James Brook / Design

Low-life

Peter Saville's design for Fact 100 Low-life by New Order, released in 1985, is one of my favourite ever record covers. Though I wasn't aware of this at the time, the design quotes Josef Müller-Brockmann’s Der Film poster of 1960, it places subtle, understated typography, using the 1928 font 'Neuzeit', printed in two colours, black and silver, over stark black and white Polaroid images of the band taken by Trevor Key. The album is given a strong physical presence by Saville's use of heavyweight card for the album cover which has a wraparound (echoing Japanese 'Obi' strips) of tactile, tracing paper on which all of the typographic information, is printed. Saville's original intention had been for the paper to be discarded leaving only the four portraits of the band members, he said of the cover "Strip the whole lot away and what are you left with? Four people. Anything else is another conceit, another -ism."

For me, Low-life is the last great album cover that was designed specifically for the large canvas of the 12-inch vinyl format; the album was released on CD but its cover felt like a diminished version of the vinyl format. Though subsequent New Order releases saw the band reaching new musical highs, this cover represented a pinnacle, after which New Order's sleeves no longer appeared as objects with their own physical presence, but as record sleeves in a more prosaic sense: carriers of information that described the music inside rather than suggesting possibilities for how it might sound.

Typographic Hierarchy 9

Final versions with all text aligned to a 20 point baseline grid. I’ve added an en dash between the name and the title to differentiate between them. I'm going to think a little bit about how these might be printed - and the possibility of using a metallic silver ink.

Typeface Anatomy

Taken from the website of Sigurður Ármannsson, www.font.is

Typographic Hierarchy 8

I've been thinking about the final tweaks on the posters for some time now. After a while it becomes difficult to look at them afresh. I reversed the black and white which made some of the relationships within the composition more clear. I hope I'm closer to a finished poster now.

Typographic Hierarchy 7

Four further experiments based on feedback from Paul: in the top version I have narrowed the margin - at A2 this will be 10mm whereas previously it was 20mm at A2. I personally think this is too narrow - the relationship between figure and ground shifts and the black square starts to dominate.

My original intention was to print the posters at A1 (they are designed at A3 with the margin at 10mm ) so at A1 that will make the margin 40mm which will definitely be too wide - I need to find a balance. I may need to do a test!

I agree that the en dash is unnecessary so I've removed it - I have kept the italic for the title of the book. Maybe that should go too?!

In the first three versions I have kept the type ranged left but I have moved it closer to the left-hand edge. I have also moved the 'title' closer to the text which I agree is much stronger and less 'floaty'. The third version revisits the larger size body text of previous versions but with ranged left type.

The fourth version is a distillation of some of my earlier versions. I think I prefer this version as the left align becomes a stronger design element that gives less emphasis on the ragged right.

Jan Tschichold

Jan Tschichold is one of the most outstanding and influential typographers of the 20th century. He was a master in his field, worked as a teacher, wrote a number of books, designed typefaces, and worked his entire life as designer and writer. The significance of his influence on the print industry and designers in Europe and the USA is uncontested and his famous typeface Sabon is still a bestseller. In honor of his 100th birthday, Linotype is dedicating this review of his life and work.

Read more

Josef Müller-Brockmann 3

"Every visual creative work is a manifestation of the character of the designer. It is the reflection of his knowledge, his ability, and his mentality."

Josef Müller-Brockmann

Eye Contact Poster

I was asked to design an A3 poster for an exhibition: the poster had to function as a poster, an invitation, and as a press release and so it contained a lot of information.

On the reverse of the poster, I tried to create a simple typographic hierarchy, using only three weights of Akzidenz Grotesk with capitals and italics for emphasis to try and make sense of the text that I was given and to guide the reader through the different levels of information.

Typographic Hierarchy 6

I have further refined the typography on these posters for Design and Rhetoric. I was unhappy with the justified type on the body text because, on reflection, it looked too static. I have ranged the type left and have spent some time refining the rag, I think this looks more lively now and is, I think, easier to read. I have not used any hyphenation. I have also subtly altered the position of the 'title': I think this creates more tension than in its previous position.