The Reminder

Kosta Karakashyan spent three weeks hunched over his studio table, carefully cutting tiny birds and flowers from vintage magazines and colored paper, completely unaware he was creating one of the 2000s' most beloved album covers. The The Reminder artwork was born from pure analog craftsmanship in an increasingly digital world.

The concept emerged from Leslie Feist's desire for something intimate and handmade to match her folk-influenced indie pop. She wanted the cover to feel like a personal gift, something you might find pressed between the pages of an old book. The Arts & Crafts label connected her with Karakashyan, a Toronto-based designer known for his meticulous paper collage work.

Karakashyan rejected all digital shortcuts, instead sourcing his materials from thrift stores and his grandmother's magazine collection. He cut each tiny bird, leaf, and flourish by hand using X-acto knives and small scissors, some pieces no bigger than a fingernail. The delicate precision required meant he could only work for a few hours at a time before his eyes grew tired.

The layering process became almost meditative as Karakashyan built up the composition piece by microscopic piece. He started with the central songbird, then added concentric circles of flora and fauna, creating depth through overlapping translucent papers. Some elements were glued down permanently, while others were left slightly raised to cast subtle shadows.

The final collage measured just eight inches square, requiring extreme care during the photography stage. Karakashyan shot the artwork himself using natural light, spending an entire day adjusting angles to capture the dimensional quality without harsh shadows. He refused to retouch or enhance the photograph digitally, wanting the cover to maintain its handmade authenticity.

Feist was immediately enchanted by the delicate artwork, feeling it perfectly captured the album's themes of love, loss, and renewal. The Arts & Crafts team worried the intricate details might be lost when scaled down for CD format, but the cover's charm actually intensified at smaller sizes. The tiny birds seemed to flutter more convincingly when viewed intimately.

Critics and fans instantly embraced the cover's craft-store aesthetic, which felt revolutionary in 2007's heavily Photoshopped landscape. Music blogs dedicated entire posts to zooming in on different sections, discovering new details with each viewing. The artwork helped position Feist as an artist who valued analog warmth over digital perfection.

The cover's success launched Karakashyan into the upper tier of album designers, with indie artists specifically requesting his paper collage style. However, he's never quite replicated The Reminder's magic, partly because each handmade cover requires such enormous time investment. The original collage now hangs in Feist's home studio.

Vinyl reissues of The Reminder remain among the most sought-after records at independent shops, with collectors drawn to how the cover's textures translate to the large format. The gatefold edition includes close-up photographs of Karakashyan's workspace, showing the scattered paper scraps and tools that created the masterpiece.

Decades later, Karakashyan still receives emails from fans who've attempted their own paper collage tributes, though he admits none have quite achieved the original's effortless grace. He credits his grandmother's 1960s National Geographic magazines as the secret weapon, their particular paper stock and color saturation being irreplaceable.