Carl Mansson and his Gibson Flying V - Carl has long been in contact reagrding this album and it was a blast to have worked on the packaging for Kong Fuzi.
A little bit of research too me too...
...Inspired by "The Life and Works of Confucius" and the sketch created in 1687, from the Pages of Confucius Sinarum Philosophus ("Confucius, the Philosopher of the Chinese"),
an annotated Latin translation of three of the "Four Books" of Qing Confucianism by Prospero Intorcetta, Philip Couplet, Rougemont, and Herdtrich (Paris, 1687)
My idea was to take this iconic illustration and turn it into the album cover. I set about the task of creating Confucius holding Carl's famous 'Flying V' guitar. The Chinese workers are also busy in the background working on the creation of othe guitars and a bank of 'built' guitars stretched back into trhe distance - How many "Flying V's" can you see?
The colours shouted red's, brown's and gold's - well in my mind they did. The format also had to be square for the CD (and possibly LP), so a lot of additional scene creation in Photoshop. The whole scene was replicated for the other panels but moving Confucius to the back of the scene meant filling in otherwise obsured parts of the scene. I played around with perception and perspective - A great example of this is the rear jewel case artwork, showing the 'Flying V' in the forground, yet Confucius is holding the neck from the back of the scene.
The more you look, the more you will discover.
above: Album CD's
above: Rear Jewel Case - Perspective of Confucious - Inspiration: MC Escher. Archways added, along with the floor construction and guitars.
above: CD Jewel case opened / CD Label artwork
above: Inside Rear Jewel Case - Again playing around with perpective, Flying V now part of the background artwork.
above: Album Credits
above: Web Advert
By God you are a genious Tristan. I didnt notice the alley of flying v:ees alongside and behind Confusious. And the men working on the guitars. Awesome - Is there more under the microscope? 😀 Absolutely fantastic. You are amazing. The idea of all this about Confucious came about from my daughters homework at school about the chinese philosopher. I had no name for the instrumental track. When I read about the values of Confucious it was all clear to me. lol. ////Carl.
Carl Mansson, from MANSSROCK