Levi Gaidos

Visual Communication Design, 2024

Vinyl collecting has seen a resurgence in popularity over the last decade. There is a new wave of fan, one that strives to feel connected to the artist in more ways than what streaming has to offer.

But, it can be hard to collect vinyl. You need the record and a turntable, making the process of listening to music a two-step purchase. With Baby’s First Vinyl, each vinyl album comes with the player ready to go in the back of the album packaging, making this process one easy step. Each year, BFV collaborates with one hit artist to transform their album into an exclusive vinyl experience including a fully branded turntable and needle, special inclusions (i.e. photocards, lyric booklets, vinyl press), and other potential collaborative events as part of the marketing campaign.

This project is two parts. The first part includes the digital design for the album cover, the design of potential inclusions (i.e. photocards, lyric booklets, the vinyl press), a 3D mockup of the BFV turntable (used for animation purposes), and a 3D rendering of a pop-up shop for the collaboration. For this project, I chose to take one pre-existing artist, BTS, and develop a hypothetical album with inclusions and apply that design to the BFV turntable template.

The second part of the project, which took place during the second semester, is the physical construction of the BTS x BFV. This is a functioning model of the BFV album, comprised pf all the elements listed above.

Levi Gaidos is a 4th-year student at The Ohio State University, majoring in Visual Communication Design and minoring in Music, Media, and Enterprise. His career interest lies in combining his main passions, music, design, and fashion. This has led to explorations in album artwork, merchandise design, poster work, branding, and a recent interest in dance.

To see what Levi is up to (curated and off the dome), what music he can’t stop playing, or what videos he uploads (finally!), click the link below