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Identity
· 2023
Ruis Records
Client
Ruis Records, a noise and ambient record label
Year
2023
Discipline
Identity
Scope
Name lettering, sleeve system, labels, tote bags
With
Tijn Hofman and Aya Verbeek (label)
A label for records that are mostly noise, so the sleeves are mostly ink.
Fig. 1 A wall rack in a record shop, RUIS 009 to RUIS 014.
Brief
Ruis releases about six records a year: noise, drone, field recordings. There is no money for photography and no wish to put faces on sleeves. Every release had to be recognisable across a shop and printable in one colour on cheap card.
Approach
Each sleeve is a single halftone of the record’s own waveform, enlarged until it breaks into dots. The catalogue number is the only text, set as large as the sleeve allows. The same black ink and the same rule carry over to the labels, the tote bags and the web shop.
Result
Seventeen releases in, record shops shelve the sleeves as a set. The label sold 400 tote bags, which paid for the last pressing.
17 releases
1 ink
400 tote bags
Fig. 2 RUIS 014, sleeve front: black halftone on white card.
Fig. 3 The halftone at actual size, where the waveform breaks into dots.