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Post by Rabbit Dog on Aug 22, 2017 9:04:31 GMT -5
Andy, Roger, Warren and Ster are 'demoted' to the back. I always wondered why Sterling made it onto the back cover of Decade. I appreciate he was made a member of the group by the time of the compilation's release - but he hadn't made a single contribution to any of the music on the album, not one drumbeat contained within was done by him. As for the Decade cover as a whole, it's middling ground for me - it's got punch to it, but it's a little bit busy and silly at the same time. But a hell of a lot more inspiring than the cover for Greatest!
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Post by aftertherain on Aug 22, 2017 17:27:46 GMT -5
Like it or not Sterling C was made an official member of DD, that is the way I see it and there's only been 7 of them.
And never will there be anymore additional official DD members either.
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ansgar
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Post by ansgar on Aug 23, 2017 10:27:18 GMT -5
I always loved the sleeve art of the 'early' albums! Favorites are: Rio, Seven, Arena, Power Station, Notorious, Big Thing, Decade and also RCM ... but the best for me is SO RED THE ROSE! It is gorgeous!
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Post by Rabbit Dog on Aug 23, 2017 12:04:41 GMT -5
Interesting thanks! Although Ster did get drumming credits on the Big Thing album. Also, by the time Decade was released, the original band had decided to promote both Warren & Sterling. The first realisation of this was in the closing scenes of the Burning The Ground video. I recalled it as 'a new chapter'. It was the band's way of saying 'look, we're a team now'. Of course it wasn't long after Decade that Liberty came out. I think it was kind of cool to place the four on an equal footing on the back cover of Decade. An acknowledgment. Out with the old, in with the new... I stand corrected on Sterling's involvement with Big Thing album. He's not credited on the album sleeve notes, so I assumed he wasn't involved at all, but other articles online suggest he was brought in late in some sessions to replace Ferrone who was unavailable. I thought Sterling was first employed by DD to play drums on the tour to support the album.
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Post by madoldlu on Aug 23, 2017 15:51:49 GMT -5
I’ve said it many times here that it was their album covers (specifically all the Assorted Images/Malcolm Garrett stuff) inspired me to become a graphic designer. Each album had a distinct style and the singles expanded on that style. It was my earliest exposure to what a cohesive branding system was, and it helped me have an innate understanding of that principle when I studied design in college and then actually utilizing it in the real world. The overall look and sensibility of those albums still continues to inform my work to this day.
I voted for 7ATRT just to give it a little love in the poll, but all the Assorted Images/Malcolm Garrett covers are great. I love the first album stuff because of its elegant, sleek simplicity, with a touch of futuristic style. I absolutely LOVE in the Careless Memories single how the front has the girl, and the back is the girl blurred because she is moving. Such a great and unexpected little touch. The stuff from the first album taught me how great “white” space could be, and how not every single bit of real estate of a surface needed to be covered. There was drama and style in the negative space.
The Rio stuff is beautiful because of the Nagel artwork of course, but also the elegant (again) typography, and some nice little touches of design, like the back cover of Save A Prayer which has Hold Back the Rain as the B-Side, it has slanted graphic lines to simulate rain. I also like how they used video stills for the images on the SAP sleeve which gives the images an interesting texture. It’s also the beginning of those diamond icons (the eye and the mouth).
I love how the 7ATRT stuff is so richly layered and dense with cryptic artwork, and an evolution of the diamond icons. Love all the textured backgrounds and shapes, and like the heavy woodblock type of the Reflex stuff (and yes, that’s clearly a girl dancing in the artwork!).
Arena is also really great. There’s a nice juxtaposition of very sharp graphic elements (the brackets and plus signs, and the segmented graduated circles) over the textured backgrounds. And there’s also the interesting angular shapes of the photos floating above the graphics. The Into The Arena board game is gorgeously designed. The typography is also quite lovely.
And of course there’s SRTR, with the brilliant number codes and the circular motifs. They did such an interesting and unique approach with all the typographic elements. That album taught me to how much more rich a piece could be with that extra layer of information that most might not “get” or understand, but is still present. It taught me how seemingly superfluous design elements could and should have meaning and purpose. The red, gold and black palette is luscious, as is the Dean Chamberlain photography and the Tony Viramontes illustrations.
The Frank Olinsky/Manhattan Design Notorious Big Thing stuff I find merely ok.Especially after the beautiful typography from Garrett, the Olinsky typography seemed almost amateurish. The Notorious typography was just ok. I did like the design element of having DURANNOTORIOUS, DURANSKINTRADE across the top, but terrible that they abandoned that for Meet El Prez. I liked the color palette for the Big Thing album and singles but I think some of the typography (which is the focus) is clumsy and clunky.
The Liberty stuff was also pretty bland. And I never really got into the collage messy style of Decade and Medazzaland, but those two are more about the artists’ work than they are about design in the traditional sense.
I did like the TWA collage style, however. It was more thought out and considered, and they did a nice job expanding on the look for the singles. That was Nick Egan, wasn’t it?
The rest have been fine. I even don’t particularly mind the PG art, but the typography I find pretty bad. That font is really terrible (like a cheap knockoff that you get free) and is not particularly nicely used either. But I can get behind the concept of it really just being the gradient background and the stickers are theoretically just randomly placed on. I think the vinyl is really the true representation of what the idea was.
I just noticed a good many of their album covers (the majority?) have reds and pinks as the dominant or highlight color. Hmmm, except in the 90s (although Medazzaland has the title in magenta). Interesting. Definitely the last 4.
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Post by stopdead on Aug 23, 2017 21:56:28 GMT -5
I'm going with So Red The Rose. As far as I know it was created specifically for the album. I LOVE Rio and it obviously had the biggest cultural impact, but it kinda looks like everything else Nagel did...
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ansgar
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Post by ansgar on Aug 24, 2017 7:03:22 GMT -5
I’ve said it many times here that it was their album covers (specifically all the Assorted Images/Malcolm Garrett stuff) inspired me to become a graphic designer. Each album had a distinct style and the singles expanded on that style. It was my earliest exposure to what a cohesive branding system was, and it helped me have an innate understanding of that principle when I studied design in college and then actually utilizing it in the real world. The overall look and sensibility of those albums still continues to inform my work to this day... Great reading! Thanks for this!
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