In the 21st century digital music industry, the role of a designer has dramatically changed from what it was only a decade ago. This moderated panel session will discuss how designing for music projects can provide designers with different creative challenges, and how that can be beneficial for other areas of their practice; as well as considering what artists need to consider when planning a campaign. Our Q&A session features industry figures with experience from different aspects of the process.

Neill Fraser

Neill is the frontman of 2 x Tui-winning rock act Villainy. Over the course of their career he has driven the direction and tone of their visual aesthetic with the band and their collaborators. This has ranged from early self designed single covers to working with lauded creative Storm Thorgerson on their first album Mode. Set. Clear. and local designers on the Dead Sight LP and their most recent 2019 release Raised In The Dark.

Kelvin Soh

Kelvin is a 2 x Tui Award winner with over 20 years of experience. Within the music industry, Kelvin has provided album artwork for some of NZ’s most well-known artists such as Broods, Che Fu, Dimmer, Goodshirt as well as communication graphics for touring acts such as DJ Krush, Roni Size, Derrick May, Kruder & Dorfmeister and Superpitcher. Kelvin has also co-directed Dimmer’s Come Here (2004) which featured a stop-motion animation using 2,500 polaroids.

Josie Campbell

Josie Campbell set up Great Things Publicity in 2015, after an almost two-decade career working in-house in the performing arts, sport and not-for-profit sectors. Josie works primarily in the world of music - working on festivals, international and local concerts and music releases. Major projects at the moment include FOMO and Northern Bass festivals, and the new album from Church & AP.

Moderator: Tyrone Ohia

Tyrone (Ngāti Pukenga, Ngāi Te Rangi) is a designer at Extended Whānau. He designed the branding for Auckland UNESCO City of Music. His previous work with Alt Group includes Shapeshifter’s Stars album and Shihad’s FVEY.

The Music Designer Series is part of the Recorded Music NZ Tui Music Series 2019. The Series supports the Artisan Awards creative fields of music production, design and film making. Go to nzmusicawards.co.nz/tui-music-series for more information.

Recorded Music NZ gratefully acknowledges the support of SAE Creative Media Institute, The Designers Institute and Auckland Council / Auckland UNESCO City of Music.