My Eye See You (1984) Design Gets A Remix For Dutch Public Radio VPRO 3voor12
“Eye See You (2024)”, my redesign for Song van het Jaar, The Remix 2024 on VPRO 3voor12.
How A Remixed Eye See You (1984) Made It To Amsterdam
My design for Eye See You (1984) has been around for a while now. It was inspired at the beginning from events heating up politically in the United States, and especially by certain groups calling for the banning of books, the closing of public libraries, and reaching for more access into our privacy as citizens.
The design has made its way across the globe, mostly in the way of stickers sold on Redbubble. I've always wanted it to be a reminder to be careful with your rights, your data, and your government. And of course, to go read the book that inpired the design!
You can imagine my delight when I received an email from DJ Sandeman looking to use the design on a yearly roundup mix for Dutch public radio station and website VPRO 3voor12. He said he was looking for a dystopian theme for this year's mix, inspired by events that unfolded in 2024.
Sandeman started googling book cover designs for George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. He found my design and reached out asking if he could get the art and update the year to 2024 to use it for this year's mix.
Well of course I had to make this happen, but I was hesitant to hand off the one design I've done that has made the most impact.
So I decided to recreate it.
Remixing The Design For 2024
The redesign process with Adobe Illustrator was easy and a great exercise to run through. I wanted to create it from the ground up without using the original Illustrator file.
The original design was simple enough to get close to. I wanted it to look similar and updated, but not exactly the same. I thought of what I'd do differently if I was designing this for the first time.
This process led me to change the overall shape of the eye. It also felt right to remove some lines around the pupil, allowing for more negative space and less clutter. You can see the differences in the image below.
The subtle differences between the original (1984) design and the 2024 mix album cover.
I'd like to thank DJ Sandeman for reaching out. I had fun with this project. It was great to be able to revisit a design I love and send it back out into the world with a new look and purpose. You can find links to Sandeman online and more below.