Cuff: a dance label releasing illustrative record sleeves quarterly

Running a record label comes with immense responsibility. Aside from choosing artists to represent your own tastes as a label, depicting these artists in a visually creative sense is an activity that juggles many personalities. Cuff, a dance label run by French DJ duo Amine Edge & Dance has taken an alternative approach to designing their record sleeves, choosing a different artist to illustrate a group of releases every quarter of the calendar year.

Presently the duo hailing from Marseille has released three out of the annual four sets of sleeves. The first is a series of shapely, graphical covers by artist Alejandro Macizo. Alejandro’s illustrations of vivid formations are filled with colour palettes that reflect the chopping and changing nature of the music recorded.

The second is a repleted sleeve of heavyweight black illustrations by The Doodle Man. The artist’s illustrative approach is reminiscent of artist Keith Haring if he had emulated dance and house music.

The third is a collection of monochrome illustrative sleeves interspersed with a single colour by Brazilian artist Elvis Moura.

The final designs are by artist Lefty Out There. Each of his sleeves are full colour luscious depictions of the label’s sound, shimmying and twisting configurations for the eye to get lost in.

Amine Edge & Dance are currently part of a residency at London’s Ministry of Sound.