Ulla Straus

Ulla Straus is a singer and songwriter born in Philadelphia. She finds inspiration in the concept of “glitch,” utilizing techniques of manipulating electronic tones and textures to create unique and often unsettling tracks. These compositions feature malfunctioning rhythms and melodies that are infused with electrical energy. She has a unique ability to create music that not only can be heard but also felt.

My initial process was to constantly listening to the album on repeat at any moment of the day and in any situation, taking notes of everything that was going through my mind, any key words that I could think of to describe the music. I then researched the artist and the venue to get a feel for what they are about and how I could reflect both in the design. Given the very electric feel of Ulla’s music, as well as the Phi Center being centered around technology, I decided to use those concepts for my design.

I tried a multitude of ways to give that electric glitch effect, always playing with lights or screens. This is how I ended up with my visual, a picture taken while waving my camera at fast speed in front of LED lights in the dark, creating some wavy rays of light. From this, I edited the visual to give it more of an electric blue.

For the type, inspired by the lines made from the LED lights, I decided to use a condensed font in upper case, It felt only right to make the type really big to make it play with the lines of light behind it while not completely hiding.

I then adapted this poster design to a vinyl design. I used another cropping of the picture for the inner sleeve and the vinyl sticker to keep it still related but not the same. The jacket also got a die-cut to reveal the lights from the inner sleeve, following its shape. To once again play with light, on the jacket, I used black on black foil to make the title of the album shine under actual lights.