Kinsella chronicles

As part of this zine, I wanted to document the bands of Tim and Mike Kinsella, they've been in so many influential bands on the scene and so it seems right to pay these bands tribute in each issue. I wanted to use the visual language I have for the rest of the zine, but make it a little bit different so it stands out as not an interview. When I started getting into the designs where there's a tribute with the date they existed and the band members and their roles, I think that's where it started becoming successful. The balance in the pages because a lot more even, and everythign feels mre purposeful than it maybe had done in spread designs previous to this.

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The remaining spreads

So I finally got my interviews back from My Castle, Your Castle and Pianos Become The Teeth. Thanks to Kevin from Topshelf, I also have permission to use some really great tracks on the Cassette mix I want to include, this means that I also was able to begin working on the 'Cassette Jams' spread, knowing exactly what content I have for it.

Pianos Become The Teeth:

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With this one, the interview answers were mostly pretty blunt, which is fair enough, he was pressed for time. What it does mean however, is that there wasn't that much content for the spread, which left a gap in one of the columns, so I had to think of a way of removing that empty space to make it look a little more considered. I managed to resolve this using the flowy magnetic tape coming off of the type to fill the space. I also tried reversing it out, which I think I'm going to stick with to ensure that some of the magazine is quite black heavy, I think this will create a real diversity from page to page. The image unfortunately Pianos didn't supply me with, so I have to make sure I get permission from the photographer, which shouldn't be an issue, but if this is going into the public domain, then I need to ensure that everything is done properly so I don't get sued.

Cassette Jams:

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The Cassette Jams page was quite nice to work with, because like the contents and to an extent, the Cap'n Jazz spread, it didn't have to conform to the elements in the interview spreads. It gave me chance to do something different, although it still had to use a similar visual language in order to avoid jarring with every page turn. I started by dividing the tracks into an A-side and a B-side, I thought this would lend it's self to being on different pages, so I worked on ways of doing this, but after trying a few different things out, I think the most successful is definitely the second spread, with Cassette Jams placed in the middle, and the Side A and Side B text large enough to really see it. I used arrows so it links in with the contents page style pretty coherently. I'm relly happy with this spread, I thik because the interviews have to be so standardised, it's really nice to have a bit of an experimental, contemporary and playful side to spreads where possible.

My Castle, Your Castle:

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This spread still isn't at a point where I'm satisfied with it's structure, but I do like that the name can be broken into two parts, being able to run that as a header across both spreads. It didn't really work on the one page, divided by the pull quote. I have a good springboard here to try some more things out with it though so that's a positive.

On Monday I'm going to prep some screens in order to be able to start screen-printing this by the end of the week. This gives me a deadline to have the spreads finished by, and allows me to really focus things down for Thursday at the latest. Although the spreads are mostly at a stage where I'm happy with them, they need little tweaks to sort out the widows and the orphans.

Topshelf development

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I really wanted to fit the photograph into the topshelf spread, so I had to reduce the height of it. Then it was quickly about trying to place it so it didn't look too crammed in. having the magnetic tape weave over the photograph definitely didn't work, so it was about careful placement.

I think the most successful is the third one in.

Further development

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Not contented with the way the Sunday League spread was looking, I decided to play around with it a bit more, encorporating the banner style and playing briefly with Rockwell bold. I didn't really like it though, however reversing out the left hand page made it feel a bit more dramatic and gave me the really heavy black on the page that I was craving. I decided that this, with the original scripty design is what was looking bets and went for it.

Case Study: Raw

I've arranged to visit a studio called Raw on the 25th of March at 11 am, a design studio I hadn't heard about until we got an email through about offering an internship. They're a good design studio as some of their work below will attest to.







But then they have some work I'm not so interested in, that is quite clearly client lead:



So it will be interesting to compare how their practice opreates in comparison to studios like workshop and music, who seem to have extremely forward thinking contemporary design for most of their portfolio.

Things I need to organise:

I had a tutorial with Lorenzo today, I took some positives in that he said I have a good standard/quality of work. The problems he had, and I actually agree entirely, are that I don't investigate a broad enough range of typography, format or colour to ensure I know I'm choosing the absolute best. Secondly, that my context blog is becoming about exploring all of the briefs individually. There's not a real focus of exploration of things that I enjoy, in terms of work specifically for me.

OK, so with that in mind, I propose two things, firstly, with the Kubrik brief that I immedietely start working on different typographic treatments, different formats and different colour choices. If I explore them methodically one by one, I should have a system in place that will help with the other briefs, unless certain things are already dictated like the format and colour in the music zine. But I think I need to go away with that one and really explore more typographical possibilities.

In terms of the context, I need to start methodically exploring different things. I want to produce 2 separate publications, one with the case studies from designers and printers (lets hope that more printers get back in touch or it will be a small publication indeed.) The second will focus on printed publication design for the culture industry. Within this I need to explore:

Publication design for Fashion, within this I need to look at some of the financial side of things, but then a breadth of possibilities regarding this.

Publication design for Music, particularly independent and DIY music. Both in terms of how this industry works and showcasing a breadth of inspirational design.

Publication design for cinema, particularly regarding art films and the intellectual side of things.

Publication and print design for the design industry: This one encompasses everything including designer's stationery, promotional materials, design magazines, independent zines. There's so much interesting work going on with it that I'm kind of drawn to the most innovative design that comes out of it.

Stationery design: there's so many different lovely stationery design work that can influence not only work for stationery if I get any, but can feed into publication design for definite.

I will label these with; stationery design, for design industry, for cinema, for music, for fashion. This will provide me with a structure in my head that will allow me to explore a really thorough range of contextual research with a system to it.

Case Study: Music, continued

I'm struggling to find agencies that get back in touch, thankfully Craig from Music emailed a little while ago. Unfortunately he's working till 9 most days and won't have time to have me visit the studio, but he was willing to answer a series of questions for me.

Here are the questions I asked:

Hi Craig,

Sorry this has taken a while. The questions I would like to ask are:

What would you say is the overall design philosophy of Music?

How did you start getting clients in the beginnings of Music, particularly in regards to a promotional strategy?

Is there a particular sector that you get a lot of clients from?

If so, has this been constant, or does where the work come from change frequently?

What is the project you're most proud of working on?

And what was the most difficult design situation?

Do you find yourself fighting the client for what you know will work often? Or is there a certain level of trust placed in Music these days?

Do you have a particular process when responding to briefs?

Your work uses a variety of disciplines, do you have people in house that can do a variety of things, or are you big on using freelancers?

When sending work to print, do you use a particular printer? If so, is there any motivation behind using them?

Cheers Craig, if your answers provoke more questions I'll email you some more.


Ben Bowsher
Graphic Design

hello@benbowsher.co.uk
(+44)7794270594

I'm probably going to ask more questions based on his answers and also if I think of anything else thats relevant. This interview is geared to understanding Music's design practice, but it's probably also relevant for my PPD.