Sally Shapiro Design

Sally Shapiro for those who are unfamiliar, Sally (actually a pseudonym) is an indie Italo disco singer. She sings mostly about her hardships in love (most of the songs just want you to find her and give her a biiiiiiiiiiiig hug). Regardless, her music has a very cold (wintery) feel, and that is a very appealing part. However, she does not have much of an aesthetic to go off of. I used to be a indie music blogger (and judging by my viewership, a poor one ha!), but the new era of downloading/streaming/myspace/filesharing in the music industry has definitely changed how bands look at their own visual aesthetic. I have seen bands dedicate equal time to music and aesthetic.

For example, the French band Justice has created their own look to match their grunge/electro/european soundtrack synth pop.

They have basically re-defined the european style of what people say is "cool".

Their style is really more of a mesh of previous blends.

Recipe: Justice (the band)

Add one parts: Leather Jacket (ala MJ)

One parts: Wayfarers

One part: Crazy idea to brand themselves with the age old Christian Cross (note: Justice is not a Christian band, but have basically stamped the cross as theirs to use)

This is their debut album cover simply entitled "†" or "cross"

A shot of their live stage setup

Justice has created a very focused effort to brand themselves in this way. I am struggling to find a few words to accurately describe of what I can say about the band, but the aesthetic demands 18-24 year olds to stop and say "cool" or "thats hip" even if they don't even care for what Justice is doing.

Back to the topic on hand however, Sally Shapiro lacks a really strong brand behind her. Her music is cold and desperate and perhaps her visual counterpart should blend well with this. I created this "album" cover in photoshop for a song I like by hers called Anorak Christmas. The song is about falling in love with someone at first sight and not knowing if they would ever feel the same.

Here is the cover I created using a picture of her at night, and reworking an old record cover.

Originally it had the song name and her name (like most single covers) but the more I looked at it and listened, the less I felt it should have the words on it. I will let the warped album cover and her sweet face tell the story of the song.

This was created for my own personal use (on itunes, because I love the album view feature). I may start creating images more in the future because this is a lot of fun to try to visually create what the song means to me.

I feel that Sally Shapiro is a very special musician, but just needs some work on her visual appeal.