Posts Tagged ‘graphic design’

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Music artwork for ever-shrinking canvases

March 12, 2009

wired-record-art

The theme for the current issue of Wired Magazine is ‘design under constraints.’ The canvas that designers have to play with for album art has gone from the luscious two-handed expanse of LPs, to CDs, to the literally thumbnail-sized images on iPods. Designer and author Steven Heller argues that designers need to step up to the challenge of designing compelling artwork in this 240-pixel space, and he provides some examples, above. Check out the short essay for a sense of where artwork for music has come from and where it’s going.

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Roundup: Neko Case, Crocodile, Blogger, more

February 18, 2009

neko-case[photo: Jason Creps/NY Times]

A round-up of a few items that are either new or that I haven’t had a chance to post:

A long profile of Neko Case in last Sunday’s New York Times Magazine. The best part, for those of us obsessed with infographics, is this interactive map with samples of her solo music and work with The New Pornographers, The Corn Sisters, and more.

If you’re interested in the direction that music and the music industry is going, and you’re not already reading it, I highly recommend Music Think Tank. The postings are typically thought-provoking and knowledgeable.

Speaking of music blogs, Boston’s own Ryan Spaulding, of Ryan’s Smashing Life, was interviewed for this LA Weekly article about disappearing posts on music blogs hosted by Blogger. It’s certainly starting to look like Google (who acquired Blogger in 2003) might be violating its ‘don’t be evil‘ policy by eschewing takedown notices in lieu of simply deleting posts without warning. Ryan makes a  morally compelling argument: “By pulling down my post, they destroyed my intellectual creativity, the very same thing they’re erroneously accusing me of doing.” (‘erroneously,’ because, like many music bloggers, he is posting MP3s at the behest of the same record companies who are presumably putting pressure on Blogger to remove posts). You can read Ryan’s own post on the topic here.

There’s an amusing posting at Panopticist about Andrew Hearst’s experience purchasing AC/DC tickets from scalpers, and the role of typography and design in differentiating between real and counterfeit tickets. [thanks, Clive!]

Finally, Seattle’s Crocodile has a website! We posted previously about its imminent re-opening, and the first listed show is Hot Buttered Rum on March 21st. The calendar page is lovely, utilizing ‘concert posters’ rather than simple lists. [via Seattle Subsonic]

MP3: AC/DC – You Shook Me All Night Long [buy]

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Information graphics and indie rock

November 11, 2008

destroyer_poster

Jez Burrows, of graphic design collective Evening Tweed, has produced an infographic based on Destroyer’s Rubies. Says Burrows:

Asked to respond to the word banausic, I chose to take the most grandiose, willfully complex thing I knew and express it as mechanically and cold [sic] as I could manage. ‘Destroyer’s Rubies’ by Destroyer was that thing.

Burrows transcribed the entire album and used the data to produce a limited-edition print, which is now available for preorder. It’s beautiful, if a little pricey to consider using as dorm-room decor. He’s also announced that it’s the first of the ‘Modern Listener’s Guide’ series of indie-rock infographics; I can’t wait to see the rest.

Buy the poster here.

Previously: Release notes: Destroyer, Trouble in Dreams; Concert notes: Destroyer; Got a question for Dan Bejar?

MP3: Destroyer – European Oils [emusic amazon]

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A taxonomy of electronic music

April 20, 2008

I mentioned in a previous post that getting into techno is a little overwhelming. One of the reasons why is the large number of genres and subgenres. Ishkur’s Guide to Electronic Music (check your speaker volume before clicking) is an excellent place to go to codify the bits of music and the artists that you’ve heard or heard of. It’s a taxonomy of electronic music of all sorts, with an opening tutorial and brief descriptions of the different styles. It’s written in a highly opinionated, pull-no-punches style whose primary redeeming feature is that it balances acrimony with enthusiasm: here’s a sample:

Motherfucking electro! Kraftwerk invented it in 1971. Hip hop hijacked it in 1981. Everyone forgot it by 1991. And then everyone started releasing “Hey! Remember Kraftwerk?” albums in 2001. Goes to show how much things run full circle. All electronic music everywhere pretty much owe [sic]  its existence to Kraftwerk. Right next to James Brown and The Beatles, they are the most influential musicians of all time. It also doesn’t hurt that robots are so totally wicked fucking awesome.

But the real reason to put up with the annoying Flash and non-Edward-Tufte-approved design is for the audio samples of songs from the different genres. If you’ve ever wanted to know the difference between minimal and microhouse, between Ibiza- and Goa-style trance, or between jungle and drum’n’bass (or if you just want to know what those genres are), this is the site. Sit yourself down in front of a computer with decent speakers, give yourself a bit of time, and mess around.