obsessions & anything in between
I was digging through some old files to recover a certain image for a certain type of project for a certain client. Guess what I found!
I remember sticking these drafts up on the glass door sometime ago and photographing them. As you can see, I had a great time with my limited photography skills. Still one of my favorite projects so far.
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By now, some of you would have guessed that I’m a Penguin geek. My collection of Great Ideas (of which some are not displayed here) is not complete but I guess enough to prove the value these books have to me. Do check out their amazing website.
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Discovered P.R Brown of Bau-Da Design today reading the notorious Revolver magazine; by reading an article on Marilyn Manson’s Antichrist superstar album cover designs. Brown used to do jazz album covers before Mr. Manson hired him. And now, his list of clients include Disturbed, Billy Corgan, Godsmack, etc. I sense that he likes to portray a certain evil using disfigured human faces. Perhaps its sort of like a suggestion of brutality or the edgy violent and evil that could be found in some heavy metal music. See:
This is a clean one but check out Billy’s left hand.Looks like he burned himself or something?
But theres really nothing interesting to admire here but merely done for consumer satisfaction in my opinion. I find it not so ‘metal’ nowadays to put a really brutal evil face on an album cover with brutal bloody knife edge type for the album title. Or perhaps even hire Todd McFarlane for an album cover.
I wonder if Evil Ernie, the face for Iron Maiden for the past 20 years + will help a 15 year old mummy’s boy enjoy Iron Maiden’s music in the year 2020? Die-hards will disagree with me but who likes and cares about Iron Maiden when you can listen to Mariah Carey all day long.
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Got this out last month. Pretty much my first time dealing with mass consumer and food related design or graphics, which I have entirely no experience in.
Primary typeface is Linotype’s Clarendon. FF Zapata as secondary typeface for the logo.
Yeah by now you can tell that I’m displaying drafts and mock-ups here. Also, go there and try the food. My colleagues say the pasta taste good. It’s somewhere near One Utama.
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Tonight at the One World Hotel, the Media Specialist Association celebrates the Malaysian Media Awards. Which also means, I’m celebrating the fact that one job is done.
Primary typefaces used are Gill Sans and Times New Roman for the booklet (design by Lilian). But as for the Invitation card, only uppercase Gill Sans was used.
Thinking of fusing the two makes sense as to the working relationship that Eric Gill and Stanley Morison had. Eventhough they didn’t work together on Gill Sans or Times New Roman, they still have much in common*. I do agree that our eyes get familiar with the shape of Times New Roman and it has been overly used. But the other side of the world holds interesting applications of the typefaces and also a very historical and appreciative approach to the application of the typeface side by side on a piece of paper.
The overlapping of the curved device at the corner of the ID was inspired by Art Deco movements. Yeah. Toned down into a more clean and minimal design, catered towards todays love for simplicity. Refer below to see what I mean.
The certificates uses the same look with the exception of the typefaces and the introduction of a more crisp and energetic typeface, Carter & Cone’s ITC Galliard designed by Matthew Carter. It felt right when Galliard’s Mannerist background stands side by side with Art Deco’s vibrant, abstract and striking visual nature.
The certificate identifies itself not only through the use of colors but also the overlapping of the colors manifesting categories of which each certificate represents. Gold winners over Silver & Bronze, etc. Clearly, the overlapping effect’s source of influence can be clearly seen below on Hermann Keimel’s Muenchner Plaket Kunst poster from 1931, Germany.
Above is an image of a book cover by Man Ray, Le Surrealisme et la Peinture by Andre Breton, 1928, France. See the influence of the rounded strokes at the upper right and lower left corners of each item?
To conclude, I don’t really embrace the whole Art Deco movement but there are times I do believe, historical references are important and can be useful in adding value and also to solve design problems. Also either as tributes or appreciations.
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*Historically, Gill Sans was designed much earlier than Times, 1928-1930. Taking also into consideration that Morison was actually one of Gill’s clients and that Gill Sans has actually drawn lots of influence from Edward Johnston’s sans serif for London Underground back in about 1916. We’re talking about absolute British here.
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Here you go; Idea magazine, for March 2007, volume 55, issue 2, no. 321. The green sticker is actually the price tag. Features the Works of Jan Tschichold from 1902 - 1974. With essays by Christopter Burke (who also authored Active Literature, another Tschichold book focusing on earlier works), Robin Kinross, John D. Berry, Jean-François Porchez on a little bit of insights on Sabon Next, etc. It also features his Penguin years, which is pretty insightful and serves as a good addition to geeks who dig the Penguin design history (read Penguin by Design by Phil Baines for more insights).
The Gill Sans (left) & Uhertype (right) spread:
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@ FiFFteen in Goa, 2006 
