Cool article about Rave Tapes album cover:

Rave Tapes is the fifth release designer Dave Thomas has worked on for Glasgow band Mogwai. The band usually have a photograph or film still in mind for artwork, he says, but for Rave Tapes, they were looking for something more graphic.


“It started with a few members sending me things that they liked visually as inspiration,” explains Thomas. Suggested visuals included old sci-fi illustrations and films – in particular, Phase IV, which was directed by Saul Bass. “Of course, that source material has been used a lot, so it was about [using it] in a way that the band felt was personal to them and represented their ideas,” he adds.
Thomas looked to the recurring shapes and motifs in 1960s and 70s sci-fi films - such as octagons - and when he discovered the album would be named Rave Tapes, began researching the design of analogue reel to reel tape boxes and diagrams of wave forms.


“I started to play with illustrations that took those shapes as a starting point and went back to the band with a number of designs, ranging from straight geometric patterns to something more illustrative and maybe inspired by a loose psychedelic of semi-abstract direction,” he says. “Initially I saw it all as very much a monotone world that the imagery existed in, but the band felt that having something more colourful would capture the mood of the album more."
Thomas worked with each member of Mogwai on the artwork - which he says is unusual for a band but "allows the design to go in interesting directions that otherwise might not have been taken".


He has created a series of designs to work alongside the central image - both the CD and LP versions come with a die cut in the front cover and interchangeable inserts which can be swapped to change the eye motif on the cover. A limited edition including a set of three art prints, a 7" laser etched disc, a pink 12" vinyl and a book of photographs taken by Steve Gullick while the band were recording the album will also be released in January.
Full article over here