Press Release
Mariusz Szypura Is Honored with the Bronze A' Design Award for Chopin Residue Music Album Cover in Packaging Design
Mariusz Szypura acknowledged for packaging design by the international grand jury of the 2025 - 2026 A' Design Award & Competition
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COMO, Italy, April 24, 2026 /DesignNewswire/ Chopin Residue Music Album Cover by Mariusz Szypura, designed for Black Element Label, has been granted the Bronze A' Design Award in the Packaging Design category, A' Design Award & Competition has announced. The award was conferred within the 2025 - 2026 A' Design Award & Competition and was reached through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who assessed anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.
About the Bronze A' Design Award
The Bronze A' Design Award is given to outstanding designs that showcase a high degree of creativity and practicality. It recognizes the dedication and skill of designers who produce work that stands out for its thoughtful development and innovative use of materials and technology. These designs are acknowledged for their professional execution and potential to influence industry standards positively. Winning this award highlights the designer's ability to blend form and function effectively, offering solutions that enhance people's lives and wellbeing.
More About Chopin Residue Music Album Cover
The artwork featured in the album inserts documents a series of large-format pieces created from thread waste produced during the lathe cut vinyl process, the physical negative of the groove. The design treats the package as an extension of the music, uniting sound, material, and process in a single physical object. The album reinterprets the works of Fryderyk Chopin with artists associated with Portishead, Sonic Youth, Battles, Beck, David Bowie, and Tortoise.
About Mariusz Szypura
Mariusz Szypura is a Warsaw-based composer, multi-instrumentalist, music producer, graphic designer, and visual artist. His practice spans music production, intermedia installation, album and visual identity design, and audiovisual performance. Over three decades of activity, he has worked across the Polish alternative music scene and international contemporary art contexts. His projects have been presented at institutions including Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw, Fridman Gallery in New York, and BALC Gallery in Osaka. His sound installation accompanied the "Redefining" pavilion at Malta Biennale 2026, awarded the Maltese Falcon for Best Pavilion.
Award Record
With this recognition, Mariusz Szypura is a winner of 1 A' Design Award.
About the A' Packaging Design Award
The A' Packaging Design Award is an international packaging competition that recognizes outstanding packaging designs by talented packaging designers worldwide. The competition is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to packaging designers, graphic designers, branding agencies and product manufacturers from all countries. Entries typically include bottles, boxes, cans, pouches, tubes and cartons. Awarded packaging designs are published at https://designers.org/design-category/packaging
About A' Design Award & Competition
A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade organized annually since 2008. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The A' Design Award has a philanthropic mission to advance society through good design by recognizing and promoting superior products, projects and services that benefit society, and by creating a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles. Entries are peer reviewed and anonymously evaluated by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members against predetermined criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, sustainability and technology, with score normalization applied to remove biases. Awards are conferred at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron levels. The A' Design Prize granted to eligible laureates includes the award trophy, the certificate of design excellence, the hardcover yearbook, a lifetime license to use the A' Design Award winner logo, exhibition of awarded works, an invitation to the gala night and award ceremony in Italy, inclusion in the World Design Rankings and Designer Rankings, and public relations and publicity services. Registration, the upload of a work and the preliminary score are free of charge, and Professional and Digital Edition laureates are not contractually obliged to pay further fees to claim the A' Design Prize. Further information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com
Press Resources
- Winner Page: https://designers.org/179587
- A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/179587
- Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!179587
- Laureate Profile: https://designers.org/d/378080
- Further Information from the Laureate: https://mariuszszypura.studio
Media Contact
Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953
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Fact Sheet
The Work
- Project
- Chopin Residue Music Album Cover
- Function
- Music Album Cover
- Category
- Packaging Design
- Discipline
- Communication Design
- Industry
- Packaging & Retail, Branding & Advertising and Manufacturing
- Colors
- Silver, Dark Gray, Lavender, Gray and White Smoke
- Images
- 5
- Client
- Black Element Label
The Recognition
- Laureate
- Mariusz Szypura
- Country
- Poland
- Recognition
- Bronze A' Design Award
- Edition
- 2025 - 2026
- Design ID
- #179587
Credits
- Image Credits
- Photo by TAKT, Chopin Residue, 2025.; Photo by TAKT, Chopin Residue, 2025. Video Credits: Concept, Direction, Music, and Visuals by Mariusz Szypura, 2025.
Design Details
- Unique Properties
- The cover of Chopin Residue is generated from the album’s core idea: residue as what remains after deconstruction. Created through the same lathe-cut process that produces the sound, the artwork uses vinyl waste as its visual material. Reinterpreting the music of Fryderyk Chopin with artists linked to projects such as Portishead, Sonic Youth, Battles, Beck, David Bowie, and Tortoise, the package becomes a physical extension of the composition, uniting sound, material, and process.
- Inspiration
- The project was inspired by the idea of residue as a creative outcome - what remains after a process of reduction and transformation. The design emerged from research into lathe-cut vinyl as a physical recording method, treating sound production as material practice. The motivation was to translate an abstract musical concept into a tangible object, where recording, waste, and form become a unified design language.
- Research
- Type of Research: practice-based artistic research. Research Objectives: to translate musical deconstruction into physical form. Methodology: sound recording treated as a material process. Data & Tools: lathe-cut vinyl recording, material observation, photography. Participants: the artist and collaborating musicians. Results: vinyl residue became visual material. Insights & Impact: the research links sound, object, and design, showing how production traces can shape meaning in music packaging and contemporary design.
- Challenge
- The main challenge was translating an abstract musical concept into a physical object without illustration or decoration. Internally, this required rethinking historical album design and treating sound production as material practice. Externally, limitations included small-scale manufacturing, legal constraints of physical formats, and the unpredictability of lathe-cut processes. Balancing conceptual clarity with technical constraints required continuous testing and adaptation.
- Realization and Technology
- The design was developed through a process-based methodology, treating sound recording as a material practice. Vinyl shavings produced during the lathe-cut process were collected, preserved, and used to create physical artworks. These works were then photographed and translated into the album packaging. The production emphasized minimal intervention, tactile materials, and small-batch manufacturing, allowing process and material to define the visual language.
- Operation and Interaction
- The object is experienced by opening, holding, and listening. The package reveals the music while visually showing traces of how it was made. Images and materials guide the user from sound to its physical remains. Interaction is slow and tactile, encouraging attention and reflection. By connecting listening with touch and sight, the object creates a deeper, more memorable experience than a standard album cover.
- Project Duration and Location
- The project was developed between 2023 and 2025. Music recording and vinyl cutting were carried out during this period, followed by the creation of the visual artworks and packaging design. The album and its physical editions were completed and released in November 2025, accompanied by exhibitions in NY and Osaka and presentations of the related artworks.
- Specifications
- Physical formats include: Vinyl LP sleeve approx. 315 x 315 x 5 mm; CD digipack approx. 142 x 125 x 10 mm; cassette case approx. 110 x 70 x 17 mm. All formats were designed as tactile objects, with dimensions following industry standards to emphasize material presence and consistency across editions.
- Keywords
- residue concept, album packaging design, lathe-cut vinyl, material-driven design, experimental music artwork, process-based design, sound as material, physical music object
