A mesmerizing exercise in Op Art for French electronica outfit Acid Washed – taken from their forthcoming debut album – by acclaimed British graphic designer and director Anthony Burrill, with the help of his regular filmmaking collaborator Paul Plowman and Zac Ella.

Anthony’s bold graphic and advertising work has graced campaigns for London Underground, Wallpaper*, The Economist, New York Tourism, and Diesel. And since his days at the Royal College, when he created idents for MTV, filmmaking has been his regular sideline activity. These have included the marvelous short film Toys (for Grafik Magazine), a witty ad for the Hans Brinker Hotel in Amsterdam and a Michelle Plays Ping Pong video for Daisy Daisy – all in collaboration with Plowman and Malcolm Goldie.

Anthony is now creating an integrated campaign of sleeve design, music promos and live visuals for Acid Washed’s debut album. The plan, he says, is to “make visuals for every track.” And the General Motors video is the first moving-image result, very much following the theme of his geometric-themed sleeve design. Seeing is that the track is six minutes long, that’s quite an achievement.

“The challenge was to keep it interesting but still keep it really minimal,” says Anthony. “The track is hypnotic and slow. We worked out a number of sequences, but in the end we kept it simple. We did a complicated version, then we simplified it.” The result, where lines, shapes and colours constantly emerge, move and coellesce, is an intensely hypnotic accompaniment to the track.

Anthony and his collaborators have since created a follow-up to General Motors, very much on the same theme, for Snake. And a collection of his graphic work is also to be seen at the Mono Colour exhibition at Electric Blue Gallery, London E1 7EZ until 15th February.

Acid Washed
General Motors, Detroit, America (Record Makers)
Director: Anthony Burrill, Paul Plowman & Zac Ella
Anthony is represented by 2AM Films