POST’s artwork for Werkha’s ‘The Rigour’ EP captures the musician’s playful, iterative approach

Manchester-born musician Tom A. Leah produces an eclectic blend of electronics, broken beat, soul and jazz under the moniker Werkha. After releasing his debut EP in 2012, he received high praise from iconic DJ Gilles Peterson and went on to release a series of records through Brighton-based imprint Tru Thoughts. For his 2020 EP, The Rigour, he employed London studio POST to design the artwork. On how they got to know each, POST Creative Director Ric Bell reveals that Werkha “actually let us use one of his tracks for our design showreel, and in exchange, we agreed to work on his next album art. It was a great mutual trade of services as we all respect each other’s work”. Werkha feels that play is a crucial part of music-making, and the tracks on The Rigour EP “are the ones that best personify that, in both their sound and process.” POST took his outlook on board as an overarching concept, representing his playful approach with a series of abstract building blocks. Organic in form, the shapes stack up on the front of the artwork in a free-flowing nature and also lend themselves to a new Werkha logotype. On the execution, Bell explains that “after chatting to the artist there was a certain level of craft that could only be conveyed through a more organic look and feel. He shapes, builds and deconstructs his music, again and again, to get to the final track. This work ethic and ‘rigour’ is what we wanted to convey”.