Chris Liebing

Evolver

StudioBergfors is a creative bureau collaborating with clients across a variety of sectors, including fashion, lifestyle, automotive, technology and music. The studio was founded by Edith Bergfors (photographer and film-maker), Ida Bergfors (stylist and fashion editor) and Anna Bergfors (creative director and moving image director), who has directed campaigns for Depeche Mode, Sade, The Prodigy and INXS. We spoke with Anna about the beauty of handmade analogue printing processes and finding inspiration in unexpected places.

Hello. Please tell us about the brief and commission.   Anna: We've worked with Chris Liebing and Roland Leesker (his manager, who is also an artist) for many years. They both manage labels we collaborate with; 'CLR' with Chris and 'Get Physical' with Roland.

We were originally introduced to Chris and Roland when we relocated to Berlin, thanks to the lovely Paul Taylor at Mute Records. Our first collaboration was to produce the artwork, videos and socials for Chris’ album Another Day which was released by Mute Records in 2021. Edith, my life and business partner, is a photographer, and we shot the Another Day album cover in the rather inspirational forests surrounding Berlin, as well as in various forests across Europe.

Since then, we've continued worked together on CLR releases and various other projects, the latest being the Evolver album. They know our approach very well, and we know theirs. That's one of the benefits of being around for a while.

How did the music inspire the creative process?
Anna: The images have a dark, raw quality, as does the sound, and the design amplifies that atmosphere. Everything produced by StudioBergfors owes its aesthetic to the handmade analogue techniques we employ. We like to combine various mediums and tools, bringing in digital tools when suitable and necessary.

I tend to collect artefacts with a view to using them in future projects. The stencil, used for the cover typography, was found in a strange shop in Copenhagen and then sat on various shelves in the apartment. I always enjoyed the way light interacted with it and really was the only choice for this project. We photographed the stencil against the sky and landscapes creating an infinitely variable alphabet that was hand pasted together. The typography is industrial in its usage, but also handmade, which is a suitable echo for the music. There was also a willingness to move away from pure black and white, so we started to experiment by adding more tonality.

Anton’s photography is, as ever, textural and beautiful, so the typography and photography echo each other nicely. For the following singles, Roy Batty and Symphonie des Seins (with Charlotte de Witte), pictured below, we incorporated the light glow from the letters into hand made rectangular shapes using various light-projection tools, to minimally echo ideas of evolution and progression.

Chris has been a huge fan of Anton for a while, so working with him was very exciting for everyone involved. There was a lot of beautiful imagery to work with, so editing the final selection was indeed difficult. Anton was, as ever, lovely to work with. 

What did you research when developing ideas for artwork?Anna: We didn't spend any time researching and jumped straight into creating the visuals. I guess this is because we've been working together for some years and share an aesthetic approach. For me, this is the only way to design. That said, Photoshop creeps in, but I use it as if it was a darkroom and a photocopier and a PMT machine… (If anyone remembers PMT machines).

Please share an insight into the design development.