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This is the web design for Darren Hanlon, the man behind 'happiness is a chemical' and 'punks not dead'. Pictured is the main menu, with various images used for links. as you mouse over these, it will tell you where the button leads. The design is a collage of various styles; it uses a romanticism landscape, Art Neaveau borders, and photo cut outs reminiscent of Dada. The typography is sans serif, with some hand drawn text. it is a good quality design that creates interest and encourages the viewer to explore the site. it is a very fun and creative design, and echoes the dagginess of the music it promotes.

dadadadadada

This poster is by Eduardo Recife, for Upper Playground clothes. It is done in Dada style, using photo montage for the main image. It also has the iconic slanted axis of Bauhaus designs. There is a lot of negative space, bringing focus to the main image and text. The image overlaps the text and is covered in random floral images. it is very nonsensical and playful, bringing interest to the product and.. well.. it certainly caught my attention.


my computer is slowly die-i-n-g-----a-a------a--a--rg-
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blogging is becoming a drag

do excuse the bad picture, and the fact that i was taking photos of fricken smooch shop. i'm not a fan of smooch shop but i do like this shirt hanging in the window. not sure if this counts as graphic design but i doubt someone took out a fricken lino cut or something equally time consuming to do this. i rather like the composition, how she's been cut off at the whomever she may be. the black and white monochromatic image is a bit striking and makes a statement. i don't know what it would be saying though.. maybe "where's my torso? arg!!"

it's pretty much pop art style.. or somehting similar.. and has a real upbeat feel to it. i is definitley good quality. just a photographic pic.
i have nothing more to say..
ermm..

tame that impala

This album art for Tame Impala is really interesting and eye catching. It is a very simple design but works well, and communicates the sound of the band successfully. It is done in 1960s psychadelic style, which is basically how the music sounds. The bands' film clips are similar to this too. the design is very symmetrical and the lines lead your eyes towards the band name at the top. It is done with a tetrad colour scheme, and the black and white stand out the most. It is very balanced and there is a lot of untiy, the only thing that breaks this would be the standard font type. Very fun design and worth a listen too.

web design to shout about

These websites are done by the crew at studio robot, as well as the web design for 78 records, the ballroom, red stripe clothing, etc, etc. they are really amazingly cool pieces of work. They often use a lot of neutrals with splashes of colour in important places like buttons, which emphasizes links. also, the simplicity of the colour scheme makes the design easy on the eyes, very unique amongst ad-crazy sites and the constant movement of the web. they often involve calligraphic, stately text and flourishes, as well as a juxtaposing image or text in a grungier style. some of the images look pencil-drawn or relief printed. they have made the website easy to use and great to look at with a collage style design. they are very good graphic artists, my heroes!

do check out these sites when you're bored, they've got some cool galleries and things:

studio robot

keith and lottie

butcher shop

These guys do know how to advertise

Insight's advertisements are always q-u-a-l-i-t-y, and i especially like this one, from monster children mag. It is an invigorating and energetic image that really attracts the eye.. well, my eyes..
First off, they have used a primary colour scheme, which is very bright and playful, creating a child-like simplicity to the image. also, the bright intensity of the colour scheme contrasts with the logo (top left corner), being black and white, helping it to stand out. The brand's logo is easily recognisable as they are so well-established in youth culture, and the target audience of the containing magazine, that they can get away with such a small logo in ads. The photograph- by the incredible Dustin Humphrey- is fully.. well.. real, not a computer
+scissors+glue baby. His photographs for this campaign have a surreal nature that captures viewers (such as myself) to look again, and maybe say "yay, insight is awesome". I think it worked. The ad is composed with the rule of thirds, with the lady and the surfer in the cross lines of the thirds. Also, the bottom third is separate, in colour and theme, from the top thirds, but the image puts them in the same scene, completing the surreal look by defying the conventions we are used to. There is a fair bit of negative space between these two main subjects, but their focus on each other closes the gap.
These photographs from insight remind me of Salvador Dali's paintings of the ocean like this.. and others that i can't for the life of me find on the net.

see more of Insight's ads

baaaaaad

This is soap that belongs to my sister, sporting some of the worst graphic design around. It is monochromatic, so it doesn't stand out much; but that isn't what bothers me about this little gem. It might have something to do with the overpacked label covered in starnge religous text, all done in butt-boring sans seriff/tahoma like font. This makes the label very hard to read and very unapealing. The little logo for the 60th anniversary isn't bad, and the design follows an 1800's style. but still, yuck, i wouldn't buy this product, i'd see it at my hippy-aunt's house.
oh, and the composition! it's very messy, there's no order or interest. lots of unity and stuuf, but nothing to break t up really. sorry the pictures are so bad, no time. no energy.