The concept for the “The Great Traitor” LP album design was inspired by the samples of shortwave radio station recordings that were used in the album’s title track. The recordings were sampled with permission of The Conet Project which has released a 4CD set of the audio samples. Our goal was to reflect the characteristic and history of these shortwave radio recordings as described by Irdial Records:
Shortwave Numbers Stations are a method of anonymous, one way communication… These stations use very rigid schedules, and transmit in many different languages, employing male and female voices repeating strings of numbers or phonetic letters day and night, all year round.
I referenced structures of morse, binary and braille codes to create a look and feel that expresses rigidity, anonymity and encryption. I also referenced the designs of Peter Saville for inspiration on form and layout. The sleeves were hand letter-pressed at BlueBarn House on Fabriano paper in dove gray.
