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[ May 20, 1999 ]
Kevin Reagan is the Creative Director at Maverick Records in Beverly Hills.
He recently won the Grammy for "Best Recording Package" for the limited edition packaging of Madonna's Ray of Light. Kevin recently spoke to The Alternative Pick regarding his design for the new Swimmer album art.
Swimmer's music is melodic and textural, but also very intense. I wanted the image to be a juxtaposition of what you'd hear on the disc, so all the colors are subtle and quiet and very white-on-white. It's very clinical. The one shot shows the singer on a bed, but then when you turn it over, the bed is empty. There were all these scuff marks in front of the bed and I liked that because it makes you wonder what happened to that person on the bed As for those head shots, we had the prop person make holes out of plexiglass, and we just shot each guy individually. I like putting little surprises here and there. For instance, in keeping with the "surreal" theme, there's an upside-down shot of the band underneath the disc. There's also a line of text on the inside of the clear spine that says, "It feels surreal" (taken from the chorus of the title track). I like the idea that consumers will take the time to look for little subtle things like that. I don't like putting song titles on the disc itself because I think it looks too crowded - it's just too much information and it's boring. Instead, I like to put a nice graphic or visual on the disc.
I love the package overall and I'm very proud of it. It actually came out exactly the way I envisioned it, which is fairly rare in this business.
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