Sound Painting

Society of Illustrators 46th Annual of American Illustration, p186
Rudy Gutierrez, Roy Hargrove CD

I love the artwork on this CD cover. Roy Hargrove is a jazz trumpeter and the designer's goal was to create a "sound painting". I think the designer was successful. The warm, rich, vibrant colors used reflect the warmth and energy of the music and are representative of the stage lights. The black emphasizes nighttime and suggest the trumpeter is playing for a nightclub. The overall feeling I receive with the colors is that the people are in the dark recesses of a nightclub and the music is lightning the room. I like the looseness in form created by little dashes, unconnected lines, splashes and dots of color, the "torn" paper with the title that's been "carelessly" scratched through with crayon. All of these little details reflect the lack of uniformity jazz music strives to perfect.
It seems that each detail in this artwork contributes significantly to the composition. The emphasis is obviously on the trumpeter. Starting in the upper corner, your eyes are directed down the arm and trumpet toward the dancing couple. Notice how the trumpeter, the dog, and the man in the bottom corner are also looking at the dancing couple which are spotlighted by the bell of the trumpet. I kind of getting the impression that the trumpeter is an angel looking down from heaven. Perhaps he's Gabriel with the message of music.

Symphony Party

Graphis Design Annual 2004

I've lost my original source data for this poster, but this is what I remember. It was a poster for the Pittsburgh or Philadelphia Orchestra advertising a dinner celebeating it's 75th year. The poster caught my eye because the idea of a party and an orchestra seems like an oxymoron to me. I think of an orchestra as being a very serious, subdued event - the complete opposite of a party with horns and noisemakers. I liked the simplicity of the poster's image. It's very clean, very eye-catching. I wonder, though about the readability of the copy. In the book, it is next impossible to read. Hopefully, the actual poster was readable.

Shadows

Society of Illustrators 46th Annual of American Illustration, p228
London's Transport Musuem, Necdet Yilmaz, poster

This is a poster "designed for a London-wide campaign to remind citizens and visitors of the city's rich cultural heritage and current cultural output." I found it really interesting to study it in order to figure out all of the shadows and what they symbolized. My favorite was the little dog with the big dinosaur bone shadow. This is a very clever publicity poster since it will engage the viewer to continually look for hidden items each time they see it at transportation terminals throughout the city.
I had the impression of being a bird overhead watching two conflicting traffic flows. It feels like the people are pulling you out of the poster toward the bottom while the shadows pull you upward. This parallels the conflict between the historical and current events. It also makes my focus jump all around the poster. Great effect for interaction. The other thing that I notice is how the red bus seems to ground the whole composition. The big patch of red livens up the gray background and seems to anchor the little patches of color scattered throughout the poster. Imagine the poster without the red bus - not nearly as interesting!

See the City!

Graphis Design Annual 2003, p175
The Swedish Museum of Architecture, Anders Kornestedt, Signage

These are signs for the Swedish Museum of Architecture posted around Stockholm. They are frames attached to posts and are positioned so that they frame a significant architectural landmark when viewed from the correct angle. The 3-dimensional depth of the frame helps to add to the illusion of it appearing to look like a picture. Very eye-catching! The added benefit of this signage is that it reminds the population of the beauty of their own surroundings. It points out views and landmarks that are taken for granted.

Nostalgic CD Packaging

Graphis Design Annual 2004, p
Saint Louis Black Repertory Company, CD packaging

This cd set reminds me of my mother's old record album sets. The sets were packaged in a cardboard box with each album in a brown sleeve, and, yes, there were places to write about the records inside the lid of the box. Even the cd labels are in the correct vintage style with era-appropriate font. Since this music will probably appeal to a mature, i.e. older, audience, I think the packaging is very clever. It will have great nostalgic appeal. I wouldn't be surprised if this set sold just because of the packaging