CD Packaging

Ian Power's 2023 'Ave Maria' is a contemporary deconstruction of Italian composer Giacinto Scelsi's own 1972 interpretation, and explores performer agency and religious devotion. Working with Power, I used a laser cutter to prototype different concepts for a limited run of bespoke packaging. The final product is a hand assembled 10-panel digipack laser-cut from a single sheet of cardstock. The front panel evokes a Catholic confessional screen teasing the front cover of the CD booklet inset in the second panel. The subsequent panels repeat this motif through laser-cut typography, visually mimicking the Catholic devotional that forms the central musical concept in Powers' arrangement. All instances of ‘Ave Maria’ and headings are set in Eurostile, designed by Italian typography Aldo Novarese, as a reference to the austere modernity of Scelsi's time. It also closely emulates the Planned Parenthood logo, the site of the photo taken by Power that graces the CD. The body copy is set in PT Sans, a humanist sans-serif designed by Alexandra Korolkovo as a civic departure from the traditional blackletter scripts of the Russian church. Liner notes are set on the diagonal grid of the confessional screen, creating moments of point and counterpoint, unison and dissolution, repetition and aberration.

From the original award submission.