Early work exploring tension through image, type, and surface.

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Vinyl and CD packaging for Chikinki’s final studio album Bitten, released by Sony BMG and Rough Trade. An early project from 2011 that laid the groundwork for a practice rooted in conceptual clarity, material precision, and format as narrative.

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The brief was open, but the album’s title offered a clear point of departure. The cover is a study in graphic tension – clean, open space interrupted by something visceral. A single image, tightly cropped: a cheetah’s open mouth. Teeth, tongue, pause. The title appears in an irregular, hand-drawn scrawl – more feral than fixed. Together, image and typography create a visual jolt: raw energy held against restraint. That tension extends across both formats; the cheetah reappears not as a figure, but as textures. Its fur moves across back covers, inserts and interior panels, while disc labels reveal a set of teeth – turning the act of removal into a quiet punchline.

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Typography throughout was treated with restraint, using a compact sans serif applied with control across formats. Inside the liner notes booklet, the mouth becomes a graphic motif – mirrored, rotated, and multiplied across spreads. The contrast between typographic control and photographic intensity reinforces visual tension at the heart of the design.

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While early – and not as refined as later work – the project remains a touchstone. It reflects a way of working that continues to shape larger commissions: that form should be led by concept; that image, type, and material must operate in dialogue; and that the physical structure of a format can be as narratively potent as the content it contains.

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Artist: Chikinki

Labels: Sony BMG, Urban Cow, Rough Trade
Art Direction & Design: Billie Temple