Digital Media and C.R.A.P.

This week we discussed the importance of Contrast, Repetition, Alignment and Proximity (CRAP)
There are certain album covers, posters, book covers that evoke a certain memory or experience.

I was so pleased when 'vintage' 1920's-40's cool came back in spades. When I was a kid, I remember my father's library containing Raymond Chandler novels. The design on the cover gave me the impression of being cheap, cheesy and classic all at once. The books themselves were old and had that fantastic, musty, old book smell that e-books will never replace.
Here are some of the images from 'The Big Sleep' book cover and movie poster.

Both images really play up the font and it's placing. In the movie poster, the slanted title gives the poster sly tone. The proximity of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, suggests a playful tension between the two.


The font in this particular penguin classic novel, is typical retro, mystery novel, cool. The gun promises action, and most likely damsels and gangsters- classic Chandler style.

I love most thing art deco inspired. Really elaborate designs, with lots of swirls and movement, is something I tend to be drawn to. Alfonse Mucha is a great example of  this, and his art was often used in many advertisements. His fonts were often relaxed, but very pretty. The font theme was often repeated through out his different advertisements. As seen this 1897 lithograph  Nestle's food for infants advertisement, and then again in the French perfume promotional poster.

Ten years ago, Turkish rapper named Evren, released an album that is still on my mp3 player to this day. The album 'Conflict of Interest' featured a high contrast cover with a dark silhouette of the city of Istanbul.I loved the simplicity of the design. It's all about the contrast of the lettering against the urban outline. The color relationship of black and red is very dramatic. The grey logo gives your eye somewhere to focus on right away.