“I’ve been at the intersection of art and music for a long time and what I’ve found is that when two inspiring art forms intersect, it gives you a remarkable feeling,” says John Van Hamersveld, reflecting on his prolific album cover oeuvre. For the past five decades and counting, Van Hamersveld has immersed himself in the music world, specifically the rock’n’roll scene, designing record jackets for iconic albums such as The Beatles’s Magical Mystery Tour, The Rolling Stones’s Exile on Main Street, and the surf documentary film, The Endless Summer. His drawings stand alone as masterpieces in their own right, rekindling memories and igniting new emotions with their vibrant hues, psychedelic undertones, and stylistic typography. “These iconic images have a tremendous ability to influence someone’s experience, oftentimes it becomes permanently embedded in our collective consciousness.”
Wrensilva has deep roots in craftsmanship and design, hand-making consoles from American hardwood in California and embracing both analog and digital technologies. It’s co-founder and CEO, Greg Perlot, called on Van Hamersveld to capture the brand’s ethos. Known for his integration of drawings by hand with digital editing and production methods, and, namely, his deep appreciation of music, Van Hamersveld channelled his storied learnings into the California-based record console brand’s limited-edition poster. Featuring a Wrensilva console with music spiraling into a swirl of sound, it exudes the experience of playing “your favorite vinyl.” Contrasting colors, red and blue, play off each other in the backdrop while a yellow foreground seemingly jumps off of the page in the same way music flows from a record player. “By reducing the image and superimposing it into its primary element [the Wrensilva console],” says Van Hamersveld, “you get this depth that is like sound itself.”
