Visual language

Seen on the street.

How Graffiti Soul Records looks in the wild: the way we shoot, treat and lay out images, dress a release and show up on social and on the web.

01

Photography direction

Real light. Real places.

Our photography is documentary first and cinematic second. It is shot in the places the music comes from, under the light that is actually there.

  • Real light

    Practical light, hard flash and neon. Night, tunnels, cars and studios over flat daylight.

  • Direct presence

    Artists look at the lens or clearly away from it. Never a stock smile, never a generic pose.

  • Honest skin

    Tattoos, scars and texture stay in. Retouching removes distractions, not character.

  • Place as character

    Concrete, brick, chrome and signage. The location should feel like the artist's world.

  • Room for type

    Frame with negative space so headlines and marks can sit without covering the subject.

DJ playing in front of a painted skull mural
Close-up of a face in a masquerade mask under blue light
Two people working in a green-lit recording studio
Artist in the back seat of a vintage red convertible

Five shot types

  • Close-up of a face in a masquerade mask under blue light

    Portrait

    Tight, direct, close to the artist. Soul territory.

  • Two artists posing beside parked cars at night

    Street

    Artist in the city, wide enough to read the place.

  • Two people working in a green-lit recording studio

    Studio

    Process, gear and collaboration in real rooms.

  • DJ raising a hand behind the decks

    Live

    Decks, crowds and motion, blur allowed.

  • Back of a camouflage jacket printed High Vibes on an empty street

    Detail

    Hands, ink, jackets and objects that tell the story.

02

Image treatments

RAW. SOUL. MARKED.

Three treatments keep a mixed archive of nightlife, studio and street photography feeling like one label. Choose one per image, never stack them.

Tattooed DJ wearing a Graffiti Soul Records shirt

RAW

Grit and evidence

  • Monochrome
  • Auto-levelled contrast
  • Crushed blacks, visible grain
  • Slight underexposure

Use for: Street, live and documentary imagery. The default for editorial and social.

Singer in a red jacket sitting in a car in purple smoke

SOUL

Warmth and feeling

  • Colour retained, muted
  • Warm bias, lifted blacks
  • Soft vignette
  • Fine grain

Use for: Portraits, ballads, intimate moments and anything led by emotion.

Two artists in denim jackets and sunglassesno trespass

MARKED

The vandal touch

  • RAW base
  • One Tag Red mark
  • Tape or sticker detail
  • Optional handwritten line

Use for: Release drops, announcements and hero moments. Once per layout, never on every post.

Before / after

Hands pressed together in blue light

Original

Hands pressed together in blue light

RAW

Hands pressed together in blue light

SOUL

Hands pressed together in blue lightamen

MARKED

03

Editorial layout system

Grid first. Then break it.

Every page, poster and post starts on a 12-column grid. The structure is what makes the vandalism feel intentional.

Masked artist pointing at the camera in red light

Artist
Name

A — Cover

Full-bleed image, one giant headline, logo pinned to a corner.

Producer holding a MIDI keyboard against a white wall

Artist File 01

“A pull quote sits here. One line, one redword.”

B — Feature

Bone paper, image in 7 columns, standfirst in Playfair, a red word for emphasis.

Index

  • Street01
  • Soul02
  • Ink03
  • Editorial04

C — Index

Type-only list on concrete. Rules, numbers and one tag.

  • Grid

    12 columns, 24 px gutters, 40 px outer margins on screen and 12 mm in print. Everything aligns, then one thing breaks.

  • Scale

    Extreme contrast in size. A headline several times larger than the body, with clear steps between.

  • Space

    At least a third of any layout is empty. Silence is what makes the tag loud.

  • Ratios

    4:5 for portraits, 1:1 for covers, 16:9 for video, 3:4 for posters. Crop tightly and deliberately.

  • Hierarchy

    Label, headline, standfirst, body. Four levels, never more.

04

Album-artwork relationship

Their picture. Our frame.

Artwork belongs to the artist. The label supplies a quiet, consistent frame so a release is recognisable on any shelf, screen or wall without ever overruling the art.

Close-up of a face in a masquerade mask under blue light

Artist name

Release title

GSR-001

Front — artwork 1

Two artists posing beside parked cars at night

Artist name

Release title

GSR-002

Front — artwork 2

Singer in a red jacket sitting in a car in purple smoke

Artist name

Release title

GSR-003

Front — artwork 3

  1. 01 Track one
  2. 02 Track two
  3. 03 Track three
  4. 04 Track four
  5. 05 Track five

Credits, notes and rights in Inter, 8 pt minimum.

Back — editorial system

  • The artist owns the picture

    Cover art expresses the artist. The label never imposes a template, palette or typeface on the artwork itself.

  • The label owns the frame

    A consistent set of small elements identifies a GSR release across every format.

  • Stamp bottom-left

    The Mark sits bottom-left at a fixed proportion (9% of the cover width), in Bone or Tag Red.

  • Catalogue number

    Every release carries a catalogue number in Inter, GSR-001 onwards, set on the spine, back cover and credits.

  • Back and spine

    Back covers follow the editorial system: Soul Black ground, Anton track list, Inter credits and the wide wordmark.

05

Social content families

Five families. One feed.

Content is planned in families so the feed reads as one voice at any speed. Each family has a look, a format and a job.

  • Masked artist pointing at the camera in red light

    OUT NOW

    Drops

    1:1 · 4:5 · 9:16 · MARKED

    Release announcements, pre-saves and out-now posts. Artist artwork with the label stamp and a single Tag Red mark.

  • Two people working in a green-lit recording studio

    In the room

    Studio

    4:5 · 9:16 video · SOUL

    Sessions, gear, works in progress and late-night studio moments. Process shown honestly.

  • DJ playing in front of a painted skull mural

    Say it loud

    The Wall

    1:1 · 4:5 · GRAPHIC

    Typographic posts: lyrics, quotes and statements on concrete, paper and paste-up. The brand at its loudest.

  • Producer holding a MIDI keyboard against a white wall

    The file

    Artist Files

    4:5 carousel · RAW / SOUL

    Profiles, short interviews and portrait carousels in the editorial layout system. One artist, one story.

  • Two artists posing beside parked cars at night

    After dark

    Street Signals

    1:1 · 9:16 · RAW

    Events, city moments, scene news and playlists. What is happening around the label and why it matters.

Feed rhythm

  • Alternate image and type posts so the grid reads like a wall of paste-ups.
  • Every third post is a Wall or Artist File. Drops are limited to real releases.
  • Use MARKED on at most one post in five, otherwise the tag stops meaning anything.
  • No stock, no trend-chasing templates, no unlabelled reposts.
06

Website direction

A wall you can scroll.

This site is the reference implementation of the system. Structure and pace from the editorial world, texture and attitude from the street.

graffitisoulrecords.com
Masked artist pointing at the camera in red light
LabelArtistsIdentity

Controlled
Chaos

  • Dark first

    Soul Black canvas, Bone type, Tag Red reserved for action and emphasis. Concrete and paper surfaces punctuate the scroll.

  • Photography leads

    Full-bleed images with the RAW, SOUL and MARKED treatments, always with a scrim so type stays readable.

  • Slow motion

    Reveals and settles that feel deliberate. Nothing bounces. Everything respects reduced-motion preferences.

  • Fast and light

    A static site, optimised images and system-grade performance. Music is the heavy part, not the page.

  • Accessible by default

    Keyboard support, visible focus, AA contrast for text and Tag Red kept to large type and graphics.

Site structure

Home
Cover, the 80/20 rule, pillars, The Wall, roster, manifesto, submit a demo.
The Label
Foundation, positioning, pillars, tone of voice and the manifesto.
Artists
Roster, releases and collaborators.
Identity
Logo system, colour, typography, The Wall and tattoo illustration.
Visuals
Photography, treatments, editorial layout, artwork, social and web.
Contact
Demo submissions, press and licensing.
Work with us