 |
||
 |
 |
 |
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
we think inside the box | ||
what my clients say...
Hey Susan, Well, you brought Woody not just out of the closet, but out of the box! This project would have gone "No Where!" without your talents, your presentation, your ideas, suggestions and dedication. Everyone who writes me says so!So I just had to thank you once again. Your work created a classy plate onto which we could offer this raggedy fare.... which made it taste soooooooooo much better than it even was. Really. I can't think of any other production we've ever done that is this special... intimate, informative, beautiful. It's a complete meal!
[Nora Guthrie, Woody Guthrie Archives]
Your work has been impeccable, beautiful, and insightful. Superb!
[record crank Christopher King, Producer, People Take Warning!]
Unbelievable...
[Josh Rosenthal, Tompkins Square]
OUTSTANDING! I love this! Thanks!
[Paul Anka Productions]
You rule! This is actually better than what I had in mind...
[Dean Blackwood, Owner, Revenant]
It is absolutely and joyously appropriate that the greatest graphic artist in the music industry doesn't work in the music industry at all. For the relentless dreamers and hardcore record cranks who own the independent, boutique labels of this country, World of anArchie is the distillery where Big Ideas are realized -- and with a crushing commitment to perfection that should make an awful lot of formally trained "professionals" blush. Mere merchandise may flood the market like so much malt liquor, but Susan Archie provides single-malt Scotch to any and all takers. [Jeff Hunt, Owner, Table of The Elements]
She's a great person to collaborate with. Her attention to detail is incredible, and any idea I would come up with always looked better after it filtered through her head and she'd had time to do her work on it. [Lance Ledbetter, Owner, Dust-to-Digital]
In a business where the ostensible air of professionalism runs as rampant as the hourly rates charged for services rendered, World of anArchie stands out as an icon of flexibility and affordability. Hailing neither from the cutthroat music industry nor the high gloss Madison Avenue publication oligarchy, World of anArchie encompasses all facets of design with flair and a remarkable attention to detail. All at a mere fraction of the prohibitive cost associated with traditional design firms. I have no higher recommendation for anyone with a record label looking for graphic excellence. [Stephen Fenton, Owner, edition...]
what the critics and my peers say:
About World of anArchie
Beauty seems to justify any extreme in (an)Archie's design philosophy. [Print Magazine]The best in the business. [Stomp and Stammer]
Where Music and Art collide... [Georgia Music Magazine]
Spectacular packaging... [Mojo]
At an awards show full of singers and musicians, Grammy nominee Susan Archie can sit completely silent and still blow the room away with her talent. [Atlanta Journal-Constitution]
We are going to have to annoint you First Lady of Design in music. You are killing!! [Hollis King, Creative Director, Universal Music]
Your design instincts are always on the mark. [Lenny Kaye, Nuggets producer and founding Patti Smith Band member]
Susan Archie is the wins. [Grayson Currin, Independent Weekly, Durham, NC]
The artistic engine behind the most ambitious box sets yet produced. [Sound Collector]
I'm doing a feature on the year's best boxed sets for Amoeba Music's Web site, and "People Take Warning" and the D2D "Field Recording" set will both be there. Beautiful work, my dear. May you win Grammys forever. [Chris Morris, Billboard]
I just wanted to send a quick note about the live Woody Guthrie booklet/CD. It's really great. What I like most about it, besides the great music, is that you really feel immersed in the concert by reading the book... I feel like I know Woody Guthrie in a more personal way after getting this set. Your packaging made it that much more special...
Sincerely,
Ben [a fan!]
Susan Archie is the design genius behind nearly all the best box sets that have been released in the last ten years or so. Seriously: all the various Revenant boxes, the Albert Ayler box, the Charley Patton box, the Beefheart box, and Goodbye, Babylon, the Dust-to-Digital gospel collection.
I've been meaning to post something about Susan's work for years, mostly as an exemplar of how record companies can find a place for themselves in the age of Post-Scarcity Entertainment.
Enthusiasm blog
About People Take Warning!
Outstanding!... A voyeur's delight.[Westward]
Along with the informative, lovingly designed booklet and the amazing music, "People Take Warning!" can easily sit beside the "Anthology of American Folk Music" and "Goodbye, Babylon" as one of the great roots music collections.
[Junkmedia]
Leave it to the Americans to astutely and beautifully deconstruct their own music and cultural history. In a unique and breathtaking way, this anthology... allows both experts and novices a critical insight into the rise of commercial rural music both for blacks and whites. Sparkling remastering by King with a brilliantly fetching design by Susan Archie gives the listener an heirloom quality package while the notes by Sapoznik and Tom Waits illuminate the tenor of the times in erudite and colorful language. This is a terrific team and one can only hope that Tompkins Square will reunite them for many more reissues in the future.
[Norman's (UK)]
About Albert Ayler: Holy Ghost
The Holy Ghost box treats Albert Ayler with religious devotion. It's a reliquary replete with replicas of a childhood photo, a handwritten note, a real pressed flower, and a weighty hardbound book of photos, timelines, and essays. A beautiful object, a trove of rare music and a triumph of jazz scholarship, it's a bargain at under $100... Blessedly ungimmicky![Kevin Whitehead, Fresh Air]
About Goodbye, Babylon
Perhaps the season's most astonishing boxed set.[New York Times]
The packaging honors, evokes and celebrates the known and unknown performers with subtle invention and quite dazzle.... It can't be overstated just how perfectly realized this set is, from song selection to mastering, writing and design. There's not a wasted moment or page. [No Depression]
Five stars. This fantastic box of holy ruckus is the greatest anthology of antique Southern sacred song and oratory ever assembled... packaged like a pioneer-family heirloom.
[Rolling Stone]
Probably the most beautiful physical package since Charley Patton's Screamin' and Hollerin' the Blues... magnificently designed.... There's nothing quite like it on earth and possibly in heaven. [Mojo, UK]
About Charley Patton:
Screamin' and Hollerin' the Blues
Lavish... akin to a perfect museum exhibition... [Spin]Perhaps the greatest archival reissue in the cd age. No love was spared, from the gorgeously retro design and nearly over-the-top packaging... [Billboard.com]
A work of mad and magical obsessiveness... worth every penny... [Newsweek]
Takes the do-something-properly-or-don't-do-it philosophy to its absolute conclusion. [Folkroots (UK)]
A set that marks a new standard in packaging and meticulous attention to every conceivable detail. The major labels could do worse than to emulate this box. [Denver Post]
Ranks easily amongst the most superb, complete, thoughtful and genuinely great achievements to be commercially issued in years. [Artvoice]
Outstanding... expansive... elaborately constructed and superbly illustrated... [The Wire (UK)]
This box set makes any other that came before it look like it was made with construction paper and crayons... simply the finest of its kind. [Othermusic.com]
The musical equivalent of a limited-edition, fine-press book, and it's easily one of the most beautiful collections of recorded music ever assembled. Exquisitely designed... [Amazon.com]
The single greatest piece of packaging art I have ever scarfed an eyeload on... this set must surely be absolute art. [Pat Conte, SecretMuseum]
what my vendors say...
It is such a pleasure working with someone of Susan's caliber. She is not only extremely knowledgeable, but more importantly understands the capabilities and limitations of all our processes - not a common factor to most project managers or design houses. I wish I had one of her at my other accounts.[Judee Welch, Ivy-Hill Warner Brothers]
You really are the best in the business. [Bill Goldstein, Parkside Printing/Imperial Paperbox Co.]
This work should be nominated for the "Special Packaging" Grammy. The design is eye-catching, smart and beautifully done. [Stacy Karp, A To Z Media]
Thank you very much for your prompt and detailed response. This is super helpful and actually echoes the dimensions and reasoning I have heard from the printer that we are most likely to use. [Scott Pollack, Principle, A To Z Media]