Reise, Reise

This is an album cover to one of my favorite bands, Rammstein. They're a German industrial metal band, so I think that probably plays into the cover of this particular album, Reise, Reise. Although the album is from 2004, I think it looks as though it contains echoes of the Swiss International style. Although nothing looks to be written in Helvetica, the cover is clearly designed on a grid and contains no personal elements that relate to anything the designer might have felt. (As far as I can tell, the words "Flugrekorder nicht offnen" mean something along the lines of "Flight recorder--do not open" in German, and I think it ties into the black box on an airplane or something). The color scheme is more reflective of the Constructivist movement, but the setup (at least to me) is more like Swiss International. It's a pretty interesting cover design; it's eye-catching because it's so simple and the colors are bold. It definitely made me want to pick up the album and look at it!

Box o' Dye

This is a box of hair dye I had sitting in my closet. I figured it's also an example of graphic design, because it's obviously meant to appeal to women (or men) who want to change their hair color. The type is pretty simple and straightforward throughout the design, with either the same or similiar fonts used, except in the case of the word "preference". The image is mostly focused on the woman's face, especially on her hair, so that we can see what the dye is supposed to look like (good luck getting it to turn out that way, though). Overall, I guess it's a pretty effective design, but I think I've seen better on other boxes of dye--even within the same brand.

DVD Menu Design

This is the inside flap of a DVD case for the show Six Feet Under. The purpose of the menu is to show how many episodes are on a disc, as well as which episodes are on what disc. The background is made up of several shades of a single color with rays coming from the right side, and the guides to the discs are split up through the use of dark green lines. The type used for each episode title is a simple, sans-serif font, and the information on each episode looks like it's written in Times New Roman. Small pictures feature a scene from each episode as well. I think overall it's a pretty good design, and it serves its function well. It's a short, helpful guide to finding an episode of the show you might want to watch, so I think it's pretty effective.

T-shirts

These are a couple T-shirts I got at a concert a few months ago. Basically, their function is to promote the band, My Chemical Romance. I really like the shirts because of their design. The one on the right is very simply colored, with only black, white, and red, and features the band members as if they're on a "Wanted" poster. The typography is all capital letters in a sans-serif font to make it seem more threatening, and the black bars over their eyes with the word "Exterminate" continue to convey that message. In a way, the shirt might even echo Constructivist design because of the color scheme and simplicity of the design (minus the Communist message). The other shirt is also pretty simple, with just the words "Look alive, sunshine!" on the front. In this case, the typography is the design, since there isn't another image on the shirt. It's a little hard to tell in the picture (sorry for the bad lighting), but the words actually have a sunburst inside them in orange and yellow (sort of echoing Art Deco), which I think makes the shirt kind of funny. Overall, I think the quality of the artwork is pretty good (which is, of course, why I bought the shirts in the first place), and they do a pretty good job of promoting the band.

Book Covers

This isn't really a post pointing out particular aspects of graphic design, but instead a post about how styles change. These are the U.S. covers to one of my favorite series, Nightrunner by Lynn Flewelling. The first three books in the series were published in 1996, 1997, and 1999, respectively. The latest two were published in 2008 and 2010. I think it's really interesting to see how the cover design changed over a period of fourteen years, even though they're all part of the same series. Another book is set to come out next year, and the cover for that one is similar to the last two.

The first three covers all use the same font for the title, while the design of the covers themselves are similar, with the colored bars on the top and the bottom with the white type inside them. The other two are completely different from the first three but are similar to each other, because one character is shown instead of a scene from the book, with an image featuring a location behind them. Although these books were published so far apart, the designers didn't choose to make all the covers similar, and instead went with a very different design for the last two. I can't help but think that this is due to the way styles change over the years, and they just wanted to keep up with what was popular at the time.

Mini Bowling Game

This is another picture I took at work, mostly because this particular design made me laugh. We sell these little toys and games behind the register at Claire's, and this one caught my eye. It's shaped like a bowling pin, which is fitting, and the colors are bright enough to capture the attention of its target audience--children. It's definitely not the best-designed thing I've ever seen, because it's kind of just a mish-mash of color, type, and images, and it's really kind of cheesey looking. A lot more (or, probably, less) could be done to make it look a little neater, but I guess overall it really serves its function of attracting kids to it.

But what really makes me giggle, though, is that this game came from China--and clearly something got lost in translation. Take a look at the caption in blue type near the top of the packaging: "Simulating the true styles and making carefully!"

Ghoul's Best Friend

I took this picture while at work the other day. It's a sign advertising a sale on Halloween merchandise. It's a pretty simple design with a border that features orange and yellow ghosts and big, bold, black letters that are meant to grab attention. Because the type is black on a white background, it really stands out. The store's logo and the catchphrase "ghoul's best friend" are written in orange and sort of take backstage to the main focus of the sign, which is the "buy one, get one half off" promo. Overall, I think it's pretty effective advertising, because compared to the rest of the promo signs in the store (which are mainly purple and white), it really pops. Even when compared to the layout and color of the store (black and purple), it sticks out from everything else and is pretty effective at drawing attention.