Beginning a few months prior to Auris Apothecary's first release, we started interning with a local screen printer & musician, Jarod Isenbarger. Unbeknownst to us at the time, he had played in bands we saw in dimly lit basements and excitedly listened to their records all through high school. Continuing through the life of Auris, we sought his advice and commissioned him for projects, all while being taught the ins and outs of the trade. From the unglamorous cleaning of filthy, ink-covered screens to the rewarding final pull of a project, we received a university's education in screen-printing for the cost of hanging out with one of our early musical icons. One can find Jarod's name peppered throughout the credits and liner notes of our releases, always on projects we were most excited about and desired the extra touch that only a hand-screen-printed item can hold.
Fast forward to current day, and we are thrilled to announce that we have officially begun working under Jarod at In Case of Emergency Press after a year spent rebuilding the business from the ground up. We have been partnered for the past 2½ years in running The Artifex Guild, a DIY venue/studio/art gallery located literally right next door to ICOEP, and that will continue in 2016 in full effect. In addition to our usual assortment of experimental concerts, we're planning for more of our A/V Exhibits that are part of the Black Mass series of events, and more art-related things in general.
In the spirit of open sourcing, we decided to share our packaging knowledge for the common good by creating templates and offering guidance on some of our past releases' housings to In Case of Emergency Press. In addition to their typical J-card and O-card spreads, as well as the amazing Stumptown Printer's Brad Pack, we custom created clear pillow box, 2-piece colored jewelry box, and cardboard mailer layouts for use in projects by absolutely anyone, with more designs to come in the future. Admittedly, anyone can find and design art for these products themselves, just as we did in the past. However, we wish to provide a hand in helping others create their own custom limited editions, and we like to think we have a little experience in the matter...
Although this is unarguably a personal announcement more than label-related, and the connection is purely spiritual in nature and unofficial by all accounts, we couldn't help but share in what we feel is going to be a massive enhancement to our quality level, and we want to spread the wealth of unique cassette culture in any way possible.
Check out In Case of Emergency Press at the website, like them on Facebook, and follow on Instagram.
And speaking of screen-printing, 3 new t-shirt designs coming soon...