Posted by Ryan Clark | Filed under Advertising, Bum Out, Design, The Way It Was, Vintage
I had the idea a while back to post about the perils of modern design, specifically in regard to rebranding, the evolution of a particular design and things of that nature. I’ve decided to finally pull the trigger and go for it. As my brother has begun posting a series dedicated to our grandfather, I thought this might be the right time. After all… the time period in which our grandfather was designing will often be the era in which my postings will refer to.
“The Way It Was” will be a study (and occasional pseudo-rant) about a particular design of the past, and a directly (or at least somewhat) related piece from recent years.
TWIW #001 is based on an email conversation I had with a few like-minded friends a couple of years ago. The subject in this case is a box of Trix cereal. Target had announced that it was re-issuing old General Mills cereal box designs for a limited time, (God bless design-savvy corporations) and in being reminded of that classic old box design, I couldn’t help but dissect the modern design and suppose what it’s trying to tell today’s consumer. Here are my thoughts:
1. The logo, once simple and bold, is now 3-dimensional, has a white stroke, yellow bevel, and emboss. ALL of which have gradients. Somehow this “pops” more.
2. Since brand loyalty is dead, the nice big General Mills logo at the top of the box (which I’m sure used to assure people of the reliability and integrity of the product) is replaced by a very small GM logo, overpowered by a “whole grain guarantee” and a list of other nutritional values. Not that nutrition is anything to shrug at, but let’s be real- this is Trix.
3. The cereal itself isn’t enough anymore, so there has to be added incentive to buy. In this case, there’s an ad for “fruitalicious” games on the back of the box.
4. The fun-loving bunny on cute roller skates is replaced by (honestly) what seems to be an INSANE rabbit, literally throwing Trix at you.
5. Lastly, and probably most importantly, the modern box has a disclaimer sentence that reads something like “cereal shown not actual size,” because people are so stupid (or assumed to be so stupid) that they can’t comprehend that the 1″ macro-lens-photographed meteor puffs on the front of the box are bigger than they actually are.
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August 19th, 2010
Posted by Ryan Clark | Filed under Design, Editorial, Metal, Music, New Work, Photo-Illustration
Check out your local newsstands now for the new issue of Revolver Magazine, featuring Zakk Wylde. We did the photo-illustration work for the cover and the feature, which meant many hours of cutting out little demon people to create the elaborate scenes. The cover image itself pays homage to recently deceased Frank Frazetta’s classic artwork.
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August 17th, 2010
Posted by Ryan Clark | Filed under Design, Music, New Work, Packaging
Just wrapped up the artwork for Starflyer 59’s 12th album, “The Changing Of The Guard.” The music, as always, is incredible… and it’s always refreshing to work with Jason Martin, a guy who truly “gets it.”
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July 27th, 2010
Posted by Ryan Clark | Filed under Design, Metal, Music, New Work
Check out the cover we recently finished for our buddies The Showdown. The new record, Blood In The Gears, has a very gritty, Southern, biker sound to it, so that’s exactly what we went for. That’s me in the jacket, and there’s no Photoshop magic here- we had the back patch made just for the cover. Ride to live…
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June 8th, 2010
Posted by Ryan Clark | Filed under Design, Illustration, Metal, Music, New Work
Here’s the cover for new Solid State band, To Speak Of Wolves’ debut release. Hands are still tough for me. I probably drew 15 pairs of hands before I felt like I got it right…
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April 2nd, 2010
Posted by Don Clark | Filed under Design, Music, New Work, Packaging
We just wrapped up the cover for ‘Cohesion’, the new album from Perth’s own Gyroscope. Listen to the album and pre-order here.
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February 9th, 2010
Posted by Don Clark | Filed under Design, Fashion, New Stuff
When Nonsek asked us if we’d like to open an IC artist channel, we took a gander at their current roster and quickly said “mmmmkay”. If you haven’t played around with their super-cool custom T-shirt remix madness, do yourself a favor and check it out. Infinite options! And now you can choose shirt colors and even lock layers that you dig.
You know what I’m thinking? This could make a REALLY great gift. Just sayin’ …
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November 25th, 2009
Posted by Don Clark | Filed under Design, New Stuff
Coalesce is graciously allowing us to sell a limited run of the ‘Art Of OX’ art print sets.
The ‘Art Of OX’ art print set features 12 hand printed, frameable 8 ” x 8″ prints. Each set comes in a wax sealed envelope, and are signed and numbered. We have been given 45 sets to distribute through IC. Of these 45 sets, 35 are printed on black stock with silver ink, the remaining 10 sets are printed on brick red stock with dark red ink and will be randomly distributed.
And don’t forget, the album drops this Tuesday.
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June 5th, 2009
Posted by Ryan Clark | Filed under Design, Illustration, Music, New Work, Packaging, Photography
Here are 3 recently finished album covers. Had a lot of fun with all of these. All great records too!
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June 5th, 2009
Posted by Ryan Clark | Filed under Design, Illustration, Metal, Music, New Work, Packaging
Just wrapped up both (regular & special edition) packages for the new DevilDriver record. I’m a big fan of the band, so it was an honor to work with Dez and the guys.
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May 14th, 2009
Posted by Don Clark | Filed under Design, Illustration, Music, New Stuff, New Work, Packaging, Posters
Spring has hit Seattle (well, a little) so we thought it’d be a good time to update you on what’s happening in IC world … and of course shamelessly plug ourselves all at the same time. We’re having a ton of fun at the shop lately, so why not share in the joy a little bit?
The Takeover interview – Short and sweet.
RBTL podcast – This was a lot of fun to do, but maybe I shouldn’t have had so much coffee before recording.
IC on Twitter – Sign up! Updated regularly with IC happenings and random pretentious garbage no one needs to know about. Oh, and this may soon take the place of ‘5 Things We’re Digging’. I wish it wasn’t so addictive, but it is.
Sasquatch! Festival - It’s coming up hot. Thankfully, we have a new set of limited edition screen-printed posters available to help celebrate its arrival. Coming soon.
Coalesce ‘OX’ – This project was a blast in many ways, but I had no clue the band would want to feature the art on so many stinking cool pieces of merchandise. Icing on the cake. Limited edition (signed) art prints, a flask (with super cool box), quality hoodies and shirts, etc. Take that, Fugazi.
Having fun with new projects from Nike, Target, Wired, Devildriver, August Burns Red, Coalesce, The Not-It’s, KEXP, Brother Ali + Rhymesayers, etc. We’ll be showcasing these new projects (and much more) on our new website and store towards the end of August. Very excited to be working with the masterminds at Gridplane & Instrument.
There is much more to talk about, but not enough time to do so. Thanks to everyone who has made the IC blog a part of their daily RSS feeds. 6,500 and counting!
Oh, and special thanks to Cale Glendening for the above photo.
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April 29th, 2009
Posted by Don Clark | Filed under Design, New Stuff, Typography
We’re excited to be interviewed next week on the Read Between The Leading podcast. Today they asked us if we’d like to accept questions from our blog and Twitter followers, so we kindly said yes and thank you. Please drop us a comment here or a reply on Twitter and (hopefully) we’ll get to as many as possible. Before you start asking questions, we’ll get the big one out of the way: Yes, but only once.
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April 17th, 2009
Posted by Don Clark | Filed under Design, Music, New Work, Posters, Seattle
Here are 2 posters we just wrapped up for the upcoming Sasquatch! festival. If you’ve seen Tim & Eric Awesome Show Great Job! on Cartoon Network, you won’t be offended at this poster. If you have seen it, and are still offended, sorry about that – blame Ryan. And TV On The Radio – Well, their last record (which is epic in every way) is called Dear Science, so I got a little ’science-y’ with it … then felt like it needed a bear for some reason. These will be available towards the end of the month.
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April 3rd, 2009
Posted by Ryan Clark | Filed under Bum Out, Design, LOL, Music, Photography
Four guys in outdoor clothing- check. Rocks and various debris- check. 2 staggered pine trees- check. Campfire- check. One guy warming his hands, one guy roasting a marshmallow- check. White seamless backdrop- check. Congrats- you’ve successfully ripped off our Fair artwork! Your Dave Hill photo treatment needs some work though.
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April 1st, 2009
Posted by Ryan Clark | Filed under Design, Illustration, Music, New Work, Packaging
Check out the cover we recently created for the new Falling Up album, “Fangs!” The illustration is based on the very interesting story told within the lyrics- having something to do with poison threads and foreign planets. Drawn with ink, colored in Photoshop.
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March 17th, 2009
Posted by Don Clark | Filed under Design, Music, New Stuff
The infamous IdN Magazine was kind enough to feature IC in their new ‘Craft’ issue. 6 pages + an interview about the collapse of music packaging. Pick it up!
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March 12th, 2009
Posted by Ryan Clark | Filed under Design, Metal, Music, New Work, Photo-Illustration, Photography
Check out our new post over at Headbangers Blog, in which we explain the process of creating imagery for the April, 2009 issue of Revolver magazine, featuring metal heavyweights Lamb Of God. Feel the wrath!
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February 26th, 2009
Posted by Ryan Clark | Filed under Design, Film, Music, Packaging, Photo-Illustration
Here is a cover that we did for a documentary about The Doors, titled “When You’re Strange.” Unfortunately this cover was rejected when it turned out that the band just “wanted a band photo” instead. We thought we’d show it to you anyway, as we’re rather fond of it.
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February 24th, 2009
Posted by Ryan Clark | Filed under Design, Illustration, Music, New Work, Posters, Seattle
By popular demand, we’ve reprinted our Kings Of Leon “Lonely King” poster design, this time with a change of color palette. These are going pretty fast, so get yours now.
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January 30th, 2009
Posted by Ryan Clark | Filed under Design, Metal, Music, New Work, Packaging, Photo-Illustration, Photography
Here’s the cover for Demon Hunter’s new “Live In Nashville” record. For this album cover we wanted to execute our “demon skull” logo (which graces every DH cover) in a new and unique way. If you focus on the black negative space, you’ll see it. Album available January 27th!
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January 15th, 2009