An independent record label in Manchester. Every sleeve carries a painting on the front and a colour alphabet on the back: each letter of the release name maps to one fixed colour block. Collectors assemble the key from multiple sleeves. If you can read the title without the key, the design has failed.
The catalogue number is the logo. FAC 83 identifies the label; the release number identifies the record. No wordmark or symbol is used on the front. The number is the mark.
Harbour Records
HAR 01
Manchester · 1983
On sleeve front
HAR 01
Colour-coded title
The key (back only)
Type a release title. The encoder translates it to colour blocks using the fixed alphabet. That sequence of blocks is what appears on the sleeve. No letter appears in type.
Each letter maps to a fixed colour. The same letter always produces the same colour. Spaces become a gap. Punctuation is dropped.
Five sleeve colours plus 26 alphabet colours. The five sleeve colours are used for grounds, rule lines, and the catalogue number. The alphabet colours are fixed: one per letter, never reassigned.
Jost Light for all sleeve and label text: simple, geometric, unemphatic. IBM Plex Mono for the catalogue number only. No type heavier than Light. No italics. Tracking is loose throughout.
Display — 300 weight, tracked .04em
Harbour Records
Body — 300 weight, 15/26
Distributed throughout the UK and Europe. All releases are limited pressings. Queries to the address on the inner sleeve.
Catalogue (IBM Plex Mono)
HAR 01
HAR 02
HAR 03
Two sides of one sleeve: the front carries the painting and the encoded title blocks. The back carries the full alphabet key, producer credits in Light type, and the catalogue number.
Front sleeve — HAR 01
HAR 01
Back sleeve — colour alphabet key
HAR 01 · Harbour Records
Minimal. The sleeve communicates through the painting and the code. Words appear only on the back, in the smallest legible size, for credit and reference only. No promotional language anywhere.
Trust the listener to carry the key.
The back-sleeve strapline for all HAR releases. Reversed from the painting's colour palette.
The system's whole effect depends on withholding the title from the front. Print the title in type and the code becomes decoration. There is nothing left to decode.
Redesigning the colour alphabet for each release—even slightly—destroys the system. The fan's investment in learning the key is the product. An inconsistent key means the fan's knowledge becomes wrong without warning.
Adding a band name or photograph of the artist collapses the gallery-object quality. The sleeve becomes a music-industry promotional item, and it cannot be both.
Using colours with insufficient contrast between adjacent blocks makes the encoded title illegible, which means it cannot be decoded even with the key. The blocks must each read as a distinct colour, not a tone.
HARBOUR
Self-titled · HAR 01
Title in type: system destroyed.
Nothing remains to decode.