10/25 Graffiti Art (1 of 5 for Final)

I found this image on Flickr. I really enjoy the grungy look of the spray paint. It reminds me of WWII / Cold War propaganda, not really because of the composition or type treatment, just the fact it looks like something that would be painted on the Berlin Wall. It definitely has some Plakatstil influences to it with the use of 2 flat colors. I'm not sure if the words on either side are supposed to be apart of the composition, but I like the atmosphere is induces. I also love the feeling of movement and anxiety of the ballon floating away. Maybe the artist is foreshadowing the coming of something bad, or maybe it's representative of the emotional distress of growing up.  

Logos

I really like the idea behind designing logos. It's extremely difficult due to the fact that the designer has to attempt to portray an idea, situation, or an atmosphere in a single, simple image and minimal type. When it comes to designing a logo you must execute it with extreme accuracy and it must read easily. Yamaha's logo works well as a graphic, but what most people don't notice is if you separate the 3 objects, you can see that they are tuning forks. Yamaha make's everything between protective gear to lawn mowers, but they got their start in music. Below, I've added a logo I designed for a Bonnaroo contest.

The Blues

This is The Old Guitarist by Pablo Picasso. Picasso went through what is popularly known as his Blue Period. Throughout this time, he only painted in hues of blue, occasionally contrasted with a warmer color. It's believed that he entered this period of monochromatic painting after a close friend of his committed suicide. I enjoy these painting for their graphic qualities. I often catch myself designing high contrast images with few colors, which I believe to be influenced by his work. 

Hatch Show Print

This design has a very Western American feel to it. The biggest contribution to this (other than the cowboy of course) is the use of Rockwell type fonts. The layout is also very 1800s American with the rectangular treatment of the text and skewing of words to make them fit into the rectangular shape. Most of Hatch Show Print's designs are very americana, such as this. 

Typography

This design is very interesting due to the treatment of the text to create an image. The font itself screams James Brown style music. The execution of the typographic image is phenomenal. It's clearly James Brown, but the words are readable, and work well with the overall composition. It has Futurism aspects like throwing reason and logic to the side in order to make an image.

Minimalist Movie Poster

I really enjoy the concept of portraying a message with very little visual imagery. This poster shows a series of crayons falling like dominos. In the movie Reservoir Dogs, each character's name is a color (i.e. Mr. Brown or Mr. White). The order that each crayon falls is the same as each character dies in the movie. I would have to assume this falls in the the Minimalism art movement, although it has a hint of Plakatstil.