Särre – Kohti Unelmii album art, singles, poster
“Bööna” single cover.
Together with my brother, I developed a collaborative visual conception and delegation for the branding and appearance for the second solo album Kohti Unelmii (“Towards dreams”) of Finnish rap legend Särre on behalf Sony Music Entertainment Finland. The album features artists like Jada Kingdom, Marko Haavisto, Gracias, Kari Tapiiri, JVG, Juno, and DXXXA D.
The first inspiration for the aesthetic of typefaces started by studying the cover arts in record stores all over Helsinki, from Finnish folk to classic funk and rap vinyls. The album is described as a crossover of hip hop and funk with the rhythmic influence of dancehall, which you can hear on the first single “Bööna”.
The second inspiration for the cartoonish look was found in the color selection of the Finnish TV series Moomins. Every character has a sort of color palette that creates a corporate look of all covers. With the highlights in Gretoon and the drop shadow in Gimbo, the typography takes on a very distinctive 3D cartoon look. Based on the logo and the information about the characteristics of the artist, Florian Schröpel created the perfect character that represents the title of the album, the love for basketball, and a father of two kids in form of a cloud who is probably the closest to dreams like the boy of the Dream Works logo. The main graphic design was done by me, his brother Julian: I put all the elements together and took the photos of the press and album images.
The album will be released on October 8th, 2021 by Sony Music Finland.
Photos on the covers taken by Melvin Mescudi on behalf Sony Music Finland. Photos on the album cover taken by Julian Schröpel / Simbayu on behalf Sony Music Finland.
“Elämä On Vitun Jees” single cover.
As a sort of special within the covers, “Kun Ma Astun Laivaan” has a hidden inspiration with the feature guest Marko Haavisto, who was known for his musical appearance in the Aki Kaurismäki movie Mies vailla menneisyyttä, known in English as The Man Without a Past. The colors here are taken from the original movie poster.
“J. Lo” single cover.
Another element is the legacy show poster in October 2021 and the final tracklist of the album which uses Futura Display, with Gretoon for the logo.
For the main album cover we decided to leave all the funky psychadelic look behind and end this project with a mature look of graphics and photographs that are inspired from the simplicities of Storm Thorgerson album covers. Numbers in Futura Display, titles in Futura Extra Bold Condensed, and guest artists in Futura.
