Compose styles
Rather than blending styles toward a middle, this gives them roles. The first one carries the structure, the next comes in as the accent, and anything after that shows up in a single detail. Where they fight each other, it says so before you start.
How to divide the work
- Composition
- Follow Blue Note Style: The photograph pushed to one side, the freed side given over to improvised type
- Type
- Set in Blue Note Style's manner (One face used at extreme size contrasts, lines cut off at the photograph's edge), and let Factory Records Style's lettering (Set small at the edge so neither title nor artist takes the stage) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Blue Note Style's material (Black plus a single spot color only, the photograph's grain left intact); bring in exactly one thing from Factory Records Style (Industrial color charts and special finishes borrowed, the print spec treated as work).
- Colour
- Build on #b6d4d9, #1890a2, #05070a and admit one accent from #ffe8b6, #6ab7ab, #060606.
Where they fight
- Blue Note Style and Factory Records Style both belong to Music Graphics, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable.
Caution
- Blue Note Style Adding inks and cleaning up the photograph drains the tension that constraint produced and leaves a tidy music advertisement.
- Factory Records Style An unrelated plate chosen without necessity reads as mere suggestiveness and leaves the listener with nothing to remember.
Image prompt
Produce four original images that take their structure from Blue Note Style (style, 1955–1967) and their accent from Factory Records Style (style, 1978–1992). ## What to make Make the kind of thing Blue Note Style exists for: record or event promotion that must look strong within two-color printing, or A single portrait carrying the piece while type speaks the texture of the sound. Choose one subject and hold it across all four. ## Structure comes from Blue Note Style - Grainy monochrome photographs - Two-color economy - Bold cropping - Improvised type layouts Composition: The photograph pushed to one side, the freed side given over to improvised type. Type and lettering: One face used at extreme size contrasts, lines cut off at the photograph's edge. ## Accent comes from Factory Records Style, used sparingly - Refusal to explain - Borrowed imagery from other fields - Restrained typography - Catalogue numbers as institution Let one material quality come from it: Industrial color charts and special finishes borrowed, the print spec treated as work. ## Colour and feeling Build the ground on #b6d4d9, carry the structure in #1890a2 and #05070a, and let a single accent come from #6ab7ab. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette. Feeling to carry: luxury, rebellion, calm. ## Where they fight - Blue Note Style and Factory Records Style both belong to Music Graphics, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable. ## What goes wrong - Blue Note Style: Adding inks and cleaning up the photograph drains the tension that constraint produced and leaves a tidy music advertisement. - Factory Records Style: An unrelated plate chosen without necessity reads as mere suggestiveness and leaves the listener with nothing to remember. ## Across the four Keep the roles fixed in all four. Vary the framing, the scale and the arrangement so the set shows what this pairing can do rather than four versions of one picture. ## Constraints - Do not imitate, reference or name any specific artist, studio, brand, character or copyrighted work. - Do not reproduce the composition of an existing work. - Produce original compositions in the general period languages described above.
Related entries
- Blue Note Style 1955–1967 / Style / Music Graphics
Reid Miles turned out sleeve after sleeve for the jazz label with monochrome photography, two-color printing and boldly cropped type. Improvisation inside constraint became the graphic translation of jazz itself.
- Factory Records Style 1978–1992 / Style / Music Graphics
At the Manchester label Saville made sleeves that refuse to explain the music. Borrowed industrial color charts, classical paintings and waveform diagrams turned post-punk's intelligent void into a style.
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