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[joshdennygraphicdesign-blog]

BLOG - 1000 words.

Music and Film

Graphic Design in the music and film industry is one of my favourites to research and inspiration. I’m always interested in the designs of album covers, vinyl covers as well as movie posters. Graphic Designers can almost do anything when it comes to music and film and it will always look interesting and amazing. For example, the Fleetwood Mac album design for ‘Rumours’ in 1977 has always stuck with me. The reason for this is because the album cover has been designed beautifully, the typeface’s chosen for the cover is almost in thin joined up writing, It gave the vibe that the album itself was about relationships, as well as the photo of the man and the woman in black and white. I believe typefaces when it comes to album covers are extremely important as they give a massive clue of what the album is about. For example, most of Metallica’s typefaces are bold and dark, very gothic and grungy, which go well as they are a heavy metal rock band. A lot of albums that have stuck with me I think are because of the colour usage the designer has used. Green Days American Idiot album cover is one album that im pretty sure everyone recognizes. The reason behind this is because there is three colours used, red black and white. Which is eye-catching and effective.

Graphical User Interface

Susan Kare, the designer of most of the typefaces and interface elements for Apple in the 1980’s. Her designs are simple yet so creative. She made sure the icons she designed were easy to read and understand what the purposes were. When she first started, most of her ideas were drawn on graph paper, to make her ideas look like small pixels. As technology improved over the years, Apple decided to make the icons more realistic and 3D, for all audiences could understand what they meant. Time went on and flat design eventually came back. I think flat design looks a lot more cleaner and simple, with the right colour pallet, Its influenced by swiss style design.  

Space and Place

Design is everywhere we go, from bus stops to shop logos. It connects with everyone through communication. On my journeys into the City Centre, I realised graphic design is on every street, from as little as small stickers on lampposts. As a Graphic Designer, I have became more aware of my surroundings these past few months, looking out for everything and anything when I’m walking around the City Centre. I’m interested in most of the street art and graffiti mainly around cathedral quarter. The colours used by the artists are eye catching and in your face. I also used a graffitied ‘K’ for inspiration for my 3D letter in the first week of the Graphics rotation. Logo’s and typography for shops have always interested me also, I love simple and effective logos, such as ‘Established’ and ‘Taboo Donuts’. I got inspired by both of these when designing my final wordmarks for this project, the reason for this is because in my opinion they are fresh, clean, and professional.

Brand and Audience

When it comes to branding, the audience is very important, mainly for age groups. Bright colours and playful big/bubbly type would obviously attract young children. Where as simple black or white bold and professional type would appeal to young and old adults. Peoples lifestyle, hobbies and music interests are also very important. For example, the shop ‘lush’ has a basic black and white logo with thick typography, but when it comes to the branding, most of it are designed with patterns with different colour pallets. The quotes they use in store are mainly about keeping the environment clean and using natural products. The audience for lush are mainly people between the ages of 15-25. Another example is the clothing brand ‘Trasher’ their audience are young adults and people who skate as they are originally a skating clothing brand. They design skateboards and clothing such as hoodies, t shirts and sweatshirts. Thrashers audience are unisex which explains why most of the clothing they design are made for males and females. I would describe the typeface as edgy and grungy, as it’s a thick and bold font. Branding for clothes has been something that has interested me for years now as I would enjoy designing illustrations, typefaces for clothing, Designing logos for branding is important as it’s almost like an identity. Some well-known logos are Apple, Starbucks, Mcdonalds are all well-known because of the logo’s that have been designed for them. The McDonalds logo is probably one of the most famous and well-known logos. I think the reason behind this is because the logo is looks fun, the scaled ‘M’ gives a playful feel to it, its almost like when people see it, it’s a good place to take children for something to eat.  

The Internet

When it comes to the internet, and Graphic Design is evolving, like space and place. Graphic Design is everywhere, every website that I click on has been specially designed. When I was first starting my project work for my wordmark, I was shocked at how many typefaces there is on the internet. It was hard to actually pick one. If you need to find anything out on in the internet, its two clicks away, whereas 20-30 years ago it would have been much harder to do. But as years go on, technology is improving year by year. Graphic Design plays a big role in many fields on the internet, from website designs to animations, logos and layout. The software’s Adobe photoshop, Indesign and Illustrater are becoming more and more popular as designers are learning to use them. As designers we can design almost anything if we get inspired enough by another designer’s work. The website Pinterest is very good for this as it allows people to upload anything, from photography to logos and posters. The internet allows businesses interact with clients easily either through email, Skype and others. The internet is getting easier to design stuff such as posters, t shirt designs and websites, as there are so many websites that basically do it for you.