“They transport you to another era in a flash”: Jay Vaz on designing album covers for a new generation of musicians

Music is such a particular force. It’s the one art that seems to have something for all of us; it’s everywhere, holding our memories, binding our communities and being a constant in the background of our daily lives. For Jay Vaz, music is the driving force behind his artistry and holds significant memories of his childhood home. Tucked away in the corner of his front room in his dad’s wooden cabinet was a world of CDs and cassettes that gave him an introduction to the visually striking artworks.

In 2018, we spoke to Jay about his penchant for recreating some of these artworks on the way to finding his style. “I was so hypnotised by the bold and brightly coloured covers with playful mesmerising titles,” he tells us. Among them were everything from Grace Jones albums often designed by Jean-Paul Goude – where her poses, face and hair give off a geometric feel – to Teddy Pendergrass and Aretha Franklin albums boasting intimate and endearing portrait covers. “I redesigned them and even changed the covers for the albums on my iPod Nano,” he adds.

After a few years of sharing his reimagined covers online, Jay’s work caught the sight of Rhythm Section founder and DJ Bradley Zero. “He gave me my first ever commission for one of my favourite bands 30/70,” he tells us. Surely but slowly, he snowballed into more and more commissions for other artists that he admires. Although he now creates his works digitally, he has kept the same experimental process, sticking to his roots of drawing and scribbling in his sketchbook before anything else. In one of his more recent designs for Jerry Folk’s Castle Tape, Jay connects to the artist’s medieval themes to create a cover that even reflects the feeling you get when hearing the instrument samples. “When I initially designed the digital cover I didn’t feel that the world in the album was represented well enough, so I redesigned it in collaboration with my friend and textile artist Lou Gillian who cross-stitched the design,” he adds.

When you look at Jay’s work, you realise that he is surely tapped into a new generation of musicians, but also that he is one of the leading artists visually representing their work. One of his biggest projects to date has been art direction and design for the launch of Blue Note’s sub label Blue Note Re:Imagined, created to celebrate the new wave of jazz musicians and artistry. Throughout the visuals, Jay’s creative direction and design sits at the forefront of defining a new era for the genre, much like one of his greatest influences, Reid Miles, who created Blue Note covers in the 50s and 60s. “I was really inspired by his artwork for Jackie McLean’s It’s Time,” he tells us. “The design perfectly captured the energy of the track in such a simplistic way. It felt like it was moving on the page which is a powerful experience for me as a viewer and music fan,” he adds. Creating a similar feeling nearly 60 years later, he adds his contemporary spin, representing the new age album’s often electronic fusion with geometric patterns that feel as if they’re bouncing with the rhythm.

All in all, Jay’s work bodes unique interpretations of music of the past and present. And, although we’re not wishing the years away, we’re excited for how it will make us look back on today. Focusing on his arts and discovery platform Dreaming Vinyl that he co-runs with Lawrie Miller, he aims to continue shining a light on the up and coming musicians and creatives that they both love. Through visualisations of their favourite tracks with animated vinyl stickers and their upcoming transition to a record label that will feature their first compilation, his future seems to echo all that he felt when he discovered his father’s CDs and cassette tapes all those years ago. “Artworks can always take you to another space, where you can connect with different textures, images, typefaces and colours; they transport you to another era in a flash.”