3 by Indochine

Vinyl cover 33T and its supplement of the album named “3” from the french group music Indochine, 1985 

Vinyl name: 3
Music groupe: Indochine
Label – Stranded Rekords
Country – France
Released – 1985
Genber – Electronic, Rock, Pop 
Style – Synth-pop, New Wave, Pop Rock
Texts subjects – the blurring of genber identity, ambiguous discourse,  sexual liberty
Medium – offset lithograph
Pressed By – Audiodisc ABPhonographic 
Copyright – Didier Guinochet Productions
Mixed At – Red Bus Studios
Licensed From – Didier Guinochet Productions
Recorded At – Studios Ferber
Design – Marion Bataille
Mixed By – Joe Glasman Percussion, Choir – Arnaud Devos
Photography By, Artwork – Paolo Calia
Producer – Indochine, Philippe Eidel

Even today, the younger generation still listens to the band, which was born 40 years ago. In the early 1980s, the French musical landscape was in the midst of a revolution. It was the music of the whole world, electronic sounds were born and offered a great period of musical creativity. At that time, the new wave style, the rock music, were reserved to the Anglo-Saxons. It was during this period, in 1981, Indochine was created. They are four, at the begening, it was the result of an unexpected meeting between Nicola Sirkis and Dominique Nicolas.

François Mitterrand was elected President of the Republic. It was a financially glorious period for France and culture was widely promoted. Although the group’s style was more focused on the new wave movement, it quickly won over a large young audience. While Téléphone, their competitor, reigned over French rock, Indochine’s orientation was different. Rock music appealed enormously to the working classes. Nicola Sirkis’s lyrics are readily poetic and romantic, appealing to a wider audience.

The cover is colourful and textured to saturation with a strong visual. In the foreground and centre is a photo of a composition of dark roses with feathers. The photo is in black and white and then recoloured by hand. This allows the creation of textural effects in the background. There is a saturated cloud image in the background. The designer combines different backgrounds in the same tie and die spirit (coloured filters, negative effects, painted textures and prints). The effects are overdone, everything is superimposed without balancing, making it chaotic. On the booklet inside, there is a patchwork composition. The text is superimposed on a gradient background, making it unreadable.

For the name of the group «Indochina», the designer chose a bold handwritten typography. It is rock and also reminds us of a more underground and street culture such as tagging which was emerging at the time or the post-punk movement. It is the white and pink negative of the cloudy background. It is underlined by a black shading that makes it imposing. The title «3» is short and enigmatic. It is also in negative but has no shading. It is romantic, the body is thinner, which makes it hardly visible.

The cover is printed in offset (1976, invention of offset printing), the latest printing technology. The macitoch will be released the following year, so the cover is handmade. The typography is drawn and to add the text to the image, the designer uses typseting. Elements such display large letterings were the standard.