“Cold Fact” Vinyl Cover

As an assignment for my studies at Design & Formation school, a vinyl cover was to be created.

The album I chose for this project was Rodriguez’s “Cold Fact”. My choice was motivated by the impressive Sixto Rodriguez life story. When listening to his music I can’t help but think of the irony of fate.

During my verbalization process, I was touched by the wisdom of Rodiguez’s lyrics and the ingenious way he accentuates his message by playing with the rhythm of musical notes. I also felt that the influences that governed his creation were diverse and that he absorbed and expressed them like a rough diamond. This particularity accentuates the myth of a unique character who shows that “belonging” is far from being one of his concerns.

Therefore, I oriented my choice on a message of hope mixed with melancholy and nostalgia. I wanted to accentuate Rodriguez’s positive attitude and his wisdom on how to deal with life’s challenges.

My version of the album cover shows Rodriguez, alone with his guitar, walking. Like an avid traveler, more interested in wealth of spirit than in material wealth. He is only passing through a place, as marked by life as his own existence. Rodriguez is from Detroit and his album “Cold Fact” dates back to the early 1970s. Detroit was a prosperous city in the auto industry and declined in the 1960s. The 1970s gave way to ruins and a social wandering. This situation could explain the allusions to the corruption that Rodriguez makes in this album.