-paintings, audience-interactive discussions, even tacking on a cooking show to our performance. We were called The Bitches Present... because we wanted to present something, to offer a space with an experience larger than your average concert..."
The Album
For the release of their first album, The Bitches Present... wanted to create a small run of vinyls to distribute to friends and fans I designed this album with James Watts in 2020. The record is a 2-disc double 180 gram thick vinyl housed in a heavy duty Japanese double gatefold cover. The band wanted something that looked old, something that looked like the owner had used it a thousand times, covered it with stickers they found or made, lent to friends, forgotten about and then found again. Using images of the band during live performances i created stickers that looked aged and weathered, ripped in certain places and placed at random on the inside cover of the gatefold.
The Broadsheet
The band needed something to accompany the vinyl. A booklet or poster insert to make it worth the price of buying a physical item. I recommend a newspaper broadsheet, something big that could utilize the extensive live show photo library that they had. These pages could be opened up to show off these large scenes and give the viewer a glimpse into the importance and energy of the live show that they were trying to capture on this album. Along with the photos was a 3000 word manifesto from lead singer Kyle Menschel, a half satire piece, half personal development essay involving the semi mythical creation of the band as well as poetry from several of the band members.
