1 album, and conceiving an illustrated lyric book in tribute to Hutchison. This year alone has seen Thomas reuniting with We Were Promised Jetpacks for their latest LP, creating the striking cover for Mogwai’s first UK No. He’s had the opportunity of working with different kinds of artists, helping to mark the sounds and storytelling of Agnes Obel, Tom Brosseau, and David Karston Daniels in visual terms. One of his biggest projects came with Mogwai’s 2006 record Mr Beast, which has led to many collaborations with the band in the years since. Since going freelance around 2005, Thomas has retained his relationship with the label and some of the acts that have been associated with it, including We Were Promised Jetpacks, Mice Parade, and Gregory and the Hawk. With the establishment of the FatCat imprint 130701, a home for post-classical music, he got to collaborate with the likes of Max Richter and Hauschka over multiple records. He worked closely with the late Frightened Rabbit frontman Scott Hutchison on the artwork for every album since their debut, and was involved in every record Vashti Bunyan put out in the second phase of her career. As he became more involved with the packaging and visuals for each release, he got to work with bands like The Twilight Sad from day one, building long-term relationships that have lasted until today. Even though these acts were gaining plenty of traction around that time, it was still a relatively small label, and he was able to gradually take on more responsibilities. Thomas was already familiar with some of the bands the label represented, like Sigur Rós and múm, and got to work with the latter. Even though it wasn’t immediately related to his field, he took the opportunity. One day, about a year after he’d finished university, he walked into a record shop: FatCat had just moved from London to Brighton in 2001 and was looking for an office junior. He sent his work to pretty much every record label he knew, but didn’t receive any positive responses. He always had a love for music, gravitating to punk and indie at an early age, and figured he could try combining his two interests. After moving to Brighton to study illustration, Thomas wanted to avoid being pushed down a path as an illustrator where he would have to be defined by a specific style, and was more interested in engaging with the ideas around a project.
The impressive range of his work can partly be attributed to his early connection with FatCat, the English independent label that was founded in 1997 and whose output spans various genres, from experimental rock to electronica. Over the past two decades, Dave Thomas, a graphic designer and illustrator who creates under the alias dlt, has helped build the visual language around some of the most successful and influential bands in alternative music.
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