12 - The work of graphic designers in contemporary music graphic design and/or life style magazines and branding.

Music in the 1970's an onwards became very much about rebelling, against views in the political and economic scene. Punk music in England developed because of the economy being so poor, with unemployment rates being higher than ever. All this caused out of work youths in England to become angry and therefore rebellious. In the USA, mainly America, bands like The Ramones and Blondie were emerging, all having there own unique styles.

Eat to the Beat - Blondie
Designed by Norman Seef
collaborative - 1979

The graphic design for music towards the end of the 70's was very classy, like Blondie's Eat to the Beat cover, with the logo and a grayscale, almost sepia photograph. But that soon changed in the heading into the 80's with a DIY styled approach being applied to album covers, with two of the B-52's albums, using cut-out photographs of the band and applying them onto a bright background.

Self Titled - The B-52's
Designed by Sue Ab Surd
Photography by
George DuBose
1979

This was similar with most other bands, with cover art by many different designers, all using the same sort of style, like Bob Heimall & Stephanie Zuras who create the cover art to the right for Blue Angel. This differed slightly from Surd and Waldrop's designs for The B-52's as it wasn't just one cut out photo, the creators used five, and placed them on the cover at different angles, making the page looks very busy and gave it movement, however it still looks very DIY styled.

Wild Planet - The B-52's
Designed by Robert Waldrop
Photography by
Lynn Goldsmith
1980
All images taken from
This Aint No Disco
Jennifer Mcknight-Trontz
Thames & Hudson
First Published in 2005

Self Titled - Blue Angel
Designed by Bob Heimall &
Stephanie Zuras
Photography by Benno Friedman
1980

11 - Pop Art

The pop art movement started during the mid 1950's in Britain, and spread over to the United States before 1960. The movement was very different compared to normal fine art as it introduced popular culture into the work, using extracts from advertising, news and other things at the time. The pieces created in during the movement did not generally refer to the art itself, more to the ideas that led to the creation.

Tea Painting in an
Illusionistic Style -
David Hockney - 1961

The image to the left shows Hockney's Tea Painting, using the the 'Typhoo' brand from popular culture. The painting looks rushed and somewhat out of proportion, which could be a representation of the product at the time. The title of the painting uses the phrase 'Illusionistic Style' which suggests a link to the ghost like figure that looks like it's sat down inside the box, however this is the style of an illusion, not an actual illusion. This links with the misspelling of the word Tea on the side of the box which shows the falseness of the painting and maybe the illusion.

Interior II - Richard Hamilton - 1964

This image also shows the use of skewed proportions. The piece is an idea of what Hamilton believed was a modern day interior. He used different geometric shames and shadows to create depth. The use of popular culture in this image includes a photograph of an not so famous actress named Patricia Knight, which was different to Hamilton's normal choices.

Big Campbells
Soup Can (19¢) -
Andy Warhol - 1962

Still Life #20 - Tom Wessellmann - 1962

Marylyn - Andy Warhol - 1967

Other examples of pop art pieces and links to popular culture include the three above, by Andy Warhol and Tom Wessellmann, using brands from popular culture such as Campbells soup, which is one of Warhol's most famous pieces along with his celebrity artwork such as his Marylyn Monroe piece. I particularly like Tom Wessellmann's piece above as it is similar to Hamilton's Interior II as it uses the idea of a modern room, however this piece uses a modern kitchen, showing popular culture brands including Coca Cola and Lite Diet Bread.

Images taken from Pop Art - Jamie James - Phaidon Press - First Published 1996