Monday, 25 January 2021

Jay Vaz Research


https://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/jay-vaz-graphic-design-240418

For 20-year-old Londoner Jay Vaz, music and design have always been inexplicably linked. His early years, exposed to “amazing jazz and soul music” has influenced and informed his career which sees him producing music and DJing as well as creating visual matter for gigs, nights and festivals. Jay’s portfolio is packed full of exciting and vibrant work, made all the more impressive when you consider how young he is. 

The vast amount of work that Jay (who is now based in Leeds) has so far managed to produce comes as no surprise upon finding out how young he began. It was music that first captured his imagination; Jay explains how from an early age he was “obsessed with my dad’s vinyl and cassette collection that consisted of beautiful covers from legends such as Change, Luther Vandross, Aretha Franklin, Patrice Rushen and George Benson.” However, when at age 12 he started his own collection, he would “pick up records to listen to purely based on how engaging the cover was.” 

A year later, Jay took his first steps towards the work he now creates alongside one of his biggest influences: his older brother. “His amazing passion and love for creating art changed the way I viewed everything,” Jay recalls. At the age of 13, Jay became heavily involved in one of his brother’s projects which consisted of “collaging and illustrating over disposable photos from his tours around the world with the jazz band he was part of.” With their projects sponsored by the likes of Lomography and Urban Outfitters, this early introduction to the creative world solidified Jay’s interests due to “how much I loved producing art and working with like-minded people who, like me, are excited about innovative ideas and creating exciting work.” 

When Jay started college, however, was when graphic design became his main focus. Studying art and design, music production and music performance, Jay met Harvey Wise who was in the same classes as him. The instantly clicked and began making music together as Art Bloc. “Before meeting Harvey, I had very little knowledge of graphic design,” he explains. However, after meeting Harvey’s family of designers (including Jacob Wise) Jay began to focus his creativity towards the medium. 

Jay now operates as part of The Mannequin Collective, a “creative family” of five individuals including Joe Ellis, Ollie Inglis, Hugo Inglis and Oliver Meeke in 2017. “The Mannequin Collective studio specialises in film, visuals, design and bespoke sound production,” Jay tells It’s Nice That. So far the collective has produced work for – among many others – Outlook Festival, Dimensions Festival, Smirnoff, Rhythm Section and a whole host of independent record labels and artists with the music industry. 

The work Jay produces here is clearly influenced by those early experiences of collaging alongside his family. “I love working with analogue techniques such as collage because it brings back nostalgic moments from my childhood,” he remarks, concluding: “I feel like I am still developing my style, but recently I have enjoyed working with animated graphics and experimenting with colour and texture.”


Vaz studied Graphic Design at Leeds Arts University from 2016 to 2019. 

He began designing freelance in 2018 and still does so now. In 2019 he began producing social media content freelance also. 

In 2017 Vaz founded The Mannequin Collective, a creative studio of six individuals. The Mannequin Collective Studio specialises within art direction, design, videography, and motion graphics. Their work includes working with brands such as ASOS, Boiler Room, Crack Magazine, Converse, Dimensions Festival, Garage Magazine, Outlook Festival, Paul Smith, Polydor Records, R&S Records, Red Bull, Rhythm Section, SONY, Smirnoff, and Virgin Records. They have also worked with a variety of exciting artists including Alicia Keys, Kali Uchis, Jorja Smith, Celeste, Glass Animals, Yussef Dayes, Lava La Rue, Nubya Garcia, 30/70, Oscar Jerome, Seb Wildblood, Cherise, George Riley and many more. 

Employees at The Mannequin Collective include: 

Jay Vaz, founder

Oliver Meeke, graphic design

Hugo Inglis, Motion design and videography

Lawrie Miller, motion design 



Have you ever looked at a vinyl artwork and wished it could move? Well, even if you haven’t, Dreaming Vinyl is here to prove why you should have.

Founded by Jay Vaz and Lawrie Miller – also members of The Mannequin Collective– this dream has quite literally been made a reality as it visually interprets pre-existing and premiered songs in the format of animated vinyl stickers. Celebrating the relationship between music and visual art, Dreaming Vinyl is “as much about musical discovery as it is about artistic experimentation,” Jay tells It’s Nice That. “We have found the intersection between motion design and music a powerful medium to explore.” 

Having both studied graphic design at Leeds Arts University, Dreaming Vinyl’s founding duo soon realised their shared interests. They met a variety of like-minded individuals, too, with whom they started their own collective to collate and share their collaborative freelance work – that being The Mannequin Collective. 

With much of their work thrashing through every corner of the music industry, Lawrie tells us how the most frequented briefs from clients have always gravitated towards the topic of vinyl sleeve design. “We found ourselves really enjoying experimenting with the vinyl sticker design process,” he says, “eventually leading to the idea of animating the vinyl stickers, which we hadn’t really seen done before.” As such, the idea of curating a new platform to showcase songs came to fruition, comprising animated vinyl stickers created by friends and artists that also premiered their own tracks on the platform.

A relatively new platform, Dreaming Vinyl’s aim is to become a community for musicians, designers and artists, plus a space where its viewers can discover new music and creatives. Doing just that, the project puts both Jay and Lawrie’s inherent search for new vinyl covers and music into practice. With the two of them working on the design, Lawrie deals more with the animation side of things. This “reimagined” artwork is thus transformed as the duo draw inspiration from the songs they listen to collectively within The Mannequin Collective. “For premieres, we like to see this as a collaboration with the artist,” says Jay, “where we discuss ideas and translate concepts from their music to the artwork.” 

So far, we have seen vinyl animations made for south London-based producer Ben Hauke, designer and producer Harvey Wise, producer and DJ Will Lister, Haai and Herman. “By curating, creating and exploring the interplay between visual art and music,” points out Jay, “we hope we can connect people to musicians through their mutual love of art.” By promoting and supporting artists through their own platform, they are simultaneously supporting sites such as Band Camp and Discogs in the process. 

This devotion to supporting those within the industry comes from their own experiences; over the last few years working in the industry, both founders have “noticed the power of motion graphics” for its ability to engage audiences through different platforms, particularly Instagram. “We want to create content for these platforms to be used by artists to promote their work,” says Lawrie. “Many of the animations aim to grab the attention of the audience within the first few seconds, taking into account how social media content is currently being consumed.” 

The kinship between music and animation works two-ways. Not only do Dreaming VInyl’s founders believe that the experience of hearing a song can be “enhanced” by motion graphics “that match”, but that it also works the other way round. “Both music and motion graphics are a form of expression,” says Jay, “for which there are endless possibilities.” An example of which rests in an interpretation of a song through the use of abstract imagery, “manipulated in a way that makes the visual clear in relation to the sound”. Rather than pinpointing a specific narrative or theme, the visuals are devised objectively in order to match the song’s emotion and sound. “The freedom of what can be achieved through motion graphics is something that really interests us,” concludes Lawrie. “We hope to use this philosophy to express thoughts and emotions in an exciting way.”


Pictured above: I found a playlist of all of the cover artwork Vaz has created. Good to use as reference.

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