Stylepress: Manifestos of the editorial artist.

The art of Cosmogramma.


A video highlighting the visual work of Leigh McCloskey to accompany the cosmogramma album by Los Angeles musician Flying Lotus. Though these books don't necessarily reflect what we understand as the 'print industry', perhaps these hand created one-offs better reflect a possible future for printed material. The intention being as an art piece or desirable object, where the way the user engages with the content and the way it is presented takes priority over the clarity of the message.

Cosmogramma Cover Art - Flying Lotus (2010)

"A creative feeling emerges into us and we try to write it down and as soon as you try to turn it into words it dissipates and disappears." Leigh McCloskey.

Beyond the book itself this project also represents another important point in regards to printed media. The project is a collaboration between McCloskey and Steven Ellison (Flying Lotus), creating a cross-media project that works towards creating one overall message and end product. As album art the music still takes pride of place in the project and is still promoted as a musical album so is nothing overly new in that sense, but it does raise the question of how far cross-media collaboration could go and what it could do to inject excitement into many different industries/media.