Asymptote 漸近線

Cassette Tape Design for aoi 青虫

Local indie rock band AOI approached me to design the album art for their debut release, Asymptote (audio cassette–only).

AOI’s frontwoman explains the title like so: In geometry, there are certain curves which become straighter and straighter the further along you go. You can think of one as running alongside some straight line, never touching or crossing it but always a little nearer to it than before. This straight line is its asymptote—a metaphor for the elusive dreams that we grind closer to each day, but which remain always just out of reach.

To translate this metaphor into a visual concept, I began with the three “types” of asymptotic curves (horizontal, oblique, and vertical), and pictured each as boundary lines dividing a canvas into three regions. From this, a sense of layering emerged.

In the final design, the narrowing gap in the center is depicted as a channel between two neighboring land- scapes, almost touching but completely isolated from each other. Each one features a cutesy character in transit along this channel, both to suggest the scale of the image and convey a sense of the long journey ahead.

在數學公式中。有一種曲線漸漸形成為直線，想像這個曲線正在追逐著另一個直線，它們永遠無法觸碰或交會，但隨著時間的前進，它們總是又更靠近一點點。這個直線就是「漸近線」。隱喻著好像每天都靠近正在追尋的夢想（或著幸褔）一點點，但又好像遙不可及。

為了完整傳達這樣的概念，我從三種不同方向的漸近線開始著手。想像漸近線公式在畫面分割成三塊，形成了一片風景。景色與景色之間的距離在某些角度看似交疊，但其實很遙遠。隱喻著漸近線之於追尋夢想的距離。而相隔在景色之間的道路中有一個傻傻可愛的小角色正在賣力奔跑，更詮釋了專輯主題的精神。

Client: aoi 青虫

2019