If you were to think of iconic album covers in the house world, you'll probably think immediately of Jason Brooks' original Hed Kandi designs. But at around a similar time, Naked Music over in the States was also producing 12s adorned with similarly slick and sexy imagery. The most amazing thing was having an impression of the music before even breaking the seal on one of their crisp import vinyls.
The original concept was put together by designer Stuart Patterson of L.A. design shop Colorola Studios. Interestingly, the design was originally conceived for OM Records, who rejected the ‘sexy, racially-vague, young nubile, in a seductive pose’ as being too literal an interpretation of the brief. But when OM's then label manager Bruno Ybarra and producer Jay Dene joined forces to create Naked Music in 1999, Stuart Patterson was on-boarded to resurrect the original designs.
Still reeling from the rejection by OM, Stuart was somewhat cautious about how far to take the concept, as much as the idea of diving into the abstract appealed. As a result, an auxiliary logo was created to accompany the 'nude' image, just in case it was subsequently deemed inappropriate. Alas, it never was, and Stuart gave life to what remains, in my view, one of the most striking and influential design concepts the house industry has seen in the last 13 years.
I've pulled a few high(ish) res Naked artwork images included in the slideshow below. Take a look, and have a listen to one of the label's most iconic mixes, in full, via the YouTube embed.
