I find comfort in what my mind can't comprehend

Comfort zones, we all have them when we want to feel like there is nothing wrong (there is always something wrong) but it's good to feel like there is nothing. I resort to music that I used to listen to when I was growing up. I still know all the words and it just feels good to listen to. I love it but I don't listen to it like it used to because of this comfort zone.

I try to break out of it as often as I can. Using the logic I once heard from the wise man known as Keith Richards; I want to find out the guys that inspired the people I liked. One of the main references for this was Elvis Presley. Elvis was inspired by the Blues which is why I think The Stones became a Blues band and not a "Rock and Roll band" (in the Elvis sense). So I listened to David Bowie (especially his Berlin stuff) and was told it was inspired by Krautrock. Now I am a big Can fan. I listened to Talking Heads and they were inspired by Steve Reich so I got really into Music for 18 Musicians and Double Sextet. I listened to Billy Bragg and was inspired by Woody Guthrie so made it my business to listen to him. Listened to Joy Division and they liked William Burroughs so explored his work. Listened to The Clash and they were big big Dub fans and now I am a big big Dub fan. I love to explore.

It pushes my frame of reference and joins more dots. You can do this with film and games and books and beer. It doesn't make sense to me to stay in a whole of comfort. The clubbing people who go out every week to the same club, to listen to the same music with the same people; it will lose it's thrill really easily. Without an element of change you will end up hating what you like. With change you may end up hating what you used to like and like what you used to hate.

You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)

 Been making gifs today if you can't already tell. Both of these gifs are for my fictional post punk record label "Conventional Experimental Records"; named after the line in The Mighty Fall song "New Puritan" which is my favourite Fall song (at the minute). It flickers between Jawbone and the Air rifle (album version), The N.W.R.A (album version) or New Puritan (Peel Session).

Anyway, Got Side tracked. I have been meaning to make these gifs because with this being a record company the main output of the label will be records and what do records do; spin. Gifs have come back into popularity with recent introduction to social media. They were a very thing because all websites used them to get that "cutting edge" look because web pages were just static; now they have so many elements that move; they aren't needed as much.

I hope to add these to my website to add movement to portfolio of awesome work (if I say so myself).

 

At the Record Company Meeting, on our hands are new star.

 

Punk has always been a source of inspiration for yours truly. But for this project it was it's after effect that inspired this project. Post Punk was just incredible; I am still finding new albums that just pushed the punk's spirit so far that it became jazz. Punk and Jazz are just opposites who would of thought they'd work so well. The Contortions, The Pop Group even X Ray Spex with honking of sax on Oh Bondage, up yours! just seems still illogical but it works.

Post punk seemed to reject the punk look but keep it's spirit and that is what I have tried to do here. It's lo fi enough to have been done in the budget restraints of a punk group but keeps it's class by not been a photocopy of a photocopy with a coffeee stain see punk fanzines. A lot of post punk was about bright colours; the work of Barney Bubbles could only of existed in this limbo between scenes but this was just meant to be simple and cheap.

I have created the base set of everything you really need to start a record company; the logo, the company sleeve in which your records go & the label that goes on the record. I have done a poster with my made up bands names that are on the label. Bands Like; The

  Ex Music, Tempo//Tempo and Higgs Boson.

 

 

         

This is an Outrage.

 Would you just look at these? It's amazing what these fake artists will do? Releasing cover album after cover album. Just because you change the style up doesn't mean they are creative people. What really winds me up is the fact that all of these ludicrous LP are being sold, that's right guys these records are being sold by Oxfam online. I am aware that makes them second hand and that someone else may have already covered this. I don't know what else to say. Hammond Organ versions of The Fall? who wants to hear that really. I don't know. I wish these posers would release some original material... RANT OVER!

Last night a DJ Saved My Life

Have you ever felt so proud of a piece of work you want to shout it from the rooftops, well that is something that I have just made. In uni I got given the job of developing a TV ident for a new TV channel that I have made. It won't get to telly but hey I wish it was a channel.

I chose to make a TV channel of vinyl records because they are my life outside of graphic design. Style wise it was initially based on the google play logo it has turned into an MTV bright light show. The dots are my love of litchenstein, most of the elements are hand drawn and the bright colours are because I have a little soft spot for design that visually attacks your eyes.  In the words of Miss Sophie Taylor (my bro) "I like it but it hurts my eyes"

Digital Punk

 Digital DIY. Punks would of hand drawn these and hand coloured them using felt tip pens and then photocopied the life out of them. In modern times. Punks if they want this aesthetic can just use a computer tablet and a pen. No Photocopier. No Cost. You loose a little of the style but is an easy way of getting hand drawn text and images onto the computer. 

I did these flyers to promote records in general as i do consider them to be a marvelous invention. It has since become a status symbol for hipsters who want to look fashionable. Punks would of made flyers like this themselves to promote the new single or EP as it was the cheapest most cost effective way of doing so.