A Brief History of Color

A Brief History of Color

Head on over to Colour Lovers and read up on the history of the color wheel, from Newton to Goethe to urban street art. Color is fundamental!

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Esao Andrews Exhibit In Seattle

Esao Andrews Exhibit In Seattle

Esao Andrews has new art for show at the Roq La Rue Gallery in Seattle. If you have a few thousand dollars’ worth of disposable income, I recommend you picking up a piece. It’s worth it.

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Bad Album Covers, Part Two

Bad Album Covers, Part Two

RandT posts an addendum (I assume) to the Worst Album Covers Ever. I generally give the older ones a bit of a handicap since tastes and talent change and develop dramatically over the decades - chintzy now was novel back then.

Using these parameters, the worst has to be Limp Bizkit’s, and I don’t say that only because Fred Durst’s concept for the title was utterly ridiculous and should not have been used as a basis for the artwork. Bad.

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Patterson Can’t Download T-Shirts

I don’t think anyone can, but Ryan Patterson of Coliseum and Auxiliary Design fame sure doesn’t mind popping out designs occasionally for one:

I love designing shirts, but I’m not quite as passionate about it as designing records / compact discs, shirts seem to be a bit more of a temporary piece while record covers can be timeless. But, as everyone says these days, “You can’t download at [sic] T-shirt.”

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SoCal Graphic Designers Form Ethics Group

In response to Fearless Records’ unresponsiveness in a contest they held for a new logo design, some Southern California graphic designers formed PADE (Professional Artists & Designers for Ethics).

Designers submitted logos with various styles and techniques for a promise of an award of $1,000, and the recognition of having re-branded a prominent record label. The label publicized that a winner was to be announced on January 16, 2008, yet there was no winner, no prize, and no recognition.

As I designer, I’ve been under- and never-paid for work I’ve done that has been used - some of it from my own admitted carelessness, but mostly as a result of clients that just refuse to pay for my services (one was even a fellow designer himself). Hopefully this issue will be resolved and the winning artist will be recognized.

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Invisible Creature Nominated For Dove Award

The Clark Bros have four entries out of five in the Best Recording Packaging category. Thems are some good chances.

Anberlin - Cities
Project 86 - Rival Factions
The Fold - Secrets Keep You Sick
The Chariot - Fiancée

The sole non-IC entry, for The David Crowder Band’s Remedy, wasn’t listed with a designer, but in doing some digging I found out it was designed by one Kaysie Dorsey.

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Bright Eyes Designer Wins Grammy

Congratulations go out to Zachary Nipper for winning the Grammy for Best Recording Package, for Bright Eyes’ Cassadaga release.

Masaki Koike won the Grammy for the Best Boxed Or Special Limited Edition Package, for his work on the What It Is!: Funky Soul And Rare Grooves compilation.

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Old, Old School Album Art On Display

Old School Album Art On Display

Design nerds from SoCal reading this ought to check out the art of Alex Steinweiss at the Robert Berman gallery in Santa Monica. Dude worked for Columbia Records and in 1939. I don’t think I own anything that old.

Steinweiss was, incidentally, the first album art designer ever. Unless you count that guy that did the artwork for the Soggy Bottom Boys recording in O’ Brother Where Art Thou?. You didn’t see it because it was lost in the flood.

[hat tip/photo credit: Found Track]

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Album Art Gets Smaller, We Get Sadder

Album Art Gets Smaller, We Get Sadder

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Scott over at My Thermos gives us an outsider’s view of the album art scene. He may not be an expert, but he has a keen eye.

There really is nothing like browsing through the record bins. I used to spend hours and hours flipping through the albums, looking at the classic cover art in a format where you can actually see it. I don’t have anything against the CD but the great album cover seems to be a lost art, one of the casualties of the rise of the single song download. Even if the design is good, the small format is lousy.

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Top 5 “Ablum” Covers

Top 5 Ablum Covers

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Blogger Ryan lists his top 5 album covers of all time. If you have good eyes you can tell what they might be from the screenshot up there. Otherwise just transport your browser via Mouseoptic Technology™.

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