Eight years ago, music enthusiast Rusli Hashim was sifting through his old vinyl collection and realised some of the album covers of singers like P. Ramlee, Saloma and Kartina Dahari were damaged.“Back then, my daughter was a graphic undergrad at Universiti Teknologi Mara in Shah Alam, and I asked her to do the artwork, which I got printed,” says Rusli, 68, during an interview in Subang Jaya, Selangor, recently.
“In those days, there weren’t compact discs. When compact discs came to the market in the 1980s, many people stopped listening to records. He admits that his background in advertising and marketing, combined with his knack for design, helped him with the process involved increating album covers. His dining table is his workstation where he creates his masterpieces. His must-have tools include a cutting mat, scissors, ruler, glue and utility knife.Over the years, Rusli has amassed over 7,000 artworks of Malay, English, Chinese, Hindi, and Tamil record covers. He prides himself on producing high-quality album covers.He compiles orders and sends them to the printer once a week. After printing, the final step involves manually folding and gluing the cover together.
Although Rusli is almost 70, he continues to engage in various hobbies like furniture restoration and home repairs, besides working on new album covers. “We should have faith in whatever our religion teaches us. We should strive for a happy family life. Friendship can only develop when there is common interest. Look for activities we enjoy where we can meet people.