A friend of mine recently was explaining his obsession with Factory Records. The label was a Manchester-based independent record label in the influential in the late 70s and 80s and still today. Their roster included some groundbreaking artists: Joy Division, New Order, James, OMD, and Happy Mondays. And not only was the label focused on curating a beautiful, interesting collection of music, but they paid the same amount of detail to the packaging and artwork for each release.
The label not only cataloged its music, but also its artwork and various other items. As someone obsessed with typefaces, album packaging, techno-pop, and music in general I have become very interested in the concept of the label and the albums, artists, and artwork. There was a coffee table printed a few years back documenting the albums. I just ordered it.
Barack Obama’s campaign, which led to his election last year, was groundbreaking for many of the obvious reasons. One element that is sometimes overlooked is the visual imagery crafted by the campaign. Obama created a movement among many designers and artists inspired by his message of hope. His Design Director, Scott Thomas, harvested that power and theme. Everything, from the Obama logo to his website to his consistent typeface, reinforced the candidate’s message.
Designing Obama, a new book, will showcase both official and unofficial designs and images from across the country. It also promises to examine how design was used in campaign. The video above has me excited for the release.
Jackie Lay animates the lyrics of Tom Waits “Eggs and Sausage” from his 1975 album Nighthawks at the Diner. She captures the familiar typography of the neon signs and menus that one finds in nearly all diners regardless of regions. Watching this makes me nostalgic for the Village Inn diner in Anchorage, Alaska that my friends and I frequented for hours at a time during unofficial senior skip days (Mom, I swear it was only a couple), and after school dances. While today I love living in a city that offers everything and more, I’ve yet to have a cheese fries and strawberry milkshake combination as delicious as those that I enjoyed in those greasy booths.
If you love letterforms and especially love to find them in unexpected places then you already love Lawrence Weiner. One of the first to introduce typography to the world of fine art, Weiner became a major figure in the conceptual scene in the late 60s when he released his “Declaration of Intent” in response to Sol LeWitt’s “Paragraphs on Conceptual Art.” Weiner stated simply that as far as his art goes, he may construct them or someone else must be able to construct them or they need not be constructed at all, existing as text-only recipes for artworks that live in the mind’s eye.
Check out this amazing ad for Inlingua, an international language-training company. It’s a spot for the company’s Business English service, and it presents the English language as a literal battlefield. This is some of the best motion typography I’ve ever seen:
