Some inspiring images for my Beatles album re-design
beatles inspiration
beatles research
In VIsCom we’re working on re-designing an iconic Beatles album of our choice. Mine is the White Album and here is what I’ve learned about it:
Basic Facts:
- Released Nov 22, 1968 on the fifth anniversary of their second album With the Beatles
- Total of 34 new tracks were released. 30 were contained on the double-LP
- The double wallet merely had words the BEATLES embossed on the front
- Early copies had individual number stamped on the front
- Inside the package was two discs wrapped in black inner slevers and there were four individual photographs of the guys and a folded poster containing a photo-collage with the lyrics to the songs on the reverse
- First album to appear on the Apple label
- Entered the UK chart at no. 1 and occupied the position for 8 of the 22 weeks it spent on the chart
- First double-length release
Meditation experience:
- The Beatles flew to Rishikesh, india for several weeks of meditation with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi during which they enjoyed a prolific period of song writing.
- Maybe the need for new experiences, or the need to find themselves again, lead them all to follow a course in transcendental meditation with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in Wales.
- the truth is that isolation and the absence of worries and daily stress made John and Paul write a good number f songs. In fact between all four Beatles 32 songs were brought from India, most of them basically acoustic due to the lack of any other instruments in India.
Internal Factors:
- They stopped touring in 1966 and were free to explore the possibilities from inside the studio and began enjoying the time that their fortune allowed
- Creativity was strong as ever even though the musical output had slowed
- Sgt Pepper changed the world and then they released just the six-track Magical Mystery Tour EP and the Lady Madonna single right before
- While recording the album they were coping with various upheavals drug busts, changing relationships and substance abuse
- The individual talents of all four Beatles were already finding the group’s structure too restrictive for their own ideas. None of them were willing to discard any of their songs in favor of someone else’s. The White Album became the joint effort of four individuals, each one of them claiming the necessary playing time for their songs.
- The first two tracks were recorded with Ringo because tempers flared during a recording session and he walked out/announced he had quit (lasted two weeks)
- The sessions allowed the four members to work on separate projects at the same time to keep tensions to a minimum
- In a degree of turmoil at this point – suffered their first major artistic failure in Magical Mystery Tour television film
- Perhaps foretelling their imminent solo careers, each band member contributed lyrics and vocal solos.
- John Lennon – Witty and accomodating of others regardless of who they are or what they’ve done.
Paul McCartney – Very Down-to-Earth and considerate.
George Harrison – Quiet, but very spiritual and witty.
Ringo Starr – Charismatic and lively, but sort of the “outsider” among the Beatles - Tension albumTop of Form
- te
Sound:
Extremely eclectic work made by a disunified group
Majestic cornucopia of styles, born from one of the group’s most creative periods
Mysterious and happy, acoustic and rocking, simple but dense.
Never before had a rock record been so self-reflective, or so ironic; the Beach Boys send-up “Back in the U.S.S.R.” and the British blooze parody “Yer Blues” are delivered straight-faced, so it’s never clear if these are affectionate tributes or wicked satires.
None of it sounds like it was meant to share album space together, but somehow The Beatles creates its own style and sound through its mess.
Band Quotes:
- Helter Skelter is just a track we did in total madness and hysterics in the studio. You know, sometimes you’ve just go shake out the jam.” –John
- “All the experiences that happened in India was all embodied in that album. Most of those songs were written in Rishikesh like Julia and Blackbird and Dear Prudence.” –George
- “Sgt Pepper did its thing, it was the album of the decade – of the century maybe. It was very innovative. Great songs, glad I was on it. But the White Album… We ended up being more of a band again and that’s what I always love, I love being in a band.” –Ringo
- “I wasn’t interested in following up Sgt Pepper and I don’t know whether the others were or not, but I know that what I was going for was to forget about Sgt Pepper. You know that was Sgt Pepper and that’s alright, fine, it’s over… and just get back to basic music.” –John
- “We just put it out and got on with life. A lot of our friends liked it and that was mainly what we were concerned with. If your mates liked it, the boutiques played it and it was played wherever you went – that was a sign of success for us.” -Paul
Sources:
http://www.thebeatles.com/album/beatles-0
http://www.beatlesbible.com/albums/the-beatles-white-album/
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To begin the process of building a monogram for LAX, here are some font choices along with word descriptions
FONT: freshman, WORD: bold
FONT: player one, WORD: artistic
FONT: high jakarate , WORD: crowded
FONT: sablon up, WORD: hollow inside (fake)
FONT: paysley sport, WORD:
FONT: mickeys school, WORD: tough
FONT: awesome south korea, WORD: playful
FONT: masque, WORD: automotive
FONT: silvent, WORD: futuristic
,WORD: diverse
FONT: creative type, WORD: connected
WORD: classy
FONT: royal acidbath, WORD: music
FONT: lantara, WORD: cultured
FONT: polygons, WORD: complex
WORD: fame
WORD: busy
WORD: autograph
WORD: reform
WORD: night life
WORD: tension
FONT: radical block, WORD: traffic
FONT: chipotle, WORD:
FONT: futurist, WORD: vast
FONT: urban jungle, WORD: metropolis
FONT: true crime, WORD: crime
FONT: kaktuspiste, WORD: harsh
FONT: kb skittled, WORD: bright lights
FONT: keshanimal, WORD: pollution
FONT: radioland, WORD: digital
FONT: rammstein, WORD: dominant
[p3]: 1
Garamond
-Serif
-Claude Garamond
-Designed in the 16th century
-Garamond also designed Granjon and Sabon
-Thicker tails, stem, and shoulders with thinner strokes for bars, cross bars, and terminals
-Family members: Regular, Italic, Bold
Typography
Old Style- style of serif font developed by Renaissance typographers to replace the Blackletter style of type.
examples: 
Transitional- represents the initial departure from centuries of Old Style tradition and immediately predate the Modern period.
examples: 
Modern- represents the initial departure from centuries of Old Style tradition and immediately predate the Modern periods
examples: 
Slab Serif- the serifs are square and larger, bolder than serifs of previous typestyles. Considered a sub-classification of Modern
examples: 
Sans Serif- type which does not have serifs — the little extra strokes found at the end of main vertical and horizontal strokes of some letterforms
examples: 
Stroke Weight- The main diagonal portion of a letterform such as in N, M, or Y is the stroke.
Axis- An imaginary line drawn from top to bottom of a glyph bisecting the upper and lower strokes
Lining Figures- approximate capital letters in that they are uniform in height, and generally align with the baseline and the cap height
Non-aligning figures- designed to simulate the x-height of lowercase letters
Ligatures- Two or more letters are joined together to form one glyph or characters
[p2]: final
For project 2 I designed a typeface called Funky Pixel. To communicate its attributes I had to design a fold-up brochure to display its funky, retro energy. The final deliverables for the project were two large format prints of a 16 page, double parallel fold brochure/poster with a sheet size of 21 x 24.5 inches. My typeface was inspired by pixelation and 70’s album covers and can be downloaded on fontstruct.
infographic inspiration
In VisCom we’re designing three different versions of an infographic that teaches something. From the list we were given I chose “how to bake a cake.” Here are some noteworthy infographics I found along the way.
[p2]: 5
the first draft of my funky pixel mailer
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funky: modern and stylish in an unconventional or striking way: she likes wearing funky clothes.
energetic: showing or involving great activity or vitality
retro: imitative of a style, fashion, or design from the recent past
pixelated: a minute area of illumination on a display screen, one of many from which an image is composed
decorative: make something look more attractive by adding extra items or images to it
typeface design:
elephants. elephants. elephants.
Our first project in Visual Concepts was all about representing an animal of our choosing in 16 different ways. At first that may sound simple, but for each category we had to have a minimum of 12 sketches. This totaled to over 200 sketches by the time I was done. The final deliverables included a poster of 16 final mark concepts and a process book that documented all of our sketching. It was broken up into two chunks- the first 96 sketches due one week and the other 96 sketches due the next week. My room had ink, paint, coffee, charcoal, and various tools strung about throughout the duration of this project.
Not to mention all of the weird surface I drew on or used to draw with.
(only a few pictured)
[p2]: 3
Two refined typefaces created on fontstruct
Keywords:
pixel-a minute area of illumination on a display screen
space age- the era starting when the exploration of space became possible
retro- imitative of a style, fashion, or design from the recent past
mismatched- a failure to correspond or match
Images:
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Keywords:
sharp- having an edge or point that is able to cut or pierce something
oriental- of, from, or characteristic of East Asia
geometric- of or relating to geometry, or according to its methods
Images:
Rylie By Design 