Since the beginning of this year, music group Strings have released four songs from their sixth studio album, 30. Each song is accompanied by album artwork that has been designed by Sana Nasir. She is also the illustrator & festival art director for Lahore Music Meet as well as Nepal-based Sine Valley festival.
A collateral event (Sine Valley) was held in Karachi this year, titled Oscillations 1.0, featuring some of the finest independent artists in Pakistan such as Natasha Noorani, Bilal Nasir Khan (Rudoh), Danial Hyatt and Daniel A. Panjwaneey aka Alien Panda Jury. She designed the event’s artwork as well.
Not only have all her designs left a permanent mark on the cultural music scene but they are hard to dismiss or forget. She is much more than a visual artist and can tell stories through her work. In fact, the LMM 2018 invites came in the form of multitude of original designs and a cassette. Incredible, in a word.
Just recently, Sana Nasir collaborated with singer-songwriter Natasha Noorani for her debut EP Munaasib by designing its stunning artwork in entirety.
In a recent interview with Border Movement, Sana spoke about her design philosophy for LMM this year among other things. She stated, “My inspiration for this year took me back to my Sony Walkman days. When you had shelves lined with cassettes; when listening to a song on repeat meant rewinding back in time to just before the pause; when mix tapes were a thing and you’d scrawl playlists on their covers; when you’d tighten loose tape with pencils; when you’d discover and memorise bonus lyrics in the fold out album covers. There was a lot of DIY intent and construction involved to all of that, much like this festival.”
She added: “All the imagery revolves around relatable icons and people who love music. There are few things more humble and lovingly crafted than the homemade mixtape and that is the basis for what I believe Lahore Music Meet stands for.”