Innovative textures and techniques in campaign for Decca Classics inspired by The Stalker

It’s all well and good creating some slick club posters for a techno night or something equally trendy. A strange found image, some wobbly experimental typography and off you go. But what about the less marketable side of music? What about the string section? It turns out that just because you’re wielding a viola instead of something to do with Ableton doesn’t mean your visuals can’t be as beautiful and bold.

We’ve learnt all this thanks to design agency DBLG’s new work for Decca Classics, which promotes its repertoire of string artists at music conferences and online, and will soon be used across other platforms too. According to the agency, the work was inspired by Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1979 film The Stalker. “We wanted to take the viewer on a journey through a variety of visual landscapes,” the agency explains.

“Given creative free rein by Decca Classics and the beautifully minimal piece by Avro Part Speigel im Speigel we tried to capture the emotional journey we’re taken on by the sound of the strings.”

DBLG designer Jason G Wiley first set about creating a map of the journey before experimenting with animating textures and recording live drawings on a graphics tablet. The result is gorgeously gloomy, bright textures and tones, with a subtle strings motif.