My band All Wrecked Up rode the wave of an urban revival of bluegrass and old-time Appalachian music at the turn of the century. In 2003 for our first official CD release I framed the rural signifiers of Matt Knoth’s photography within a mid-century modern design.
Wes Anderson had filled his films Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums with Futura.
The geometric regularity of Futura has suggested modernity since its invention, but in practice it contains a number of eccentricities that designers have spent the last century attempting to “fix”.
For this design I chose a Futura knock-off that feels even more slightly irregular—Monotype’s Twentieth Century.
I was also glad to work with a manufacturer able and willing to print a design featuring white on the blank silver of the compact disc. I picked up the white borders from the outer packaging, and the winding road sign from the cover photo, taken along the highway in Hiltons, Virginia.
