Post 6 – Album art – Peter Saville

Probably most noted for his record and album cover designs for Factory Records, Peter Saville was a designer whose career spanned several decades. His early work, in the late 1970s and early 80s, included album covers for several bands on the Factory Records label, but the ones that achieved the highest level of fame were for New Order and Joy Division. The bands that really brought the record label into the spotlight, Saville designed the covers for many of the two groups albums between the years of 1979 and 2005. His work was heavily imbued with original typographic style. He used anything from very basic typefaces, in simple blacks and whites (like some of the Joy division covers), to more complex fonts ( see Pulp’s ‘We Love Life’ album cover).

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He was notably influenced by the book Pioneers of Modern Typography by Herbert Spencer. The book included information that explained how modern typography had actually developed out of the ideas of 20th century painting, poetry and architecture, and not from the development of the printing industry. After Factory Records he worked for DinDisc, spent three years as a partner at Pentagram, was an art director at Frankfurt Balkind and eventually started his own studio. Throughout his career he has worked in the music industry, creating album covers for bands including Duran Duran, Wham! and Roxy Music.

Factory Records (Peter Saville)

http://www.designishistory.com/1980/peter-saville/

http://designmuseum.org/__entry/4431?style=design_image_popup

http://www.youmightfindyourself.com/post/15936888926/peter-saville-on-his-album-cover-artwork

http://www.banality.nl/?cat=12

http://www.gigwise.com/news/45430/designer-peter-saville-the-album-cover-is-dead

http://www.minimumblog.com/2012/06/hbc-berlin-new-order-–-an-exhibition-featuring-works-by-peter-saville-and-kevin-cummins/

http://designmuseum.org/design/peter-saville

NAOKI POST13: The war of No Justice ~Vietnam War~ 1970s

NAOKI POST14: 80s for you. EIZIN SUZUKI

NAOKI POST11: Forever Youth Icon JIMMY

Post 7 – 1902 – Franklin Gothic – Monique

Franklin Gothic Typeface

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Franklin Gothic is an extra-bold sans-serif type which can be distinguished from other sans serif typefaces, as it has a more traditional double-story g and a. Other main distinguishing characteristics are the tail of the Q and the ear of the g. The tail of the Q curls down from the bottom center of the letterform in the book weight and shifts slightly to the right in the bolder fonts.

It was named in honor of a prolific American printer, Benjamin Franklin. The faces were issued over a period of ten years, all of which were designed by Benton and issued by A.T.F.

Franklin Gothic has been used in many advertisements and headlines in newspapers. The typeface continues to maintain a high profile, appearing in a variety of media from books to billboards. Despite a period of eclipse in the 1930s, after the introduction of such European faces as Kabel and Futura, they were re-discovered by American designers in the 1940s and have remained popular ever since.

• Franklin Gothic (1903)
• Franklin Gothic Condensed + Extra Condensed (1906)
• Franklin Gothic Italic (1910)
• Franklin Gothic Condensed Shaded (1912)

Some time later, the foundry again expanded the line, adding two more variants:

• Franklin Gothic Wide (1952) designed by John L. “Bud” Renshaw
• Franklin Gothic Condensed Italic (1967) designed by Whedon Davis

Usage;

• New York University lists Franklin Gothic as an official font.
• Franklin Gothic is the headline and article title font used by Time Magazine.
• The Franklin Gothic font was the resident typeface of the PBS series The Electric Company.
• Franklin Gothic is the official typeface of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
• The film Rocky’s title is Franklin Gothic Heavy.

BIBLIOGRAPHY;

http://www.itcfonts.com/NR/rdonlyres/DE968214-1ED2-4B54-AD58-2FFF4E827FF9/0/ILFranklinv2.pdf

http://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2010/02/26/from-the-archives-03-a-brief-homage-to-franklin-gothic/

http://www.planet-typography.com/news/typo/franklin-gothic.html

http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/linotype/franklin-gothic/

Post 8 – Futura Typeface – 1920’s – Monique

Futura

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In typography, Futura is a geometric sans-serif typeface designed in 1927 by Paul Renner. It is based on geometric shapes that became representative of visual elements of the Bauhaus design style of 1919–1933. Commissioned by the Bauer Type Foundry, in reaction to Ludwig & Mayer’s seminal Erbar of 1922, Futura was commercially released in 1927.

The family was originally cast in Light, Medium, Bold, and Bold Oblique fonts in 1928.

The typeface is derived from simple geometric forms (near-perfect circles, triangles and squares) and is based on strokes of near-even weight, which are low in contrast. This is most visible in the almost perfectly round stroke of the o.. In designing Futura, Paul Renner avoided the decorative, eliminating non-essential elements. The lowercase has tall ascenders, which rise above the cap line. The uppercase characters present proportions similar to those of classical Roman capitals.

Futura’s success spawned a range of new geometric sans-serif typefaces from competing foundries, and remains one of the most used sans-serif types into the twenty-first century. Particularly during the 1950s it was used extensively by the publishing industry as a general purpose font. Futura remains an important typeface family and is used on a daily basis for print and digital purposes as both a headline and body font. The font is also used extensively in advertisements and logos, notably by IKEA (until 2010), Volkswagen, Royal Dutch Shell and HP in their print ads.

BIBLIOGRAPHY;

http://www.chrismwiggs.com/2011/05/07/for-the-love-of-type/

http://www.typografie.info/2/wiki.php?title=Hausschriften-Liste&s=6628c3c4866e5faa13012574d70e6d4c&redirect=no

http://www.cds86.com/portsubmission/files/pages/futura.html

http://ua-letterpress.blogspot.com.au/2010/07/futura_30.html

http://www.perezfox.com/2009/08/27/ikea-ditches-futura-for-verdana/

http://www.creativepro.com/article/the-bauhaus-designer-paul-renner

Post 11 – Portfolio Magazine – 1950’s – Monique

Portfolio Magazine

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There once was, for a brief and brilliant time, a wondrous experiment in design arts publishing entitled PORTFOLIO, a magazine created under the leadership of Frank Zachary and George S. Rosenthal (editors) and legendary art director Alexey Brodovitch. . Only three volumes were published, each issue exquisitely crafted and curated.

Portfolio magazine, created in 1950, was a graphic designer’s utopian dream. The goal: complete creative freedom and no advertising. Each feature was meticulously conceived through copy, art and layout, and paper stock where possible. Unfortunately, refusal to allow advertising to infect the flow of the magazine, and the choice to create a no-expense-spared publication, led to its quick demise – only 3 issues were published from 1950-1951!

The highest quality materials were used in producing the magazine and incorporated inserts such as 3D glasses, wallpaper samples and shopping bags. Dissatisfied with the types of ads they received, the decision was made to not include advertising.

Volume 1 was published in 1949, first issue contents featuring work by future icons Paul Rand, Saul Steinberg and E. McKnight Kauffer. Volume 2, a personal favorite, shared the incredible design for a kite by Charles Eames. Volume 3 gave us work by Ben Shahn, examples of stereoscopy and an extended visit with Alexander Calder’s work.

Portfolio was truly a high point of American graphic design, Portfolio magazine captured the dynamic work of some of the best emerging artists of the time and used beautiful printing techniques. Portfolio became the paradigm of what a modern graphic design and applied arts magazine should be.

Portfolio was, and still is, considered Brodovich’s greatest achievement. The publication may have died, but its superb style and extensive influence lives on.

BIBLIOGRAPHY;

http://www.iconofgraphics.com/Alexey-Brodovitch/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexey_Brodovitch

http://www.aiga.org/medalist-alexeybrodovitch/

POST 14 – 1980’s – ‘The Face’ Neville Brody – Monique

THE FACE – NEVILLE BRODY

Neville Brody (born 23 April 1957 in London) is an English graphic designer, typographer and art director.
From 1981 to 1986 Neville Brody was art director of the magazine The Face. Neville Brody created a specific typographic appearance that influenced and inspired magazine designers and graphic designers globally.

Neville Brody attracted greater public attention through his work on The Face, drawing freely for his visually exciting layouts and typography on avant-garde artistic ideas of the 1920s and 1930s such as those of De Stijl and Russian Constructivism. Far removed from contemporary editorial conventions Brody’s work had a studied informality in the thoughtfulness devoted to the construction of its layouts, with blocks of texts often placed horizontally or vertically on the page, their often distinctive layouts contrasting strikingly with hand-mediated imagery and photography. Such ideas exerted a significant international impact on the appearance of magazine, advertising, and retailing design.

The above is an article Neville Brody designed on Brian Eno for The Face magazine (1983). It’s a double page spread with opposite crosses on both pagesm however the cross on the left hand side frames the text, whereas the cross on the right hand side is there fore aesthetic purposes, I believe. The photograph is out of focus in the background signifying the ashtray prehaps highlighting their bad habit and sort of lifestyle or feel of the body text.

This is also an article from The Face magazine (1982) showcasing fashion sunglasses. I like the chosen layout of the pages with the information at the bottom but the models made significant.  The bottom is also well organised and clear with the title in the unusal place of the bottom left and further information clearly stated at the bottom right.

Above are some The Face covers designed by Neville Brody in the early 1980’s.

BIBLIOGRAPHY;

http://www.myfonts.com/person/Neville_Brody/

https://www.fontfont.com/designers/neville-brody

http://shapersofthe80s.com/the-face-i-d-media/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neville_Brody

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Face_%28magazine%29

Posty 10 Comic Book Propaganda:

Captain America:

Even though Marvel Comics had many characters during the 1940s I have choosen to focus on Captain America because of it’s close ties the the war posters used in america during that time period.

In 1940, writer Joe Simon who at the time was working for Timely publications now known as Marvel Comics conceived the idea for Captain America and made a sketch of the character in costume. “I wrote the name ‘Super American’ at the bottom of the page,” Simon said in his autobiography. “No, it didn’t work. There were too many ‘Supers’ around. ‘Captain America’ had a good sound to it. There weren’t a lot of captains in comics. It was as easy as that. The boy companion was simply named Bucky, after my friend Bucky Pierson, a star on our high school basketball team.”

And thus a hero of propaganda to the war for all enlisters was born. It may not have started out that way but there was a clear and unmistakable message throughout the graphic design of the Captain America comic books America was good Nazi Bad. This is shown through the strong use of the bright, friendly and heroic shades of red white and blue of the Captain America costume clearly a representation of the American flag.

While the Nazi uniforms were often a mix of a dirty grey green coupled along with harsh black of the swatch sticker and blood reds, even some of the bad guys depicted such as Red Skull a depiction of a Nazi general with blood red skin and alien or skull bone like features.

The graphics were romantic with high action sequences and were not only displayed in comic book but were a reoccurring feature in newspapers and magazines, often used in the USA as advertising for young men to enlist in the war movement.

And as a final note it is interesting to see how a piece like this has managed to survive almost 7 decades and still lives on even though Captain America may have joined the Avengers and no longer fights off the Nazi the message still lives on in comic book form and has recently been transferred to film with a great amount of ease.

Bibliography:

http://metropolisplus.com/MarvelHistory/Index.htm

http://voices.yahoo.com/a-history-marvel-comics-beginning-through-2407991.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_America

http://www.newsarama.com/comics/oral-history-captain-marvel-1-101224.html

http://www.newsarama.com/comics/oral-history-captain-marvel-1-101224.html

http://marvel.com/universe/Captain_America_(Steve_Rogers)

Post 13: Punk ‘n’ Safety Pins

Punk:

The movement of punk began in the mid-1970s originally in England, the punk movement was a raw expression of youth frustration manifested through shocking dress which consisted of black studded leather jackets, jeans ripped and held together by safety pins and an enormous amount of hair gel and bright hair colours creating elaborate spiked hair styles.

The music was loud and very angry with lyrics mocking the establishment and the art was hand made and pasted together from a variety of mediums for example: newspaper clippings, photographs, safety pins, paint and black markers then photocopied together.

Punk graphic art is aggressive and wants to reject any kind of rational typography that is similar to art movements Dada and Futurist. Punk has it’s own rationalism and language that any outside would find it a nonsensical mess, personally I always found it a little scary with all the self mutilating body piercings which maybe the point, though it is easy to find the punk influences in modern subcultures today such as the gothic, emo, skater etc…

Punk was outrageous and mocked the establishment. The graphic design from punk lives on in the covers of albums such as sex pistols. The grunge style of youth in revolt is particular to this art form.

 

(Here is some extra content if you would like to learn more)

<div style=”width:425px” id=”__ss_4918115″> <strong style=”display:block;margin:12px 0 4px”><a href=”http://www.slideshare.net/cmoorehead/punk-postpunk-amp-the-british-design-identity&#8221; title=”Punk, Post-Punk &amp; the British Design Identity” target=”_blank”>Punk, Post-Punk &amp; the British Design Identity</a></strong> <div style=”padding:5px 0 12px”> View more <a href=”http://www.slideshare.net/&#8221; target=”_blank”>presentations</a> from <a href=”http://www.slideshare.net/cmoorehead&#8221; target=”_blank”>cmoorehead</a> </div> </div>

Bibliography:

http://suite101.com/article/the-history-of-punk-music-a13052

http://graphicdesignhistory2009.blogspot.com.au/2009/06/1970s-punk-rock.html

http://kingygraphicdesignhistory.blogspot.com.au/2010/05/1970s-punk-graphic-design-by-mshell.html

http://graphicdesigntheory.net/essaysHeller.html