Redbellyboy, aka Ewan Taylor, recently designed the album cover for Pissabed Prophet, an Essex-based band comprising of Rev’d Matthew Simpkins, Dingus Khan, and SuperGlu frontman Ben Brown. The album was born out of Matthew’s treatment for stage 4 cancer, and is a riotous explosion of unfettered joy from the fevered musical imaginations of two of East Anglia’s most prodigious talents. It’s a tale of friendship and shared passion for melody and harmony; a testament to the power of creativity to turn dark times into an exuberant celebration of life.
Ewan was approached for the album design as Matthew is married to a childhood friend of his wife. He tells us; “I got to know Matthew after his diagnoses and we have loads in common. Watching him produce so much excellent music in such a short space of time has been a joy, and I was thrilled when he asked me to design the cover. I’m a massive music fan and getting to design something that would appear in an actual vinyl release was dream come true.”
The design, which was created in Photoshop (and hopefully soon as a screenprint too), is colourful and celebratory, as requested by Matthew. “I suppose that was yet another way of him saying ‘fuck you cancer’,” says Ewan. Using his signature colour palette, alongside text, the finished design is simple yet striking.
Ewan started by laying out the text and adding the colours beaming out from each letter. “I wanted to mess it up a bit, so it wasn’t just colourful lines coming straight out of text,” comments the artist. The viewers’ eyes follow the lines, then get lost as they suddenly veer off in an unexpected direction, very similar to the band’s music. Ewan has also added in disruptive, triangular points, jutting from one colour into another as a nod to Matthews cancer, itself a disruptive and unwanted intrusion.
Ewan creates designs that are joyful, bright, and colourful. When the world can seem so dark, he hopes to add some humour and be cheeky with his designers. A film maker by trade, words have always interested him. He tells us; “Even though I keep trying to get away from making type based designs, I’m always drawn back by a phrase that makes me smile or seems relevant for the times.” The term “Pissabed” is old English slang for a Dandelion, and dandelion seeds are used by the MacMillan Cancer support charity as a visual representation of cancer. So again, Ewan was taken by the use of words in this design.
The album is out now and has received great reviews. The band have got some upcoming gigs where they’ll be using Ewan’s design as a backdrop.
@redbellyboy
www.redbellyboy.com
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