Steampunk Band

Just some album covers I like from a local seattle band that no one has ever heard of.

Posted by Megan

Cool CD Packaging

I really love this CD packaging. I think the use of color and abstract shapes are just really fun and it grabs your attention.
I found this cool cd packaging on this inspiration blog. I thought it was a clever way to have buyers interact with the product.

Posted by Jessica

Innovative CD Packaging

Even though this dates from 2008, I had never seen this before.
The jakebox from mindtwitch.

posted by jonathan

Award-winning package designs

Neal mentioned at the beginning of our class that Stefan Sagmeister just won a Grammy for album design for the David Byrne and Brian Eno album Everything That Happens Will Happen Today.



I thought I would post some other Grammy Award winners and link to the winners for the 1990s and the 2000s.

Here is an example of a winner from 1990s:


And an example of a winner from the 2000s:


It's interesting to notice the difference in design. And I'm curious what designers would have to say or how they would rate these designs, versus the music industry.

Posted by Sara.

Album Cover Inspiration

These album covers are a source of inspiration to me (and I also love the music!)... The use of

photography makes them look almost vintage and postcard like. Simple images with bold / appropriate color are (for me) always the album that draw me in (and sometimes buy just for the cover)!

Pink Martini, Buena Vista Social Club and Barrio Latino all have a jazzy / modern feel to their music.

Posted by Whitney.

Radiohead: Amnesiac

I wanted to post about Radiohead's album, Amnesiac – specifically about the limited edition version. It's some of the nicest design and packaging I've seen for a CD. I wasn't the only person who was totally impressed. In fact, when I started browsing for images to share, I found that there were blog posts on design sites devoted to this exact topic.

Posted by Betsy

The Shin's CD Album Covers

I love the Shin's album covers. They are always fun and funky, and very different. I like the wacky figures that are created on all the covers. Chutes Too Narrow, is my favorite so far. The art work was done by the designer Jesse LeDoux's.

Posted by Jessica

Gig Posters

These are just some posters that I like and the different musicians they portray. It's an interesting thought -- how do you give music a "look" through a poster.

This is a cool website for posters too. You can search for whatever band you want and it will find the posters.

Posted by Whit.

Neko Case

During MPR's recent member drive, they offered a t-shirt designed by Neko Case as a contribution thank you item. Like Neko, I noticed that the design on a bag I have was done by Sheryl Crow. Perhaps they highlight a trend of crossover within the arts - music and visual.

Here is the t-shirt design by Neko as found on MPR's website.


I like Neko's music, so I also searched around for some of her album covers. It's not surprising that I like these as well - they reflect the quirky yet soulful nature of her voice and lyrics perfectly.

by Neko Case (?), unable to find absolute verification, but I read that she designed this cover art


by Julie Morstad, found on sleevage.com

Posted by Sara.

More Posters!

These are posters from the awesome local duo, Aesthetic Apparatus. They've come up before in class, and I wanted to post some of their work here, since they're best known for their fantastic poster design (and screenprinting). Visit their website to see more of their work.

Posted by Betsy.

Cool Movie Posters

I just came across these movie posters, and just loved that the simplicity was so powerful. I also like the fact that in both only 3 colors are used, and they are still so interesting and inspiring.

Posted by Jessica

Retro Humor Posters

I really love these retro humor posters. They are pretty funny, just have a great all around feel to them. I love the vintage colors, and the worn look, but the modern tone of the women.

Posted by Jessica

Alphonse Mucha

I generally like clean, contemporary graphics, but I make an exception for certain Art Nouveau works. Even though many of these items are highly decorated, two aspects of the style appeal to my tastes: often the biomorphic shapes and lines are asymmetric, and when the decoration is integrated into the whole, it's not longer superficial but becomes an element of the overall form and design.

Alphonse Mucha exemplifies these characteristics.

Posted by Jonathan

Okay I just thought this was cool... Posted by Megan

Now my nerd is showing. Anime is what initially inspired me in graphic design. I thought of them in regards to this project because a poster for an anime show usually includes the logo for that show.

Posted by Megan

Pretty Awesome

So this has nothing to do with posters, but it is super cool!. It is this site where you just start dragging your mouse and it draws things. You can switch the type of shading and colors. It is kind of addicting, and really fun! Check it out!

posted by Jessica

Art Deco Posters

Art Deco was a movement more commonly attributed to architecture and interior design. But the movement also affected graphic design through advertisements and posters. It was popular during the two World Wars and was seen as “elegant, glamorous, functional and modern”. Art Deco posters are an inspiration to me because of the bright, stark colors and geometric balance to the designs. The font is always sturdy but never over powers the image. I especially like the blends of cubism and art nouveau in the posters. At the time, this style was modern and hip and produced a lavish look during a time of great uncertainty.

Posted by Whitney

Audio-inspired Visuals

Posters have been a chosen medium to promote concerts for a long time. I love walking the halls at the Fillmore - an old music venue in San Francisco - and seeing the posters that promoted The Grateful Dead or Jimi Hendrix.

I went to the Experience Music Project in Seattle several years ago, and they had this excellent exhibit on music posters.


You can pinpoint the artist by their poster style, even if they design for multiple bands. I think this is a good thing and a bad thing. In trying to find this exhibit, I also came across this other exhibit that features letterpress posters. I like how the letterpress posters give the concert that retro and classy look.



Posted by Sara.

Just 4 Fun

Software for imaging with type.

Posted by Jonathan

Fun with Letters

Type made from Nature! Nailed IT!

Found this cool Type SOAP!

Posted by Jessica

form, function AND frill

Hoefler & Frere-Jones, the creators of Mercury, Hoefler Text and Gotham typefaces (among many others), have a beautiful website. They present their elegant fonts - many designed for famous print publications - in a clutter-free atmosphere allowing the fonts to speak for themselves. I love how each font has its own 'profile' including a place where you can try out their fonts with your own copy. The above G is in Gotham, found in Mexico. Check out their website at www.typography.com.

These two other sites also feature fonts in clever ways and offer unique functionality for those looking for THE right typeface or inspiration.

typographica.org - type reviews
www.welovetypography.com - fun type bookmarking site, you can sort by typeface or even color

Posted by Sara.

Retro Fonts

(Lennart Wolfert)



I love retro and out-there fonts (like Bauhaus, Broadway, Harlow...), the crazier the better. These fonts are probably some graphic designers worst nightmare. They obviously are not the most functional or versatile fonts out there but they can transform work into something that simple Arial or Times New Roman just can't bring to the table.

This is a cool index of font websites from How Design. My favorites out of the bunch are Font Bros. and Font Diner. I highly recommend checking out some of these - lots of cool stuff to explore. Typography is such a powerful tool in graphic design. It can definitely make or break your work.

An article from Smashing Magazine has great typographic posters to browse through. It really shows how far you can push typography.

Posted by Whitney.

Colorful Feeling

Here's a website that expands on the emotional meaning of colors. Aside from the layout of a page, the typography, or pictures the first thing we notice is the color. If we like the color we continue to look.

http://www.color-wheel-pro.com/color-meaning.html

Posted By Megan

Dali Color Scheme

El Salvador Dali is one of my favorite artists. I found this on another blog at ColourLovers, there were also many other masterpieces and their pantone color scheme on this site, that is pretty awesome! Persistence of Memory is one of my favorites of Dali, so I was so glad they had it!

Posted by Jessica

Interesting Color Wheels

Found these on ColourLover's blog spot. I just find it great that you can create a color wheel from almost any found objects. Like these two from cocktail umbrella's to rocks! Art and color is so fun!

Posted by Jessica

New Caribou Logo

Since we are knee-deep in logos, I thought I'd share this blog post on Caribou's upcoming/recent logo overhaul. Interested to hear your thoughts....

http://matchstic.com/blog/2010/02/new-bou/

Posted by Sara.

The Color Scheme Designer is here to help!

The Color Scheme Designer site is similar to the Kuler application that Neal shared in an earlier post, but it's based more directly on the traditional color wheel rather than on color trends, readymade palettes, and member submissions. It allows you to create customized monochromatic, complimentary, and analogic color schemes. You can also work with triadic and tetradic schemes. Feeling indecisive? Choose the random palette and Color Scheme Designer will choose something for you!

Posted by Betsy