AUDIO ARCHIVES
Shot in-house in Berlin, the campaign imagery for the Audio Archives capsule collection was built around two distinct lighting environments, each serving a different emotional register.
The first setup prioritised atmosphere over exposure. Soft, angled front light was used to illuminate the garments without over-stating them, present enough to read the product, restrained enough to hold the mood.
The second set pushed further. The backdrop flooded in the project's signature Bloodorange Red, light reduced to a bare overhead source, pulling figures into silhouette. A direct nod to the ON AIR signal of a broadcasting studio.
At launch, the collection rolled out across Carhartt WIP point-of-sale locations worldwide. In cities with an active Radio partner station, the campaign extended into the storefront through dedicated visual merchandising windows, anchoring the retail experience within the wider Audio Archives universe.
A 1,300-page volume conceived as a physical archive of something inherently ephemeral: over 15 years of digital radio, made tangible. Printed on thin bible paper, balancing content density with refined tactility. The reference: the telephone directory. Comprehensive, uncompromising, built to hold every-thing. For the artwork sections, the paper shifts to high-quality image stock.
The design logic follows the analog-meets-digital thinking running through the entire project. The complete Carhartt WIP Radio journal archive was printed out and rescanned, introducing a Xerox-like monochrome uniformity across thousands of pages. Set on a strict baseline grid, sequenced without interruption. The scan effect achieved entirely through analog means.
At the centre sits the history of the in-house radio: archival artworks and visual documentation of every radio show from 2008 to 2025. Framed on both sides by interviews with the 17 radio partners, reflecting on the role of radio today and confronting self-curated music selection with algorithm-driven platforms. The book closes with a photographic documentation of each parti-cipating station worldwide. Wrapped in a vinyl sleeve: the semi-transparent material creates a moiré effect on the cover and houses the accompanying 7-inch flexi-disk, a compilation of jingles from every participating station.
The global kickoff of Audio Archives took place at NBB Gallery, Karl-Marx-Allee, Berlin on February 28, 2026. The event marked the starting point of a worldwide tour in which each of the 17 partner stations hosted their own event in their respective city, shaping the programme independently within the framework of the project.
The gallery space served as the first physical encounter with the project in full. Large-format prints drawn from the publication's content made the archive visible at scale. A dedicated table invited visitors to browse the book directly. All products from the capsule collection were available on location.
Central to the collection was a series of 17 individually designed t-shirts,
one per radio station. Each station had full creative control over the front print and the presentaion. The back remained consistent across all pieces, feat-uring the project map showing all 17 partners. Same visual that informed the all-over pattern of the record bag. All products carried a customised Carhartt WIP Radio label, reinforcing the project's identity at the product level. Furniture by New Tendency.
An 8-hour live broadcast soundtracked the event from 2pm to 10pm, streamed globally via audioarchives.live. DJs from the participating stations played during the day and were interviewed by Hugo Livsey.
