Interview: This Cover
Augmented Reality turning LP covers into amazing animations
I can’t remember how I came across This Cover, it may have been one of the few times a targeted ad on social media has actually been relevant to me or, more likely, through a vinyl-related hashtag I was following. However I found out about them I was fascinated with their word. The company centres its work on augmented reality, giving artists in that realm the chance to create stunning animations using vinyl album covers as a jump off point. Every single one I’ve seen so far has been outstanding, and I love the concept - utilising a format that is still lauded by many and merging it with a modern-day form of art that is still being established/evolving.
I dropped them a line and requested an interview… And here it is. Enjoy!
First of all, I'm guessing you're a record collector yourself, so how did you get started with all of that? How long have you been collecting records? What were some of your first purchases?
I am a collector of vinyls but also movies and graphic novels, I really love the physical object itself. I've always been fascinated by vinyls and I started buying them as a child. One of my first vinyls was Michael Jackson's "Dangerous", with a cover that I find very fascinating.
Oh nice, what are some of your favourite films and graphic novels?
I love both the great cinematic sagas like Star Wars, Matrix and the MCUs (marvel cinematic univers) but also arthouse films like David Lynch (Mullholland dr, lost roads, Elephant Man), Fellini (La dolce vita, 8 1/2,) Kitano (Brother, Kikujirō no natsu, Sonatine). As for graphic novels, I loved reading "Mr Punch", "Arkam Asylum", "CAGES" by Dave McKean, "Elektra Assassin", "Daredavil Love and War" by Bill Sienkiewicz and Frank Miller. But also Japanese graphic novels like "Gourmet", "The Walking Man" by Jiro Taniguchi and European ones like Jassie Jacobs' comics.
Is there a particular visual style that really appeals to you?
No one in particular, over the years I have appreciated and changed different styles, I like to vary, also for this reason I love this project because every time I see animations made starting from the most disparate styles.
Something record collectors enthuse about a lot is the value of artwork, what are some of your favourite record covers?
There are so many covers I could mention among my favorites! As I said, "Dangerous" is certainly one of these, for its richness of details, but also "Cheap Thrills" by Big Brother & the Holding Company made by Robert Crumb, a great underground cartoonist of the 60s. This cover represents all the songs from the record in a single image. Or again, to name just a few, "In the court of the Crimson King" by Barry Godber, his only painted work; "Nevermind" by Nirvana; "American Idiot" by Green Day, inspired by Saul Bass, father of motion graphics.
Why do you think cover art is so important to the music?
I am a particularly visual person and when I listen to something I need to start from an imaginary. When a musician, with the help of another artist, also manages to transform his art into visual, making it an icon, I think it's fantastic. Think of Andy Warhol's banana for the Velvet Underground, or Pink Floyd's "The Wall".
How can we instill this appreciation for cover art (and vinyl) in our children?
I honestly have no idea. Personally, I have always hated everything my parents did or loved. My mom was an opera singer and I ended up hating classical music.
Do you hope that ThisCover can inspire younger generations to connect with vinyl and cover art?
Yes I do!
What sparked the idea for This Cover? When did the idea first come to mind and how did you go about making it a reality?
Thiscover is not our first augmented reality project. We started as a motion designer and we used to work with broadcasting channels and brands. The possibility of being able to see your animations on a physical object and therefore to exit the screen is one of the biggest revolutions of recent years and we believe it can be the future of communication. At the end of 2018, talking to Marco Meloni, the other founder of the project, we had the idea of animating the covers of our favorite albums. Combined with the technology of augmented reality it seemed crazy to us. We could reach the homes of vinyl lovers like us. We then started to involve other motion designers. The response was immediately enthusiastic from everyone. Being able to animate the cover of your favorite album was a really interesting challenge.
We therefore decided to publish the result of our first 20 animated covers on instagram trying to explain the mechanism of augmented reality and the thing has exploded a bit all over the world.
Can you tell me about some of your other AR projects please?
Alchemica Gallery was our first AR project born in our motion design studio Alkanoids. Then in collaboration with Bonobolabo we are creating a series of skateboards and animated murals. We like to experiment with particular objects.
Did you have any difficulties getting it off the ground? If so, how did you overcome them?
Passion and enthusiasm, fueled by the first reactions, are certainly the elements that made us overcome the difficulties. Producing, organizing, coordinating and promoting the project takes a long time, and besides that ... I also have to work!
What was the first cover you put out there?
It should be that of Justice by Susanna Basone, one of the co-founders of the project. We actually opened the project by organizing a small exhibition with the first 20 animated covers during the Milan design week in April 2019. Then the instagram account was born.
How was the exhibition? Did it go well?
It went very well, we had exhibited in a shop of high quality audio systems during the design week in Milan. There was also a lot of international turnout that paved the way. The exhibition simply consists of showing the vinyls and explaining how it works in AR. And it is for this reason that it has been replicated in several vinyl fairs around the world.
Would you consider doing more exhibitions when the world starts to open up a bit more?
Sure! We are already in contact with several vinyl stores who would like to exhibit thiscover. Let's see how the situation will evolve.
What's the reaction been like so far? Have you had any feedback from artists or record labels, or the people who designed the covers even?!
The reaction is always positive, as I told you, not everyone immediately understands that it is possible to experience the effect on vinyls firsthand, but we are working on it. Several labels have also contacted us giving us their compliments, and with some of them collaborations were born, in this case more with the Aria platform than with the project itself.
Do you have to clear your work with the labels etc? How does it work from a legal standpoint?
This is an art project, a fan art project on album covers, as there are many, even if it is the only one in the world in augmented reality. The project does not profit from anything, like all the artists who participate in it. Obviously not even the audio is that of the album but an artistic reworking of the sound designers, or at most a short quote. We have informed ourselves legally and there are no problems on this point.
Can you tell me more about the process behind it? How are the ideas formulated, who actually creates the AR etc..? How long does each one take, on average?
We start contacting or being contacted by an animator. We ask him to choose 3/5 covers that he would like to animate, we assign him one of those proposed, giving him indications of duration and artistic process. Each animation must start and end on the physical cover. For the rest, the artist is free to develop the story he wants in the style he wants. He is given 6 weeks to complete the animation of about 10 seconds, a good compromise for a personal project to be done in the spare time. video content is uploaded to Aria Platform, the augmented reality app which, besides us, supports many other artistic projects such as "Playing arts", "Bonobolabo", "Alchemica Gallery". The interesting thing is that as soon as the project is loaded it is immediately active and enjoyable all over the world, instantly. "
So do you always work with different animators for the covers? Are there any artists who have become regular contributors?
The first to animate the covers were my studio collaborators who are working on their second cover right now. We then involved the freelancers who usually collaborate with us and then it evolved on instagram.
When you select one cover from the 3/5 proposed by the animator, how do you decide which one to choose?
There are 3 factors that we verify: 1. We verify that no other animator is already animating one of the covers. 2. The cover image must work fine on Aria (sometimes too simple images don't work like the Beatles " white Album " or " dark side of the Moon " which sadly is too simple.
3. We try to vary genre and musical artist as much as possible.
How many have you done now? They look amazing, do you have any favourites?
39 animated covers have been published so far but more and more people have decided to participate in the project and therefore we are finalizing about thirty covers. I hope it continues to grow. I don't have any favorites, but I love when the animations mirror and complement the intentions of the original cover.
How does it feel when you receive peoples' videos of their reactions? Must feel pretty good!
We are always excited to see the reactions of people who try our animations on their vinyls. In my opinion, conveying content through a physical object, which they love, establishes a more intimate relationship than seeing the same video on any social network. There is more attention, you cannot escape with a swipe. Furthermore, the video connected to vinyl in augmented reality is like a secret treasure that is discovered, a new dimension that we were not aware of about a familiar object.
In this respect you could say that augmented reality, when done well, is the perfect marriage of digital art and physical art.
Yes, augmented reality is the perfect combination of digital and physical but also between past and future. We are very curious to see where this type of technology will take us. We are very happy to follow the development of technologies such as magic leap and apple glasses. we'll see…