Surrealism and ’70s sci-fi nostalgia: how graphic designer Howdy Rabbit produced it in the audio business enterprise

Designer and art director Helen Rabbitte’s get the job done is a kaleidoscope of contrasts. Nostalgic and contemporary, north and south, surreal and calming.

Beneath the title Hi Rabbit, she has labored on anything from album covers and items to brand identities and stage visuals for audio sector giants this kind of as Common New music, Warner Audio Group and Columbia Records, and artists like Peggy Gou and Nadia Rose.

Her design is evocative of ’70s sci-fi psychedelia, with abstract imagery that makes individuals appear two times and heat, inviting hues and gradients that attract in the viewer, who will finally become the listener. Contemporary cues function in the variety of quirky typefaces, in some cases immediate from foundries and occasionally modified or hand-drawn from scratch.

Rabbitte was born and lifted in Liverpool, and despite the fact that the influences of northern lifestyle nevertheless aspect prominently in her get the job done – like streetwear designs and northern slang – she always saw herself in a major city and has produced a residence and a profession in Hackney, London.

“In London, you happen to be exposed to a lot more tradition and variety”, claims Rabbitte, which she feels provides one thing new and clean to her creativeness. She moved to the capital following finishing her illustration diploma at John Moore’s University in Liverpool to carry on her layout instruction and hone her techniques at Shillington College or university. It was in this article that Rabbitte uncovered to do the job with Photoshop and InDesign, as she had earlier favoured analogue drawing techniques.

Rabbitte commenced her job at the snack manufacturer Proper Corn, in which she worked for a few several years. “At the time, there had been about 20 of us all in our early 20s – it was a good giggle,” she remembers.
Even with this, she realised that her job would not be in brand structure, as she found the manufacturer rules that she experienced to stick to somewhat restrictive.

Her dream was to work in the songs sector, exactly where her name and exclusive model are now acknowledged and sought immediately after. On the other hand, it was not an quick market for a designer to break into with no connections in that realm and no new music-connected tasks in her portfolio.

“They are every thing I cherished about art, society and music.”

Operating as a permalancer for a pair of businesses following Good Corn gave Rabbitte time to get the job done on self-initiated assignments like recreating album handles that she considered could be a lot more creative. The function started out to get really a bit of traction on Instagram, and eventually, Rabbitte was approached for a compensated undertaking.

British rapper Nadia Rose’s manager was a person of the initial to make contact with her in 2019, a connection which led to many other tasks later on. “In the starting, I put masses of effort into projects, even if they were not that properly paid and pretty smaller, but it paid out off in the end”, she says.

Soon after listening to artist collective Soulection for all over ten a long time, Rabbitte landed a project with them, which she took as a indicator that she was on the right observe. “They are all the things I cherished about artwork, lifestyle and tunes, so for them to arrive at out to me as a consumer was a massive accomplishment for me.”

Peggy Gou Enjoyment Gardens was one more of her favourite tasks. She describes it as “collaborative” since she was no cost to inject her individual suggestions and fashion with guidance from the client crew. She adds that multidimensional initiatives like this permitted her to “produce a universe close to each demonstrate”.

“Anything that can reside exterior of the audio.”

Rabbitte’s imaginative system frequently starts off with listening to a monitor and then communicating how it produced her feel to the artist. Though music is constantly at the centre of her considering, her check out is that “some thing that can reside outdoors of the new music however evoke emotion in the identical way” is what tends to make a great album go over.

Whilst Rabbitte aims to operate across a selection of genres where by feasible and decide on customers whose eyesight aligns with her own, she particularly enjoys doing the job with artists in the dance music genre, as this will allow her the most artistic flexibility.

“The greater the popstar, the extra people and policies are associated”, suggests Rabbitte. For the reason that of this, she thrives when performing with scaled-down artists and unbiased labels.

Most of Rabbitte’s tasks involve shoppers in the songs sector, but she nonetheless takes on initiatives exterior of that business to “extend her creativeness” and end her acquiring “caught in her ways”. She a short while ago finished up a branding and packaging venture for a Uk-based mostly wine brand name, Other Environment Wine.
“What great is that I am in a situation to say no to initiatives that I experience would be interruptions,” says Rabbitte.

“Surreal, rather humorous and just a little bit psychological.”

Rabbitte has a very long listing of purchasers she’d really like to perform with in the long run, like NTS, Nike, and Tyler the Creator. “I feel Tyler the Creator is so innovative himself and aligns with a ton of what I do in phrases of getting surreal, fairly humorous and just a bit mental”, she suggests.

“I’m setting up to favor inventive course to doing the real creating, so I might enjoy to be the creative director of a studio – possibly even my personal studio – in the potential”.

For now, Rabbitte is performing as a freelance layout director at Funfair Data – a label lately founded by one of her contacts, who earlier labored at Sony – operating on all around five releases every month in the realm of dance tunes.

Her do the job with Other Earth Wine is also ongoing as the model prepares to launch a new products quickly.