Wind in Willows / St. Atom HRT605 split packaging

Here is the last release that came out on Jozik this summer. For this one, the paintings were done by another artist, Helder Coelho Dias, a friend of one of the musicians. We were not acquainted with Helder's work before, so we didn't really know what to expect. But once we saw the paintings, we loved them.

There is a separate painting for each side of the box (one painting per musician), and there are matching paintings for each side of the tape itself.

All i had to do was to cut out the boxes, print out the stickers and attach them to the boxes and tapes. Well, i also had to design the inner sticker with the info, but there's nothing to design there really :)

You can check the description and sounds at Jozik records.

Banana Pill / Timothy C Holehouse split packaging

We met Tim in Lithuania when we were on our Europe tour with Banana Pill. We played two shows together.

We really liked what he does and he liked what we do so we decided to do a split tape together. And now it's finally out! We released it together with Tim's label. He took care of the tapes and we did the packaging.

I really like the "reel-to-reel" tapes Tim chose. We wanted to use this kind of tapes for a while now, but we never ended up ordering them. Now we finally have them.

I did the same carton covers for this release as for the previous one. I didn't know what kind of carton to use, so i just went to the stationary store to see what they have. Once i saw this black carton, i was sure i want to use it. It was perfect thickness, and i liked how black and shiny it was.

I came up with this painting some time ago. When it came to deciding what kind of artwork to do for this split, i thought why not use this idea. I did the painting again in "portrait" shape and added the names of our projects to it.

You can check the description and sounds at Jozik records.

Punktieren/Ous Mal / Coaxil split packaging

For all the other three releases i've decided to make carton boxes. I kept the same shape and dimensions as i had for my previous boxes, but this time instead of gluing the boxes together i've decided to keep them closed by securing them with rubber bands (i got the idea from the other tape packaging done by our friend artist).

For this release i've decided to use Mitya's sister's old painting sketches that have been lying around in our house for months. When Mitya's parents were moving, they wanted to throw them away because his sister didn't need them, they were just some paint experiments. But we liked them and thought we could use them for something. And finally they were just perfect for this tape.

I just love how every box is unique while they all are done in the same style.

We used white tapes and plain stickers with just the artist names on them. All the info was printed on the label paper, plain text on a white background. I like how the paintings on the boxes go all crazy and colorful, while all the rest of the design is really minimalistic.

You can check the description and sounds at Jozik records.

Sashash Ulz / кот кот split packaging

Four new tapes are out on Jozik records and it's time for me to share the packaging i've made for them.

For this tape i've been sewing fabric envelopes again. We found this beautiful fabric (it was actually a large skirt) at a second hand shop. The skirt was enough for exactly 49 copies, we were lucky with the size (we planned an edition of 50 copies first).

For an insert i got a new idea this time. I used textured craft paper, which i was lucky to get 50% off from Sinelli, it's really good to buy these things in summer when the sales are huge. I used label paper to print the info for the insert.

I am especially happy for the tape labels. I scanned the back side of the fabric and printed it on the labels. I think the color goes really good with white tapes. And i love how colored stickers look on matte opaque tapes.

You can check the description and sounds at Jozik records.

The most time consuming poster

This is the most time consuming poster i've ever done. It took me ages to first draw all the letters on patterned paper (keeping the patterns vary as much as possible), then cut out all the letters, then arrange them on an A4 and finally glue each one to the A4. I got so tired cutting the artist names, that i decided to just write all the other info with a marker.

The poster was for yesterday's show. The show was great, all the artists were awesome and we had our first Banana Pill collaboration with a great artist Olli Aarni.

I can't wait to post the artworks for the new tapes! I tried some new things, and they look good! But we are releasing them in a batch of four, and only three are almost ready, so it will still take a while.

Olli Aarni / summerTales split

For this release i've decided to make fabric envelopes similar to the ones i did for our 4-way split. Actually i used exactly the same dimensions, the only difference was that these bags do not close. The fabric i chose was not as slippery as the one i used for the 4-ways split, so i saved some time by not attaching press studs to them. And this pretty fabric used to be old soviet curtains that were hanging in Mitya's kitchen in Petrozavodsk when he was a little kid.

For the insert i've scanned the fabric and printed the pattern adding all the info on the other side.

Since both splits came out at the same time, we kept the design matching by having white cassettes for both releases as well as making same kind of labels on the cassettes, just changing the text color.

Check the description and sounds on Jozik records.

Varropas / Rainbow Valley split

This release was all about knitting. I got an idea for this kind of packaging when knitting one of my soft cases. I picked up two nice colors of the same yarn that is thick enough for the knitting not to take too much time and started making these tape envelopes. I have made a bit more than half of them by now, they are taking really long time. But i enjoy knitting and i can do it while watching a movie or when i'm in a train or a bus. I does not require much concentration.

White cassettes have been our favorite recently. For the cassette labels i wanted to be minimalist this time, so i've printed the artist names on the left-overs from CD-label paper and cut them out.

For the insert i used color print paper. I've made the inserts looking a bit like a booklet with two pages. So there's a cover page, artist information inside and label information on the back cover. The "booklets" came out so tiny, they look very cute. There are two colors for the inserts as well, purple for blue envelopes and blue for purple ones.

Check the description and sounds on Jozik records.

Kheta Hotem "Meri vaahtolaine"

I've learnt to crochet while designing an artwork for this release. I've always been a knitting person and never knew how to crochet. Last Christmas my sister gave me a basics of knitting and crocheting book and she also showed me the basic crochet stitches (she is a crochet person in our family). So i've decided to try and cochet something for this packaging. And i came up with this basic round shape to cover the CD-R.

We received a nice photograph from one of Kheta Hotem's members and we decided to use it because it goes well together with all other round shapes used in the design.

For the CD-R print we bought white CD-R's. I've made a carton stensil and painted over it with different markers.

Check the description and sounds on Jozik records.

Jozik on Flickr

I've created a Flickr account for Jozik today. I've decided to start taking photographs at all the shows we organize and thought that Flickr would be a good place to share those photographs with the artists who participate as well as others who are interested.

I'm not so good at concert photography yet, but i hope now that i photograph all our shows, i'll improve.

Glina "Spiritual safety"

A new cassette is out on Jozik records. 

Glina from St.Petersburg with their 50-minute album called "spiritual safety". Check Jozik for description and preview and here i will tell you about the design.

In the very beginning we had an idea of making an insert out of white paper with a black and white drawing on it, which would be differently painted with watercolor on each cassette separately. And that's what we actually ended up with, but we also got a nice new experience.

I was taking so long time to come up with a drawing. I kept sketching animals, plants and other things and nothing valuable came out. I am not so good in drawing, really. One day i was checking a blog of one artist i'm following and realized, that this guy's drawings are exactly what i'm looking for. He is an artists from Murmansk, his blog is called Maiorov-DIY, check his drawings and other things he makes, i really like them.

So i contacted him and he was happy to participate, and the next day i got this cute cockroach. The day after i got another drawing with many little cockroaches. I was supposed to choose one, but they were so pretty that i decided to use them both, one on the outer part of the insert and another one inside.

After i got the drawings, i placed them and all the needed text in places, printed the inserts on greyish paper, cut them out and then the most fun part began. I painted each of them differently with watercolor, as we planned. As i already mentioned in previous posts, i love painting with watercolor, so i had lots of fun painting these inserts. I still have a bit less than a half to paint.

This was the first time we collaborated with an artist this way. The previous release was completely done by Diana Vishnevskaya, but this time we worked together, and i really liked it this way.

Thanks to Maiorov and Glina for amazingly looking and sounding release!

Jozik business cards

Several times, when travelling or organizing gigs, we've been to a situation where we meet some people who want to collaborate with us, share something, send demos or just contact us afterwards for some reason. And it always goes like, "Yeah, there's our e-mail on the back of that CD we gave you" or "There's a link to our website on..." or in the worst case we don't even exchange details at all. So i thought it would be nice to make some kind of business cards for Jozik (i don't really like the expression "business card" in our case cause it sounds like it's some serious big business we keep :) )

So i went to Askarelli and bought some nice textured craft paper

Then i printed Jozik contact details on the white side of the paper and cut the cards out

They're cute and feel a bit like they're made out of wallpaper :)

Kutomo / Bedroom Bear split and a new site for Jozik

Ok, let's say I had a month holiday from blogging...

January has been very lazy and relaxed in the beginning and very busy in the end. But i am back to my blog now and first of all i would like to present a new release on Jozik records. It is a split cassette of Finland's Kutomo and Russia's Bedroom Bear:

This time the artwork has been done by Diana Vishnevskaya, an excellent artist from St. Petersburg. Check her drawings and photography here:  http://cargocollective.com/dianavishnevskaya

I am amazed by the whole release. The package is super stylish and the music is beautiful. We think it's the best release on Jozik so far.

You can find more details about the cassette on our new site. That's actually another thing i wanted to share.

One day Myspace got so ugly, i could not believe it. So i tried to come up with something i could make fast (i am still planning to make an actual website, but it will take me lots of time). So i decided to make a Jozik site right here, on Blogger, cause i am so used to it.

One evening was enough for it, and i am quite happy with the result. It looks pretty and actually has all the functions we need.

New Jozik release

I've finally finished the design for the new release on Jozik records. It was our first try on releasing something we don't participate ourselves in. The release is a split cassette with a Russian artist Earth Incubator on one side and a Norwegian duo Bjerga/Iversen on the other.

This was the first time we tried that kind of cassette stickers. They look good, but next time i would rather use them on the colored cassettes. As for those transparent cassettes, i should try spray-painting them next time.

I drew the pattern for the stickers with black pen and markers and scanned it.

The boxes are made from textured carton i got from a stationary shop. I've just cut out some cassette-wide straps from it, folded them in right places and glued the edges together. The most fun part was (and still is) painting them with watercolor. I just love the process of making those crazy patterns with lots of water and many colors mixing into one another. I also love how each box is unique even though they all have the same design.

We'll post the info about the release on the Jozik site in a few days when we have some more copies ready and they will be available for order.

Banana Pill Euro tour!!

Lately i've been spending all the late evenings making CD and tape covers, because very soon Jozik records distro is going on tour!

I had to put together more of kakaokamkami "Snowballs" CD-Rs, finish sewing envelopes for the 4-way split and most importantly make the whole new design for the new Banana Pill CD-R.

We finished recording our material for the new CD-R on saturday. And last night, finally, Mitya has finished mastering the tracks and i finished the cover design. Now all i need to do is to cut out the rest of the inserts and to attach the CD-stickers.

I bought the pink envelopes for the CDs from the local craft shop Askarelli. The painting for the front cover is done by me, except that as a sample of a bird i used some image i found on the internet. The back cover text was made using letter stamps i bought from the other craft shop Tiimari. I tried to design it so that i can make the covers and CDs fast, cause we have to have these on our tour.

On friday we are leaving for our tour as Banana Pill. We'll perform in Estonia, Lithuania and Germany. 7 concerts altogether, including the start-of-the-tour performance in Myymälä2 gallery in Helsinki on thursday. I hope we will not be totally broke when we come back.

4-way split on Jozik records

We've finally put out a 4-way split cassette on Jozik records. The artists on the split are Architeuthis Rex from Italy, Hobo Cubes from Canada, Mpala Garoo from Russia and our project Banana Pill. We've been waiting for this release for a long time. We even had to change one of the artists on the cassette. Originally there was supposed to be Summer Recreation Camp from Spain, but unfortunately he did not have time to record his material and we got Hobo Cubes on the split instead. I hope we manage to release something by Summer Recreation Camp some other time in the near future.

I've spent quite a lot of time creating the covers (i still have not finished them all), but i like them.

For the fabric envelopes i've bought a huge skirt from a second hand shop. We ordered orange tapes via e-bay from a very nice guy rainbowtapes. Even though shipping was a bit too expensive, the cassettes look good and the quality is good as well.

I did not want to make any stickers with artists' names for the cassettes, because the cassettes look good on their own. So i used a hole-puncher to make blue and green sticker dots to indicate the sides of the tape.

The tape can be ordered from Jozik records.

Hello

Couple of days ago I was working on some new CD covers for one of our Jozik records releases. Notka was there helping me.

And then I thought, why don't I start a blog where I'll share all the things I make. Because I love making things and sharing them with others.

After having made enough covers I got tired and went to sleep. Notka stayed and continued the work until late night..