Cephas Azariah
Joy Paradox
Design by Rosalind Clarke
Rosalind Clarke is a British graphic designer and photographer working at the Involved Group, founded by UK trance act Above & Beyond in 2000, and home to the record labels Anjunabeats, Anjunadeep, and Anjunachill, which specialises in ambient and downtempo music. We spoke to Rosalind about the art direction and design for 'Joy Paradox' the new album release by Indian-born British composer Cephas Azariah.
Released on Anjunachill (2025)
Hello. Please tell us about the brief and commission. Rosalind Clarke: I work in-house at the Involved Group, a music company with three different record labels (Anjunabeats, Anjunadeep and Anjunachill). I tend to work on the more downtempo Anjunachill label as my work suits the calming and considered nature of the music. I had previously worked with Cephas Azariah to design a custom single and EP covers which went down well, so I was approached for the album project. I’d always liked his music and his visual references had always felt very much aligned with my own.
How did the music inspire the ideation process?
Rosalind Clarke: The music itself is very calming and Cephas describes his music as about finding peace. I wanted to emulate this calming nature - nothing too bold or brash. Cephas was very keen to have his face on the cover, to give a face to a British Indian guy in a very white dominated music genre. The EP title is “Joy Paradox” and we wanted to touch upon these two contrasts visually, perhaps his face depicted in a surrealist manner.
What did you research when developing ideas for artwork?Rosalind Clarke: There were a lot of meetings to develop the ideas and bring Cephas’s music into the visual realm. To start, we spent a lot of time researching to find the right photographer; Cephas was keen to have someone with a similar heritage to himself. We found Sonali Ohrie through the instagram page “dietparatha”, which showcases the best South Asian culture and creatives. A lot of research went into tying all the singles and album artworks together, and finding the right props to do so.
Please share an insight into the design development.
Rosalind Clarke: It was quite a difficult project because so many people were involved and therefore a lot of people needed to sign off the artwork; the label team, plus Cephas and his managers, and then signing off with Sonali and her team. We were on a very tight deadline for print, so some fairly quick decisions had to be made.We also had one image that came back very different from how the label and the artist had envisioned, but thankfully we managed to negotiate a reshoot - we all wanted to have artwork we were pleased with. We went for a very simple idea for the short notice reshoot, and ended up with an image everyone was much more pleased with.
How did you develop the design and how does the final artwork reflect the music?
Rosalind Clarke: The design process for the final artwork really started on the photo shoot day with Sonali, where we could see the props and shoot in action. We had design limitations once we had the final images back, which made the process of the final artwork much more straight forward. It all happened quite quickly (especially with print deadlines). Thankfully any rejected design ideas were turned around quickly, as the main bulk of work was done with the photography provided.Design by Rosalind Clarke
Photography by Sonali Ohrie
Buy the ‘Joy Paradox’ vinyl here