Study Task 7: Research and Rationale Design Boards

RESEARCH DESIGN BOARD

The focus of the project is to create brand identity and portraying certain genres through layers of contrasting design elements in order to create a juxtaposing but coherent brand identity for a band.

* Identity and consumption, Subculture, Online Identity

Label Series Experiment (Lars Hogstrom)

Hogstrom created a series of album cover artwork for songs and artists within a particular design format, giving the overall series a very coherent feel. Along with their use of minimal colours and contrasting typography, they created very interesting and provoking album covers, which are for me look very contemporary and genre neutral in a sense that an audience can see that cover and think of various different genres it may be e.g.rap, r&b etc. I think this is really effective as it shows the set and let the audience interpret it however they want. Also, although the design element do have styles and tones to them, they don't manage to look awkward or gaudy but rather balanced and complete.

• EXAMPLES - CASE STUDIES? - Seapunk, Vaporwave, Punk

•               seapunk - tumblr, 2011, net aesthetic, underground, inspired by sea, waves, aquatic aesthetic, 1980;s style

•               ultrademon - started as twitter hashtag #seapunk

•               utilises elements of cyberpunk, chopping up 90's inspired cover art and designs to create an oceanic feel

•               became a meme - members feeling oppresed? and undermined

•               album cover designs - coral records internazionale

• AUDIENCES/ - Teenagers/Young Adults

RATIONALE DESIGN BOARD

• THE REASONING FOR YOUR PROJECT - The project aims to get an understanding of genre characteristics and how it affects a persons identity. 
• WHY ARE YOU DOING IT? - Does the aesthetic of a music or stereotypes surrounding it, how an album look for example, reflect a listeners identity and lifestyle as well? Is subculture today different, is subculture cross over real? 
• GRAPHIC DESIGN CONTEXT - DISCIPLINE - Advertising/ Branding
• WHAT YOU INTEND TO TEST - THEORIES AND CONCEPTS IDENTIFIED - A DESIGN PROBLEM - SUBCULTURE MIX (CROSS OVER), IDENTITY AND CONSUMPTION

"This brand identity created for the band ‘Cross Over’ explores the various ways in which type, shape, colour and layout are used in order to create subliminal connotations of music genre subcultures. Certain subcultural references are taken and mixed together in order to showcase the idea of subcultures crossing over different genre’s which share ‘similar foundation of ideologies’. The name ‘Cross Over’ itself is referencing to this idea, and the whole brand identity will become the amalgamation and prove of this idea. "