SOLAR CHROME

Solar Chrome grew out of an engagement with Seoul-based electronic duo Salamanda and their radio show in November 2022. The piece translates the artist’s image into a kinetic sculpture of typography and Carhartt “C”s, with chrome and glass forming the material language that breaks and distorts the background portrait of Salamanda. The camera movement gives the composition depth and motion instead of leaving it static.

Conceptually, the goal was to visually translate the artists’ sonic aesthetic, since a soft, warm sound was meant to be reflected in refraction and distortion. Since only the camera moves while the sculpture itself stays static, a restrained visual language emerged in the video flow: movement without urgency, matching the calm character of the sound. That is the real challenge of every radio show edition, as it requires capturing the image of the label or artist and translating it into Carhartt WIP’s visual language without either side getting diluted.

Audio Archives is a fully integrated 360° creative project encompassing a printed publication, a capsule collection, and a global program of radio broadcasts and events. It marks over 15 years of Carhartt WIP Radio and pays tribute to the enduring cultural impact of community radio today. Carhartt WIP Radio launched in 2008, at a moment when radio was slowly transitioning from traditional FM to the digital sphere.

Its premise was simple: an artist or label playing their own music, accom- panied by an interview. That format has endured, with contributors spanning Europe, North and South America, Asia, Africa, and Australia. Audio Archives was built from the same desire to foster connections through music. For the first time, the project unites 17 independent radio stations from around the world under a single collaborative initiative,

amplifying local voices on a global scale. From stations founded in 1969

to those launched post-pandemic, each is entirely its own, yet together they represent an emerging culture that has reshaped how we understand modern broadcasting.

At the heart of the project lies a tension that is also its driving force: past and present, global and local, label partner and Carhartt WIP. Two sides that face each other and become inseparable. This duality runs through every layer of the project, and finds its clearest visual expres-sion in the moiré graphic, where two independent structures overlap to create something neither could produce alone. The question the project asks is not just how a brand can celebrate its own musical history, but how it can connect vastly different communities, each with their own identity and story, on equal terms and at the same time.

CLIENT

Art DIRECTION

YEAR

SOUND

CARHARTT WIP

SARAH SCHWEIZER

2022/2024

SALAMANDA

The artwork worked so well that the collection team came back to it a year later to develop an all-over pattern for the collection, a task that became my responsibility. Translating the moving image into a flat surface was the actual design task, since detail and resolution of the glass-chrome look had to be preserved to hold up on fabric. The graphic was then printed in repeat via transfer process onto roll goods, which were sewn into shirts.

The pattern was used exclusively for this collection, where it was picked up by additional print graphics to keep the collection's narrative cohesive.

PHOTOGRAPH

Styling

MODELS

HAIR & MAKE UP

LIGHTING

Andrew white

Tracy Ahimie

Hedi, Pricela

Julia Barde

Robert Sampławski