silaandwild-blog

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My little companion. 

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Love.

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Spending the afternoon creating handmade, floral typography from found wildflowers, such a cathartic and relaxing way to create <3

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Having a go at floral typography, challenging indeed!

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Beautiful door inspo!

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Greens appreciation <3

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Uni afternoons <3

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Little menace wants to eat all my plants, but I love him!

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Afternoons xx

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Wednesdays at home <3

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Melbourne is full of incredible cafes at every turn, found this beauty behind a servo in a hidden laneway in Carlton - Vertue of Coffee, Carlton

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This guy

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Some more nature

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Testing out my new Nikkor 32mm

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My favourite colour palette. 

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Cool guy Brody.

Neville Brody.

Neville Brody is a British Graphic Designer, Typographer and Art Director. He is best known as that really influential guy in the world of graphic design. He even had a book of his works published in 1988; The Graphic Language of Neville Brody, which became the best-selling graphic design book in the world.

Brody is a co-founder of FontShop, has designed 24 font families, has art directed and designed numerous album covers, is well known for his work on magazines, and is now the editor for FUSE magazine (to name but a few of his accomplishments). Why was Neville Brody so influential? To answer this I’ve decided to focus on two major early influences that led him to become one of the most influential designers of the 20th Century.

Neville Brody is a pretty cool guy. I didn’t know much about him before now, other than his name. The first thing I found when researching Brody is that he was heavily influenced by punk music and the London punk scene of the late 70’s/early 80’s. Reading about his love of punk and how it influenced his design seemed a perfect topic tying in with out recent studio discussions on music, philosophy and design.

“Punk was probably the most influential thing to happen to me…London was this thriving, humming, inspiring, exciting place to be at that time, where anything was possible”

Brody credits Punk as the most influential factor on his design and his ability to push the boundaries and challenge design conventions. Brody notes that the independence and strength of the punk scene paved the way for him to be an individual and generate income designing for independent music labels at the time. In all of his interviews, Brody discusses the anarchistic nature of punk, and the political undertones of London at the time. Brody quotes that he would not have survived as a designer without the support of the independent punk scene. 

“Punk came out of that oppressive, repressive space. It was an expression of independent individuality, it was a cry against this bland culture.”

The next major influence for Brody was his time at record design agency: Rocking Russian. Working alongside Alex McDowell, the agency designed for Iggy Pop, Siouxsie & The Banshees. Brody worked on album covers for punk bands and was able to explore creative ideas that were outside the conventional restrictions of graphic design. His individuality and his passion were supported, and he was provided a platform in which to thrive and grow his design portfolio unhindered.

“Design is more than just a few tricks to the eye. It’s a few tricks to the brain.”

Brody himself was an anarchist. He challenged the design principles, challenged his audience and paved a strong path of independence that allowed him to freely create and inspire through his design. The reason Brody is so influential is because he created new and refreshing design solutions that stood out among the norm. He admired creative thinkers who challenged the norm, actively explored ideas outside the box and purposely broke the rules. All of these philosophies are evident in his extensive body of work that Brody. 

My thoughts? In an environment of pressure, oppression and dulness, it takes a survivor to succeed and not crumble. I believe in challenging all you know, all you have been told; you can live an exceptional and colourful life and there is no limit to creativity and dreams. Learning more about Neville Brody has been refreshingly eye opening and inspirational. Thanks Neville, for being a cool guy who made life a little more interesting for us all! 

God save the queen!

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Uni Stuff

Ray Gun Magazine & the attack of David Carson.

Wherever David Carson goes, he leaves a trail of post-modern destruction. Personally, I am sort of confronted by his style (and I’m not the only one) which is exactly what he was trying to achieve through the design of ‘Ray Gun’ Magazine. Ray Gun was an early 90’s Rock n Roll Magazine, created by Carson himself which featured modern advertising, musical artists such as Radiohead, Björk, Beck, Flaming Lips, PJ Harvey and other pop culture icons. Not only was the subject matter ahead of its time and cutting edge, but the design style is noted as being rebellious, chaotic and challenging the norms of typography and graphic design.

Ray Gun was notorious for having unconventional layouts and the typography wasn’t always legible. Even after Carson left the magazine after three years, his crazy design legacy lived on through a succession of Art Directors. Although I am not a huge fan, you have to admire Carson’s vision to push design beyond the ordinary and expected. In an era of flannel shirts, grunge & heroin, Carson used his design to capture the times and through his work helped to develop a visual language for alternative music. His design was in stark contrast to the likes of other magazines and design trends at the time: he didn’t always use hierarchy, or such conventions as headlines, columns, and even page numbers! 

His layouts were confusing, chaotic, hard to navigate and read, and sometimes viewers had to sift through images and pages to get read the articles. He once wrote a whole spread in Zapf Dingbats! Priorities were not to control and guide the viewer, but to inspire rebellion and challenge the viewer to think and feel differently, and to intuitively guide through the magazine. 

“Use your eye, not the rules” - David Carson.

To compare to the normal Magazine trends at the time, say no more:

David Carson, you might just be growing on me…