71 ASHBY DESIGN | IMAGEFED
Thievery Corporation’s forte involves “respecting and loving the original thing, making it open to reinterpretation and relevant to a new generation of viewers and listeners,” says Neal Ashby of Ashby Design. His design for Thievery Corporation’s most recent CD is a reflection of just that.

Versions is an innovative collection of dubbed-out remixes by artists including The Doors, Sarah McLachlan, Bebel Gilberto, Wax Poetic, Norah Jones and Sister Nancy. Its packaging was designed by Ashby and partner Matthew Curry of Imagefed. Designer of multiple Thievery Corporation discs, Ashby says the challenge here was to create a whole new language with which to tell the story of Thievery Corporation’s magical and evolutionary process of remixing. Inspired by The Beatles’ 1966 Revolver album cover, both Ashby and Curry wanted this invented language to communicate solely through images. “Much like Eric Hilton and Rob Garza of Thievery Corporation bounce ideas off one another when making music, we exchanged images and ideas until the lines were blurred between design and illustration.” The result was a collaged compilation of close to 400 hand-drawn and appropriated images, combined to evoke the lush, organic world of musical discovery. by Tiffany Nicole Slade