Songlines – Covers
Songlines covers music from every corner of the planet and I was their freelance art director from 2005 to 2012. As a small independent title, we had tiny budgets. I was the only designer and did all the layout, production and marketing artwork, as well as art directing shoots and illustrating features. Below is a selection of covers.
This Angelique Kidjo cover used a metallic gold spot colour and it seemed she was very happy with the issue: “I just got my first copy of the issue Songlines!!!! It looks amazing and the piece is very strong! It makes me feel so good! Keep up the good work... Lots of Love, Angelique.”
I was particularly proud of us running this Gurrumul photo captured backstage by Jeremy Llewellyn-Jones. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a photo of a blind person on a cover without sunglasses. It was a brave choice for Songlines to commit to and helped challenge peoples perceptions of both blindness and what ‘should’ be on magazine covers.
I illustrated the cover of the Latin Wave issue, first by hand, then coloured and worked up in Photoshop.
Danny Allison illustrated this Fela Kuti cover.
Anoushka Shankar was shot by Harper Smith, Youssou N'Dour and Cheikh Lô were by Youri Lenquette.
The Osibisa cover used an original piece of artwork by the legendary Roger Dean. Tinariwen portrait by Marie Planielle. I commissioned Danny Allison to illustrate the Tomorrow's Icons cover.
I commissioned Andy Potts for the Africa Express illustration. Hugh Masekela was shot by Chris Saunders in South Africa, originally for GQ.
“Ben has always been great to work with: quick, efficient and, perhaps most importantly, calm under pressure as production deadlines loom.”
— Ed Stocker, Assistant Editor, Songlines