DESIGNER'S BLOG

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Ye Olde Music Packaging
Posted by: D Cane on 15th Dec 2010 in Design Top 5

Five of the best examples of 3-dimensional music packaging, or 'do you remember what music used to feel like?'


1. Alice Cooper – School’s Out
2. Family – Bandstand
3. Rolling Stones – Sticky Fingers
4. Semi Precious Weapons – We Love You
5. Spiritualized – Ladies & Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space



1.


Alice Cooper – School’s Out
1972 – Warner Bros. Records
Design: Craig Braun

The famous sleeve for ‘School’s Out’ depicted the top, inside and underside of a rather beaten-up school desk. The names or initials of the five band members scratched-in and the Warner Bros. logo roughly drawn. But as an extra ‘gift,’ some versions of the release in the UK and US included a set of women’s underwear made of paper.


Make It Clear
Posted by: Daniel Cane on 13th Dec 2010 in Design Top 5

Five of the best water bottle designs, or - how to add huge value to something that is essentially free.


1. Perrier
2. Ty Nant
3. Bubble Bottle
4. Ogo
5. Evian


1. PERRIER
To most of us the original bottled water, Perrier has been bottled for nearly a hundred years now. Naturally carbonated, the spring near the Mediterranean coast of France was leased by Irishman St. John Harmsworth in 1903, who named his hew product after the spring’s previous owner Dr. Perrier. Harmsworth had a unique product, so himself devised a unique container for it. The simple and distinctive skittle shape of the bottle was inspired by that of the Indian clubs he used, a popular method of resistance fitness training at the time. Not only a distinctive and recognisable form on shelf, the tapered neck instinctively becomes an inviting handle.


Hip (Hop) Graphics
Posted by: Daniel Cane on 4th Jun 2010 in Design Top 5

Five hip-hop debuts and a look at how the cover photography helped define the artist, and the era...

1. Brand New Second Hand
2. Connected
3. Cypress Hill
4. Endtroducing…
5. Supa Dupa Fly

1.

Roots Manuva, Brand New Second Hand
1999 - Big Dada
Photographer: Nigel Bennett

A crooked, flashed photograph of an old scratched microwave. The image is so unglamorous you’d be forgiven for thinking that it had been used by mistake. In fact its trademark of the tradition of understated, even drab album covers that British artists have always done so well.


Perfect Packaging
Posted by: Keech on 7th Sep 2009 in Design Top 5

Five of the best 1980s album covers.


1. Power Corruption and Lies
2. Rain Dogs
3. Meat Is Murder
4. Off The Bone
5. Uprising

1.

New Order, Power Corruption And Lies
1983 - Factory Records
Sleeve design: Peter Saville.
Just when you think you are looking at an old master (Fantin-Latour, 1890 to be precise) you notice the irreverantly technical print colour coding top right. But there's more to the coding than that as the owners of this album will know.


Buy it, change it, own it!
Posted by: Keech on 20th May 2009 in Design Top 5

Five of the best subcultural adaptions of standard products.


1. Hot Rod
2. Mod Parka
3. Punk Safety Pin
4. Cafe Racer
5. Scratch Turntable


1.

Take a venerable standard American production car, chop it, lower it, cook it, and then cram as much horse power under the hood as humanly possible. I'll see you out on the strip...


A Chair Is A Chair
Posted by: Keech on 19th Mar 2009 in Design Top 5

From unassailable classics to the new thinking; five of the best chairs by design.

1. Robin Day - Polypropylene Chair
2. Arne Jacobsen - Swan Chair
3. Michael Thonet - Thonet No.14
4. Charles and Ray Eames - LCW Plywood Chair
5. Reddish Design - Bath and Beyond


1.



Designed For Speed
Posted by: Marcus Buksh on 22nd Dec 2008 in Design Top 5

Five of the best race bikes.

1. Vanilla Track 2008.
2. Masi Special Pista 1961.
3. Colnago Master XLight 2008.
4. Independent Fabrication Crown Jewel 2008.
5. Bianchi Specialissimo 1983.


1.



Bedtime Reading
Posted by: Keech on 13th Oct 2008 in Design Top 5

Five must have books for the designer

1. The Measure Of Man And Woman by Alvin R. Tilley and Henry Dreyfuss Associates
2. The Power Of Limits by Gyorgy Doczi
3. Metric Handbook: Planning And Design Data by David Littlefield
4. The Complete Hafele by Hafele
5. Universal Principles Of Design by Jill Butler, Kritina Holden, Will Lidwell


1.



Classic Iron
Posted by: Keech on 9th Sep 2008 in Design Top 5

Five of the best classic race bikes

1. 1955 Moto Guzzi 500cc DOHC V8
2. 1974 Harley Davidson Aermacci RR250
3. 1962 CZ 320 DOHC
4. 1976 Honda MTR 125cc
5. 1957 Gilera 4 Cylinder

1.



It's Got To Be Jazz
Posted by: Keech on 26th Jun 2008 in Design Top 5

Five of the best Jazz Album Covers

1. I'm Movin On - Jimmy Smith
2. Atomic - Count Basie
3. Way Out West - Sonny Rollins
4. Blue Train - John Coltrane
5. Kind Of Blue - Miles Davis

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