RadioRetaliation:

For Radio Retaliation, the Grammy-nominated packaging design for Thievery Corporation’s fifth studio album, the challenge was to translate the duo’s deeply political and globally-inflected sound into a physical object that felt as resonant and purposeful as the music itself. Released in 2008, Radio Retaliation was conceived as more than just a record—it was a manifesto, a call to awareness rooted in world-spanning collaborations and sociopolitical commentary.

Rather than defaulting to traditional CD or digipak formats, the design foregrounded materiality and experience: a minimalist, industrial cardboard wrapper housing a thickly folded poster of liner notes, lyrical content, and visual context, with the disc nestled within the folds itself—no extraneous plastic, no gatefold gimmicks. This approach not only made the package collectible, but reinforced the album’s intent as a tactile, deliberate statement in an era of declining physical media.

The cover image—a photograph of the Mexican rebel Subcomandante Marcos—served as both aesthetic and thematic anchor, embodying the album’s defiant tone while positioning the packaging as an integral part of the artistic narrative. By stripping away conventional ornament and embracing eco-minded, editorial design, the Radio Retaliation package elevated the physical album into a design object that was as expressive and thoughtful as the music it contained.