Band Identity development

Below is a new self-initiated project I have been working on for Leeds-based rock band Relapse. The following images dhow the new band identity and two experimental promo posters


Band Identity:
This new identity has taken influence from the 'nu-wave' type style where letterforms take on more symplistic geometric shapes. I decided to watercolour the type rather than digitally producing them to create something new and slightly less structured in aesthetic value (to represent the nature of the band).

Promotional posters:



Here are two promotional posters experimenting with the layout of the band identity as well as the inclusion of my own illustration taking influence from the music of the band as well as the work of Alphonse Mucha.

Please let me know what you think...

Seasick Steve

One of the many musicians who played the Carling Leeds Festival but the most interesting one of them all. Seasick Steve is a Delta Bluesman who can really captivate an audience. His use of narrative story-telling is reminiscent of folk music but reflects on the hardships and woe of his life before he was discovered.

With the Mississippi Drum Machine; A small wooden box that is stamped to provide percussion, Seasick Steve creates a constant beat that is simple but catchy. His main guitar is called 'The Three Stringed Trance Wonder'. This is a normal guitar, but with only three strings. At the gig, he told the audience the story of how he got the guitar and that he bought it for $75 in this condition in Mississippi from a man named Sherman, who later told him he only paid $25 for it the day before. Steve vowed never to add another string, and that he would tour the world telling his story of how Sherman ripped him off. After unfolding the origins of his number one guitar he goes onto claim that it is the "...biggest piece of shit in the world!".

From a design point of view Seasick Steve provides a snapshot of Mississippi culture and the Detla Blues scene that has been lost alot in modern day music. His live performance works so well because it is honest and intimate. His style of playing seems to be more about communicating emotion and wisdom from his life experiences.

The Young Knives Album Cover

I was in a music shop the other day and I saw the album cover for The Young Knives cd. I am not really sure what to make of it really. I like the way the image depicts a typically british street and then a comical composition of characters related to the album title. The image reflects the music of the band quite well but theen the typography is a little confusing. By itelf the curved typogrpahy and left-alignment is aesthetically appealing but to me it doesn't relate at all to the rawness of the band's music which has been desribed as having comic lyrics, brash punk with a self-effacing, British melancholy. It seems a shame becuase as separate entities the visual components are great but as an album cover it doesn't truely represent the type of music the band make. On the other hand, it could be argued that the typography compliments the image because of its contrasting style. However, I am not yet convinced.

The Flaming Lips (Live)

When I was posting my blog about Peter Gabriel's live show it reminded me of a live perfomance by The Flaming Lips at last year's 02 Wireless Festival. At the beginning of the set the front-man (Wayne Coyne) stepped into a gaint inflatable ball and rolled over the crowd. It was completely surreal but it fantastic! I thought it was a really good way to communicate the nature of the band as well as creating something memorable, a shared event that all the people who were there could say they witnessed.

Peter Gabriel - Secret World Tour (1994)

Peter Gabriel (ex-genesis member, WOMAD and Realworld founder) has always been well known for his innovative work. The Secret World Tour in 1994 showed how a live tour could be about the theatrical as well as the music to compliment the themes and emotions a song may be trying to get across. Gabriel worked with Robert LePage to create a visionary style of theatre to accompany personal songs focused on relationships.

LePage and Gabriel looked at polarities as well as relationships. For example, synthetic and natural, love and hate, male and female etc. The stages developed for the show emulated the male and female polarities to create the structure below (bird's eye view):
The female stage uses a circle and the male a more geometric rectangle. The props also emulated the polarities; Gabriel emerges from the male stage in a red telephone box (which is arguably a masculine structure constructed from geometric shapes) and later in the show a tree emerges from the female stage (representing nature, mother earth, and in sharp contrast to the man-made phone box). This is a really well thought through tour concept which really showed the possibilities of a live show and set movements for more recent shows like OVO: The Millenium Dome show which was written by Gabriel. The videos above and below are just a glimpse of the tour but I strongly recommend watching the 'Secret World Live' DVD and also his more recent 2003 'Growing Up Tour' DVD.

'Lucas With The Lid Off' - Lucas. Dir. Michel Gondry

This is possibly my favourite music video I have come across. It is, to me, one of Michel Gondry's best pieces of work. It involves a large studio set divided into several scenes. The main character, Lucas, performs whilst weaving through these scenes creating a continuous flow throughout the video. The best thing about this video is that it is one take, the movement from scene-to-scene and the placement of the camera, props and action has been timed to perfection by Gondry. The use of the camera to fool the audeince is used as well (for example, a 90 degree angle is used in the bed scene to fool the audience into thinking Lucas is lying horizontally, when the camera flips it is revealed that his legs were actually off the end of the bed - to make this more convincing even elements of the set were placed on their side).

Anyone interested in film or the production of music videos who hasn't seen this piece needs to watch it and appreciate the amount of thought that has gone into it.

Dizzee Rascal - 'Sirens' dir. W.I.Z.

After watching the short film 'Cubs' by Tom Harper I remembered seeing a recent video for Dizzee Rascal's 'Sirens'. The video follows a similar theme as 'Cubs' with Fox Hunting in an urban setting but what I liked about this music video was the use of symbolism. Fox Hunters riding through a housing estate creates a really interesting visual which seemingly has no relevance to the song until you realise that Dizzee Rascal is being hunted down like a fox. The Fox Hunters are a powerful metaphor for the police and authority and the way that some people feel that the police 'clamp down' on gangs and youth culture.

A really clever aspect of this video is the fur coat that Dizzee Rascal wears, it works as a symbol for youth and 'hoody' culture but also acts as a visual tool to represent the fox (at the end of the video the fur from the coat is drenched in blood and smeared over the youngest hunter in the pack as part of the ritual of the hunt).

The end of the video shows the young boy (presumably related to Dizzee) watching the 'kill' and ultimately becoming what one can only assume will be a trouble-maker. This suggests that although authority is put in place to stop crime it can sometimes develop or perpetuate crime.

Stop Motion Music