Art and Design by Ernie Wood

SimCity 3000 Vinyl

This unofficial vinyl release of SimCity 3000 was the first vinyl project I got to do the full art package for, and it was such a memorable and affirming process.

My client felt that a Keith Haring homage would be best suited for the sound and feel of SC3000, so I began diving in to his works and his processes so I could try and do his effortlessly wonderful style the best justice. The intent was to never do a 1:1 recreation, as it’s simply impossible to replicate, but I wanted the whimsy and sincerity of the thick bold lines and movement of the characters to come through as authentically as I could.

After deciding that a piece from Haring’s Lucky Strike series would be the most suitable fit, I drew 17 pages worth of content with my thickest Posca to scan in and piece together, then once everything was in the right place I vectorized it so I could play with the shapes more. Initially the background was stark white, so I scanned in 8 confetti textured envelopes and isolated those bits into a 12.5×12.5 PNG to emulate the jacket stock being a textured paper. Everything printed onto the stock is coated in a spot gloss to have that extra pop. Each center label is the same, but the sides are noted by the lights on in the buildings. The variant is what we lovingly named “concrete and asphalt”.

I didn’t grow up playing SimCity games (Zoo Tycoon was my jam in terms of sim types) but the music from this album is so beautiful and helped guide me through the artistic process, and I’m thankful this project introduced me to that work.

The center labels all feature the same art with differently lit up building windows to indicate the sides.