Trial and Design

Pretentious, moi? Well, I have to keep the titles vaguely enigmatic.

Anyhoo, we had our first meeting on Wednesday at the Thomas Sheraton in Stockton. Nice place actually, good selection of real ales and nice and quiet (it’s all in the detail).

The topic of discussion: art work.

John Chadwick is manning the design helm once again and with Tim and board and in the spirit of keeping the zine fresh and interesting, well, we are looking at doing something different to with the next edition.

Whereas Vol  1 was very much a Burroughs informed cut and paste experiment, keeping true to the feel of a zine and making the art work bespoke for each story, we have decided to go the other way.

This time we are going for a cleaner look, where the stories will fit in with the artwork and as Tim, John and I write our stuff we will respond to John’s artwork as it develops, so that the stories are not only influenced by the design etc. but also grow organically with it.

Well, that’s the theory and challenge.

In terms of look we fell back on some of our first loves in terms of design: record art work. Specifically Factory Records stuff. I am a massive Joy Division fan and love how the coolness of the Peter Savilles’ designs reflect and compliment the music.

We then looked at Saville’s influences: Bauhaus, de Stijl and other record sleeves, particularly those of Raster-Noton, who are making some of the coolest, glitchy electronic stuff to date and have a touch of Factory about them in their attitude to making truly independent music and maintaining a certain consistent ascetic.

Below is a link to a very short and cool film about the Bauhaus school , which is part animation and is great fun.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_c6AlBBCCI

Also, below is a link to Alva Noto’s (he’s one of the head Raster – Noton guys and my favourite in terms of output) records on spotify. If you are feeling adventurous start with ‘Transform’, if you are a bit timid then go for ‘Insen’, it is a lot more laid back but equally interesting.

Alva Noto

So, what do you think? Come on! We want feedback, tell us if you think we are betraying our roots or if you are genuinely interest if we can pull this off.

Have you any suggestions, maybe someone who has created similar artwork and we should look into as it could help inform our vision. Please let us know.

We should have some cool surprises/news for you guys soon, stuff we didn’t even know was going to happen! Sometime next week we will officially let the cat out of the bag.

Also, John and Tim will be making some form of contribution to the blog, giving you their thoughts and feelings on how it is all going, what is inspiring them.

Till then, have a good weekend and stay safe out there.