This year’s Axiom Eclipse Insanity design was absolutely a step out of my comfort zone. After the year and a half MVP HQ has had with dealing with the pandemic and keeping up production; it was a relief to know exactly what the disc and plastic-type were going to be at the start of this project. I would say the main priority was expressing polarity between structured design and chaos. Trying to find an impossible medium for someone too far gone into the “insane” realm.

There is a complete clashing of styles in this design that was influenced by psychedelic surrealism, traditional tattoo, and gritty shading using small spray paint stippling. The ultimate goal was to design a stamp that had a light enough footprint to allow our highly-touted Eclipse 2.0 plastic to really shine through. That’s a challenging feat in itself but one that’s truly satisfying in the end.

I discovered an artist by the name of Afarin Sajedi that really gave me the confidence to jump off the deep end and go for it. I love her use of strong contrast and surreal ideas. Her compositions were really interesting and would aid in me thinking outside of the standard diameter confines and more of the pill shape that you see. The gaze of the figures in her paintings is just haunting. Other influences were surprising the Dumbo dancing elephant animated scene, Alex Grey’s spiraling elements, and that vintage carbon copy texturing against clean line work. Using my past experience with the Marie Curie Eclipse Reactor design; I was able to really dial depth through the different foil properties. White pigment backed by a strong glow allows it to penetrate through the foil creating different shades at night time. I’m thankful for our stronger glow plastic that really allows artists to design and plan in that sense.

As MVP HQ and I were testing final foil preferences, I had an idea initially for using purple or pink as one of the supporting accent colors. We initially decided on a blue metallic but I would come back shortly after and go with my gut choice of the lighter purple metallic. It aids in the play of funky weirdness/ stark death/happy skull contrast. It’s an uneasy design with the full intent to be just that. What do you think? Drop me a comment or tag me on Facebook with your Eclipse Insanity Special Edition out in the wild. Thanks for tuning in!