Music and the Artist

• November 9, 2008
  Nil Comments // Beautiful Things

Mountains of ink and graphite have been spilled in an effort to explain music and the affect it has on the soul, especially that of the artist. It almost feels redundant to say that it changes and evokes moods, that it inspires and drives. Music can be something special for the creative as it helps motivate and coax out ideas which lay hiding. I spoke to six immensely creative people to find out what music means to them and how it affects their work.

What you’ll find below are three questions that I gave six talented illustrators about music, how it affects their work and who some of their favourite artists are.

Kerry Roper

Kerry Roper’s work reminds us how beautiful the texture, grit and scratches of grunge can be when handled by a master.

What does music mean to you when you’re working?
Music inspires and drives me. I find music a great inspiration to my work – wether it be the lyrics or the general sound itself. I love the way music can evoke emotions – I try to achieve this through my work by using both images and words. Music also can help me get into my work by stopping any distractions from other surrounding sounds. Words are powerful and it’s great to listen to music which encapsulate this power.

What’s your favourite bands/albums to have on when you’re working?
Usually I like to listen to bands such as Interpol, Kings of Leon, The Charlatans and Joy Division. They’re all very moody bands but they have great attitude and lyrics.

Are there any illustrations that you’ve done that were were strongly influenced by the music you were listening to at the time?
It’s sounds like a cliche but two illustrations that have come direct from music are The Beauty Room sleeve and the Devil’s Gun sleeve – I listened to them for inspiration on designing the actual covers for the bands themselves. They are both completely different kinds of music one being more soulful and the other very dance/mix oriented – I think this reflects well in the final cover designs.

Why Do Creatives Create?

• November 6, 2008
  8 Comments // Creativity

What is it in us that makes us want to create? Why do we want to take nothing and fill it with something? Why do we desire to take that which is inside us, be it an idea, question or emotion and express it through colour and shape? Why is this urge satisfied for only a moment? Why do we create?

For some of us the question of ‘why do I do this?’ plagues us as it evasively makes its way into our minds. Once we stop for a moment to ponder this simple question, its importance and dominance in our brain grows stronger and stronger as each answer drives a path for more questions of self-reasoning.

We subject our selves to creative mood swings as we fly around the spectrum of emotion—from the pleasures of witnessing the works of others to ecstasy as we manage to produce a piece of work which balances our mind and body, and just feels right. Sometimes it’s anguish felt when we see someone provoking emotion better than we can or even anger, after hours of our time and portions of our souls are spent, yet we still can’t quite get it right.

We subject our selves to creative mood swings
as we fly around the spectrum of emotion

And of course there are the clients. We become creatives for hire, subjecting our work to the whims of the client as they make it a little bluer or make the logo bigger. But before we go into why designers design, let’s ponder why creatives create.

To create is to solve a problem. To answer questions. At least this might be the case for any piece of creative work that means anything. Sometimes the question is ‘how can I evoke an emotion?’ or, ‘how do I stop them from forgetting?’. It might also lay on the other side of the above, in that rather than trying to evoke something, it must solve the problem of how to capture an emotion.

Sparkle and Spin, Little 1

• November 2, 2008
  6 Comments // Book Reviews

You’d be hard-pressed to find a graphic designer who doesn’t know the name Paul Rand. You’d be even harder-pressed to find anyone who lives in the western-world who doesn’t recognize the marks he’d made. When ordering Sparkle and Spin and Little 1, I wasn’t sure if this was the sole reason I wanted them—a little piece of quirkiness by a great graphic designer and the women he loved. Having received them and enjoyed them several times, I now know the reason why I now love them — they’re simply beautiful.

Both brightly illustrated, the graphic wit behind these books is a joy to take in – a lot can be learned about how to capture an idea and emotion in the simplest of ways. A mix of large type, paper-cut illustrations (that remind me of Saul Bass in many ways) and simple drawings mix together as they show us that the sum is greater than the parts.

Sparkle & Spin

Published in 1957, one year after the couple produced their first children’s book, I Know a Lot of Things, and also a year after Rand developed his first branding effort for IBM, Sparkle and Spin is a 40 page delight that is written as an introduction to words and how they can dance and sing with one another.