Some time ago, I was chatting with my friend Sonic (of Sonic Adventure Master Blaster fame… iykyk), and we were discussing The End of Oak Street and Michael Giacchino’s film score in particular. At one point, Sonic asked me which of Giacchino’s scores I’d like to see remastered. Naturally, my first thought immediately went to Super 8, a soundtrack that is notorious among film music fans for its poor audio quality. But at the same time, I’ve heard from several sources that no recording sessions for Super 8 have surfaced to this day, so a remastering job could only be done based on the official release and that makes no sense.

My second thought was Jurassic World, a score I love to put on again and again every summer. And every year I’m again bothered by the sloppy performance of the orchestra. Allow me to elaborate briefly. Please take a close listen to the ending of John Williams’ original Theme from Jurassic Park. It sounds dignified, sublime – downright majestic, right? Now compare that to the same motif on Giacchino’s Welcome to Jurassic World. I’m no expert, but that brass section feels like a first take that was hastily rushed through at the end of a long recording day. I’ve read that the recording sessions for Giacchino scores are always a blast and that the orchestra often gets to perform a few old classics – just for fun of it. And I’m genuinely happy for everyone involved, I really am. But imho, this particular recording of that significant classic lacked some of the necessary dignity. Of course, these are all just my subjective impressions. Also, and more importantly, these are things that even the best post-production can’t fix.

So, actually, my answer to Sonic’s opening question ended up being a score that I’ve always loved for its creative spark and playful wit, but whose tinny sound has always reminded me a bit of a live concert, and I was very curious to hear whether, or rather how, Sonic would manage to improve on that.

Of course, I’m talking about Michael Giacchino’s original score for the Brad Bird 2004 Pixar hit The Incredibles.

Ever since Sonic sent me his fully remastered Deluxe Edition, I’ve been playing it on repeat, and there’s hardly a day when one of the many score cues isn’t stuck in my head. Of course, I’ve also listened to it while working on these custom covers, and its 60s retro jazz aesthetic has definitely influenced my designs.

My initial goal for this custom covers collection was to come up with just a few artworks that would significantly differ from the original soundtrack (#1), without falling into the old designer’s habit of turning every remotely suitable poster image into a front cover. My credo was quality – not quantity. Turns out, just finding good source material for a 2004 film in a decent enough image resolution was a challenge in itself.

My very first idea for this collection was based on a set of posters featuring the family of supers, the Parrs. One was showing them in their super suits and another one in their normal everyday clothes and my idea was to design the same cover twice. Once with the original The Incredibles movie logo (#4) and then again with an alternative, or, more precisely, a literally opposite title (#5).

I came up with several possible variations, and Sonic insisted that I include them all in this blog post:

Naturally, I didn’t just change the word mark but also wanted to adapt the Incredibles family crest, a stylized “i” symbol, to fit my alternative titles. It didn’t always work out quite right, but in the end it didn’t matter, since there wasn’t enough space to include it in the final cover artwork anyway. After several tests I opted for The Mediocres because, visually speaking – in terms of font weight and letter spacing – it worked best as a film logo.

Plus, there’s a particular scene in the second movie when Robert Parr (aka Mr. Incredible) used that exact same phrasing:

“Because I’m formulating, okay! I’m taking in information! I’m processing! I’m doing the math, I’m fixing the boyfriend, and keeping the baby from turning into a flaming monster! How do I do it? By rolling with the punches, baby! I eat thunder and crap lightening, okay? Because I’m Mr. Incredible! Not ‘Mr. So-So’ or ‘Mr. Mediocre Guy’! Mr. Incredible!”

Bob Parr

And that brings us to the final three covers in this collection (#6 to #8), which – as mentioned at the beginning – come with a strong 60s vibe, particularly in the style of the James Bond soundtracks from that era. Speaking of, did you know that 007 go-to composer, John Barry, was actually the first choice for The Incredibles? Director Brad Bird had a very specific retro-futuristic sound in mind for his film – basically, a vision of the future from the perspective of the 1960s. Who better than the legend behind the iconic sound of the early James Bond films? John Barry had actually agreed to the project and delivered initial drafts, but the collaboration ultimately fell through due to creative differences.

Enter Michael Giacchino! A newcomer who, until then, had been known only for his work on video games like Medal of Honor and the TV series Alias. Giacchino landed the gig at Pixar thanks in part to personal recommendations, but above all, he won over Brad Bird right away with a classic 60s spy-movie sound and a rousing mix of big-band jazz and orchestral action.

It goes without saying that I just had to jump on this bandwagon with my custom covers and design a James Bond tribute cover (#6). After doing some research, I decided on Barry’s 1974 film score for The Man with the Golden Gun, since its layout was the best match for the source poster I’d chosen. To complement this soundtrack album, I also came up with vinyl singles for my two favourite tracks in a 1960s Mid-Century Modern style, which is characterized above all by clean geometric shapes, bold areas of colour and clean typography.

P.S.: If, like me, you prefer to tag movie soundtracks in your media library as OST without the “Deluxe Edition” suffix (and let’s be honest: if you own a Sonic Adventure™ Deluxe Edition, there’s no reason to keep the original version as well and thus have to use different tags) — then just click on THIS LINK and download an archive including all of the covers from this blog post without the “Deluxe Edition” label. Enjoy!