Recorded music has always been packaged, from the very earliest days when wax cylinders came in cardboard tubes, and has therefore always involved designers. In the palmy days of vinyl LPs with sometimes stunning cover art and often erudite liner notes, the presentation was almost as important as the product. But with the industry morphing so rapidly into the field of digital-download delivery, where do the graphics come in now? This is a burning question for all those working in the area of visually representing music. To see what their answers are, read this feature story, which solicits the views of seven specialist music designers.
Music Graphic Issue
When the music has to stop — or does it?
“Art Director” is more than just a job title!
With the increasing part played by special-effects and animation studios in the making of movies, how exactly does one define the job of “art director” now? At the end of the day, it is still all about “the look” — and in exclusive video interviews, two leading creative outfits, Analog and Eclumes Studios, explain what it takes to achieve it.
Creative Country: Brazil
Self-expression flourishes again in samba-land Long recovered from its decades of military dictatorship and artistic repression, Brazilian design is drawing on its “wealth of graphic icons, clothes, colours and identities” to show the world that it still has what it takes to make a visual impact. The nation’s natural instincts of self-expression are being brought into play at the very moment that attention is most closely focused on it with the upcoming football World Cup and Olympic Games due to place it in the forefront of the global media glare. Can today’s generation of Brazilian designers live up to their country’s status as an emerging economic giant?
