A few questions with Susan Archie
Archie’s layered, ornate packages work to evoke the obsessive, nostalgic moods associated with record collecting and archiving
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By Wyatt Williams
Simply put, Susan Archie is responsible for some of the most memorable cover art of the last decade. Working as a freelance graphic designer with a number of loyal record labels, Atlanta’s Dust-to-Digital and Table of the Elements among them, Archie’s work has been repeatedly nominated for “Box Set Packaging” Grammys (four in the past six years) and praised by the New York Times. As anyone who has picked up a copy of Goodbye, Babylon or Screamin’ & Hollerin’ the Blues can tell you, Archie brings an a true artist’s attention to detail in her designs. These multilayered, ornate packages work to evoke the obsessive, nostalgic moods associated with record collecting and archiving. Some of her work can be seen at Spruill Gallery’s current exhibition, Run for Cover. Archie lives in Candler Park.
Tell us about yourself. Where are you from?
Boynton Beach, Fl. I lived a mile from the ocean. I was a surfer chic. I was always doing something artistic and musical in school. We had good arts programs and my mother encouraged my art. I was in the rhythm section in high school orchestra and played the cymbals in marching band.
Did you study design in school?
When I was in college at FSU I disdained commercial art. Then real life set in. You gotta make a living.