OUGD501 - Studio brief 02 - Practical research

For this research I looked more broadly at graphic design that is relevant to the points made in my essay. For example Fabric' reopening campaign, Utopia identity which is influenced by rave, Printworks London identity and Diagonal Records.

As I discuss in my essay about the importance of Fabric's visual identity and how potentially graphic design saved the club. And obviously support of music lovers globally and London’s mayor Sadiq Khan, it was announced last November that the club’s #savefabric campaign had been successful. With the reopening announced it wad down to Roberto Rosolin, to create artwork which personifies the club’s persona through design. For its reopening, Roberto created a campaign entitled, Reconnection. The series of images and poster display the club’s melodic connection with London through photography. The photographs showcase London’s lively night landscape, featuring recognisable landmarks including the London Eye, the Michael Faraday Memorial in Elephant and Castle and Tate Modern. This another example of club nights and clubs being personified through graphic design which is an initial idea for the practical.

I found an example of an identity being influenced by rave culture, Utopia 2016 which was a year-long season at Somerset House that marked 500 years since the publication of Thomas More’s text of the same name. The visual identity had a rave-style smiley face icon, the word utopia can have a number of meanings but the smiley face references rave and acid house. The studio behind the concept wanted the identity be familiar and positive, with the use of the smiley face and a garish colour palette which is also influenced by rave culture; helping the identity being positive.

Very recently Leeds based studio Only designed the new identity for Printworks London, this new identity relates to one of my ideas of nightclub promotion but also the essay point of reaching out to audiences through design. It's a very clever identity, with it taking inspiration from the venue’s former purpose as the largest printing facility in Europe, the design uses icons of this history to form a bold and adaptable visual framework. This is a great source of inspiration for the nightclub promotion idea as the colours alone used in Printworks identity are clearly informed by the music. To be specific to a music genre, techno is often associated with the colour black and seen as Printworks will mainly be hosting techno nights it seems relevant to have a restrictive black and white palette.

OUGD501 - Studio brief 02 - Practical research

For some initial research for the practical piece I looked at how designers design for club nights and focused on the point in my essay of how clubs are using contemporary design to reach out to audiences.

Vanja Golubovic is Berlin based graphic designer who designs club night posters for world famous club Tresor. The designs are dynamic and ordered, using grids and simple typographic approaches to form a clean feel that gives order within which to play with different colours, imagery and shapes. It’s a smart and structured design approach that provides an insight into what expect once inside the club. I explored this within my essay but with the club Futur Sound, Tresor's posters are another great example of how graphic design is replicating the experience of club themselves. In an interview Vanja says their communications need to please the core public of regular techno aficionados but also to attract a younger and eclectic crowd. Designing the flyers is a complex job as 20 flyers and posters are designed each month for print and web and a visual concept changing every 6 months. Vanja uses three specific templates for each kind of events and a single font, "I have developed two visual concepts so far: a first one playing around graphic sound moods and ambiances and a second one focusing on the place, the building and its cage where DJs perform"

Studio Jimbo is Paris based studio who work in editorial, branding and visual identity, I came across the studios work for club nights on Instagram. The posters show typographic experiments which are normally dark and moody, which emulate the music the posters are advertising. The studio plays with composition, colours with neon pops, graphic imagery, and blends a mix of bold typographic choices.

OUGD501 - Studio brief 02 - Idea generation

For the practical ideas I needed at least 20 rough ideas/scamp/thumbnail solutions to the problem or related to my essay question (What is the role of graphic design in the underground electronic music scene?) Where applicable my ideas should be accompanied by necessary material considerations (production methods, medium, scale, etc.) including a discussion of the impact of material decisions. All the ideas are informed by talking points in my essay with decisions such production methods, medium, scale, etc. All influenced by either Fabric, contemporary nightclub promotions or rave culture.

Key points in essay:

• Fabric and the importance of its visual identity
• The role of graphic design during rave culture
• What is rave culture teaching graphic design today
• Branding and marketing of Djs, events and labels

Problems:

• Communicating the electronic music scene can be straight faced 
• A nightclub needs a brand refresh to reach a new audience
• An electronic music artist needs to single out a target audience
• The challenge to recreate rave artwork from the 80s and 90s

Solutions/ideas:

• Album artwork influenced by rave culture for a specific artist
• Nightclub promotion that uses contemporary design to reach out to a new audience
• Dj branding 
• Rave trend artwork. A piece of graphic design that uses trends such as neon colours, stretched type and repetition. 
• Anti-design micro media. Referencing back to the role of graphic design in the rave scene, a piece of graphic design that mimics the anti design from the 90s.
• Nostalgic design response for electronic music. Influenced by the nostalgic logo by Fabric for the save fabric campaign.  
• Rave influenced typography
• Experiments with cheap print methods
• Cut and paste style artwork
• Amateur design vs Pro design
• Experimentation with materials for print
• Editorial piece celebrating rave culture design
• A visual case study of the Fabric case
• Editorial piece of logo archives of electronic music
• Event brand elements
• Redesigning an existing flyer from the 80s and 90s 
• Editorial celebrating micro media such as pirate radio and fanzines
• Fanzine of present electronic music 
• Pirate radio branding, using graphic design to brand an illegal radio station.
• Electronic music label rebrand