Brnjsmin returns with his long-awaited second album on Verydeeprecords, blending leftfield electronic(a) with bass-driven ambient and not not jazz. A tripping brain dance with a wink for fans of dreamy synths and early Four Tet.

For the artwork and release campaign, Nuremberg-based design studio Complex Pleasures combined line drawings by the artist himself with found images, typographic elements and glossy 3D graphics, creating a unique visual world reflecting the playful approach of the music.

The text is mostly set in Samara Keller’s Tempos Mono. In addition, some glyphs from ABC Maxi Round and LL Fiat77 can be found and the back cover features some customized bits and pieces from CirrusCumulus and GT Alpina.

[More info on Discogs]

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of Nuremberg’s “Kulturläden”, local design studio Complex Pleasures created a colorful book that brings together stories, images and documents from the rich history of socioculture in the city. The book combines individual anecdotes and interviews in an associative way. In our design, quotes, pictures and comic elements complement each other and ultimately lead to the question of the future of cultural work and participation. The graphic design is playful and collage-like and features illustrations by Alex Mages, free arrangements and classic typesetting, using Grilli Type’s GT Pressura and GT Alpina typefaces.

The 2025 album Passagen takes ZEMENT’s sonic exploration to new heights, offering more disco, punch, glitter, motorik beats, lyrics, and even more jazz.

For the artwork and release campaign, Nuremberg-based design studio Complex Pleasures combine psychedelic illustrations and weird AI generated images with bold and playful typography: Glyphs from Dinamo’s Maxi Round and Maxi Sharp form the band’s name while ABC Connect delivers Baustellen vibes, nodding back to the Rohstoff artwork from 2021. The lyrics and liner notes are set in GT America.

[More info on Discogs]

Right: Riso-printed inlay featuring liner notes by Tobias Lindemann

Limited golden edition of the LP containing a Riso-printed inlay with liner notes and a sticker

Left: LP inner sleeve featuring the lyrics. Right: Shirt design based on the LP artwork

LP back cover

Left: cover artwork for “Station to Station” single

Where does pop start and experimental music end? Instead of drawing lines, Red On keeps on exploring the spaces in between these supposed poles with his latest album Phantom Easy, out via Präsens Editionen. A record that offers moments of pure beauty as well as unpredictable, uncontrollable wilderness.

The design by Philipp Dittmar also plays with two poles: The photography of Meike Männel and the future 3D works of long time collaborator Sabrina Zeltner. The resulting mythical visual world fits perfectly with the elegant yet contemporary look of Kaj Lehmann’s ABC Synt. Dark Academia by Céline Hurka is given a special role: the single letter A, which marks the first side of the vinyl, is more of an illustration. Credits and infos are set in TWK Lausanne by Nizar Kazan.

The graphic concept also extends to the video for the single “Wildlife”, as well as posters for the audiovisual release tour and shirts.

[More info on Discogs]

3D cover image by Sabrina Zeltner, inner sleeve and tour poster featuring the photography of Meike Männel

Shirt design based on the cover image by Sabrina Zeltner

Meike Männel’s photography is an insight into the artist’s point of view, an invitation to share her kind gaze. With great precision and painterly poetry she carefully chooses her motifs focusing on landscape and nature. Her artist book Good Life transfers her mostly large scale photographs in printed media making use of an oversize format (34×24 cm). The publication features works from various ongoing series, exhibition views and texts by writer Anna Hofmann and art historian Dr. Teresa Bischoff.

Design studio Complex Pleasures chose a combination of GT Maru and GT America, leaving lots of white space for the works. GT Maru’s friendly characters were also used for stickers and cap stitching, becoming a sort of logo.

The book was made available in a limited edition of 100 copies via the artist’s website.

Rebecca Schwarzmeier’s photo work Autobahninsel examines the tension of German rest stops between moments of longing, unfulfillable promises, and the capitalist system to which they are subject. The work poses questions to these transit sites that oscillate between public and private, as well as to the society that produces these places.

It is a bubble at the edge of the highway, an outpouching that is nevertheless subject to the spatial-philosophical regime of the street. Although it seems to be static by its very nature, it is characterized by extreme eccentricity. The pull forward that is so dominantly felt on the road does not let go of the travelers even when they rest. — Florian Werner (translated from the German)

For the first publication of the work Complex Pleasures designed a screen-printed cardboard folder containing 23 photographs and a text leaflet. It functions as an outlook to a publication as a bound book in the future and was released accompanying the artist’s diploma exhibition at the Academy of Fine Arts in Nuremberg.

The design features GT Pressura, nodding towards classic traffic sign typography, and combines it with the geometric and playful CirrusCumulus by Clara Sambot. With the use of the iconic A glyph and other elements from CirrusCumulus’ font set, the designers create some kind of abstract roadmaps or aerial views of rest stops and highway architecture and thus add a narrative layer in relation to the photographs and the title Autobahninsel (“Highway Island”).

HDMIHDGDL—or: shouldn’t audio-visual be called visual-auditory? Sabrina Zeltner a.k.a. Subrihanna has been on the road as a visual artist with various live video projects for years. In her artist book Showreel she makes the attempt to print her music videos, complemented by texts to reflect on her work by Kristoffer Cornils, Judith Grobe, Linda Weidmann and Meera Theunert.

The book contains 456 pages, most of which show printed video stills. The design of the text section combines behind-the-scenes footage and social media screenshots with blurred shapes in bright spot colors. It was designed by Philipp Dittmar at Complex Pleasures and adapts to the multi-layered visual aesthetics of Sabrina Zeltner's live performances and video works.

Softcover, thread stitching, six colors, German/English, Released by Verydeeprecords (VDR055, 2022)

Through which framing do we perceive images? How does their reception change depending on editorial decisions? How comprehensively is our perception of global events influenced by their media treatment? Which forms of contextualization come closest to what is actually happening? Can there be reporting that objectively reflects this? – Mira Anneli Naß

For politically read conceptual artist and photographer Jonas Höschl, the design studio Complex Pleasures created a unique artist book. The publication gathers numerous theorists, artists, as well as authors who, in our increasingly fragile present moment, respond to Höschl's work, and the media theoretical questions it provokes. The book's design combines Helvetica Now and Times Ten for a classic, plain layout with a modern and bold twist that puts the focus on the theoretical texts. In addition, it features illustrations by Karin Kolb, which float around somewhere between political protest banners and associative symbols.

Politik von Medienbildern ("Politics of Media Images") is available via Hatje Cantz.

After several years of touring with a continuously evolving audio/visual band setup, Red On combines the thereby gathered influences on his new studio album: layered acoustic drums, synths, voices and bass guitar form some kind of contemporary kraut/bass music.

For the LP packaging and music videos Complex Pleasures created an equally multilayered visual cosmos by combining the mystical photography and video work by artist Meike Männel, illustrations by Karin Kolb and fragments from Aldiviva and BBB Aufgang Ost. Text is set in several styles from GT America.

The album was released by Verydeeprecords. Shown below is the video for “Ordinary Ghosts (feat. Point No Point)”. Watch the video for “Metallic Blue (feat. Bird Berlin)” on YouTube.

Posters, flyers and website for the ongoing event series Wie wir leben wollen (WWLW) at Z-Bau, Nuremberg. The panel discussions and lectures bring political and socio-cultural topics onto the stage that we have recently only pondered in comment columns or alone in our closets.

The design by Complex Pleasures combines colorful illustrations and a clean and organized but flexible layout system. In contrast to this is the custom swoosh logo based on Nostra Stream. The website was developed together with Mario Igel and can serve both as a platform for upcoming events and and archive. On the posters, the date is set in Ambiant Sans. The body copy uses GT Super Text and GT America.

Transit Filmfest is an independent film festival in Regensburg, Germany. The lovingly curated program excites cineasts with an interest in underground directors and off-the-mainstream productions with international relevance. The 2020 edition dedicated to the topic “utopia” was highly impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic and will be caught up in the following year.

The artwork pairs 2D flower illustrations with Grilli Type’s GT Super Display/ GT Super Text and GT America Extended/Expanded. It was realized by Philipp Dittmar and Sabrina Zeltner at Complex Pleasures.

Function Level Marker is the name of a collaboration between Florian von Ameln and Sabrina Zeltner. Their debut vinyl releases are titled “01” (with the red/purple cover) and “02” (lime/pink cover).

Music is written and produced by Florian von Ameln, albums and posters are designed by Sabrina Zeltner. Cover photo by Meike Männel, mastering by Manes at Salz Mastering. Released on 12″ vinyl and digital by Verydeeprecords in 2019.

The artwork pairs Ambiant Sans (Laura Csocsán) with a number of more experimental typefaces: Zorn (also by Laura Csocsán), Sword by Kazuhiro Aihara, 12:51 by Colin Doerffler, and Nostra Stream by Lucas Descroix.

Music video for “Interzone 22”. Video stills at the end of this post.

Text by Meera Theunert, inspired by applicants for a mars mission.