Erich Martino is a Mexican-born digital designer and DJ based in the United States, who makes music under the nom de disque SO/LO. For SO/LO’s debut release, At the End of the World Plant a Tree (available on limited-edition vinyl and via streaming) Martino recruited British art director Hugh Miller, whom he had known since they worked together at Nokia in the early 2000s.
The music is largely instrumental, inspired by some extraordinary events in 2020, including the Covid-19 pandemic and the fierce, scorching Californian wildfires. ‘One day I woke up and there was literally no sun,’ says Martino, recalling the ‘apocalyptic’ skies he saw from his San Francisco home.
This project is a labour of love, a multilayered response to environmental issues. ‘How can I not contribute to climate change?’ says Martino. ‘There are no instructions!’ Martino sent some of his recordings to writer Adam Greenfield, who had recently published a thought-provoking pamphlet called At the End of the World Plant a Tree. Martino persuaded Greenfield to add his voice to the SO/LO project by reading passages from the book, and adopted its title. Realising that the expanded album needed an identity, he called on former colleague Miller to craft a look and feel for the project that would work across streaming channels and vinyl. ‘Hugh has a mathematical and poetic approach to visuals,’ says Martino. ‘There is something very precise about his work that I’ve always admired.’
Miller made creative use of Andrew G. Hobbs’s photographs of flowers and the uncompromising typeface TwoBit designed by British type legends Hamish Muir and Paul McNeil. ‘I’m a big fan of Muir’s 8vo and Octavo,’ says Miller. ‘TwoBit is a unique font with infinite applications … which spoke the same language as the work we were doing.’
Though there are many packaging elements to At the End of the World, Plant a Tree – boxes, slipcases, labels, sleeves and notes plus multiple (transparent) vinyl editions – a high point is a series of art prints. Effectively alternative LP covers, these were digitally printed by F. E. Burman in London, employing bronze foil and metallic silver overprint on 320g/m2 X-Per Premium White.
Credits:
Design and Art Direction: Hugh Miller, Erich Martino.
Photography: Andrew G. Hobbs.
Printing: F. E. Burman
Type: MuirMcNeil
