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"

Well you tried it just the Once (nsfw)

 and found it alright for kicks, and now you finding out that it's a habit that sticks... The opening lines from the Buzzcocks debut single.The front cover which was very controversial and very famous for featuring a nude lady with an ironing board for head and hearts for nipples. A song and piece of design I value very highly as one of the finest pieces of punk graphic design. The collage originally created by Linder Sterling, but designer Malcolm Garrett change it to blue monochrome.

This piece being the influence it was I decided to do a pastiche of it to sharpen up my photo collage skills, something I have not done in a while. So if you are in a place of work or just don't wanna see something that could be considered distasteful don't look below. Only problem is these images is they look very dance orientated instead of my punk pastiche but I still feel that they are funky. The colour choices are available here two different varieties.

All The Madmen

 The legends of modern rock can not be under estimated. Without the Glam Rock and David Bowie; You wouldn't of had punk. Without Pete Townsend you wouldn't have some of the best albums of the mod and Rock genre. Johnny Rotten was the man who inspired the British punk movement with his band the Sex Pistols. Psychedelia was never gonna be the same again once Syd Barret Got his hands on it.

Put the Needle on the Vintage Record

My love of music seems to seep into every post I do and this one is no exception. I have taken it upon myself to start a very expensive hobby; Vintage Record Player collecting. Below you can see my first rescued baby; a Fidelity HF45. She is a early 1970's machine, designed to look like and early 60's Dansette player. Me and my father repaired it as it had a noisey volume knob. It now works fine and looks absolutely beautiful.

Smiles

It is possible to say that one of the best British bands of the past 25 years are Spiritualized. The music from this band varies from the spiritual and almost religious to the very loud noise rock feedback sessions. So for those who have not listened to any of their music, do it, Buy "Ladies and Gentlemen We are Floating in Space" and listen to it in full.

Anyway, a compilation of their greatness was put together by my father and he wanted a front sleeve as well as inserts and back cover doing for this album. So being a big fan of the discography, I hopped to it. The lead singer during gigs prefers to sit and play his guitar so this was a beautiful image to start, I thought a silhouette of this image would look pretty sweet. I decided I had to keep the design in the sty;e of their designer Mark Farrow (a design legend who has worked with the like of the Manic Street Preachers and Pets Shop Boys). Below is the front in which this silhouette features; the name of the album is from a tribute video to the band.

 

The back cover proved to be more difficult to do as their was no obvious inspirational ideas or images until I came across a nice live shot in which displayed the large screen normally set behind the band. This particular pattern was very simple and worked really well in this context so I used that. editing it to be the same colour as the front.It links to the front as well as they are both inspired by live shots.

Fan Girl Moment (from a bloke)

Since coming back I have really gotten into the debut album by Courtney Barnett, bought the LP while I was away and just can't stop listening to it. Flawless. So my current (this will pass)  favourite thing to do is to make a poster using lyrics and stylings from the album it's off. So I made this (see below); A basic but unusual typeface "Rex" and a crop of the debut album sleeve as well as track listing.  Basic was the aim because that's what the illustration was like on the front (done by her).

Looking on her website, she has a contact e-mail which seemed to be directly her, rather than the management, which the bands who they are celebrities don't have. So I e-mailed this to her thinking nothing of it. Then yesterday I got this and freaked out.

I AM NOT A GRAPHIC DESIGNER

Back to Basics

This was a project that I did for my band Back to Basics. We were doing a release for a present for our mother (our joint biggest fan w/ my dad). At the time I was very inspired by the ideas and concept laid down by David Carson; a hero of typography who challenged legibility of type while still trying to convey the message. That is what you can see on the back of the sleeve; layers and layers type all fighting for attention. The Front is more simplistic that the back but in the sense follows the same principles. Is the B still readable as a B if the two holes in it are covered up? yes. These are my favourite covers from the project because you can see where the ideas are coming from. The final covers were very straight forward and lack the ambition I started with.

All Typography Posters *Sung in a Nico Style*

I know it's all very fashionable to say that I am a fan of the Velvet underground and it is also very fashionable to say that the Velvet Underground and Nico album is one of the best albums ever made. But I am not saying it because it is fashionable, I am saying it because it is true. I did these posters to pay tribute to that great band. Ever since Lou Reed's passing I wanted to make something that I could be proud of to say how awesome he was (Metal Machine Music and all).

The Velvets lyrics are almost as important as the ground breaking music that they made. I have taken a snippets from a selection of the best and most interesting lyrics. Dare, I say it one of these songs is sung by Nico. I tried to get a typeface match for the albums but this was not easy.

If you have not listened to any of their albums, do it now.

Fathers Day

 So Yesterday was Fathers Day and as you may or may not know that on any occasion like this it is designers job to do a card for the appropriate occasion. For my dad I chose to do a bit of rhyming and a bit of typography. Perfect combination. After all of these years of borrowing his records I thought it would be the perfect to pay tribute to his awesome collection. I think he liked it.