Typography

Hello everyone. Let's talk about typography!

This first image is from a hardcore/grindcore(ish) Christian band called, With Blood Comes Cleans

ing. This is the album cover of their album, "Horror". As you can see the typography used to display the band's name is very hard to interpret. Many band's in the hardcore genres a

nd sub-genres choose to use a typographic font like this one that is web-like and hard to read. Is this effective?It's hard to say. For a person

who listens to top 40 radio, it is completely ineffective

. That person will look at this album, and won't be able to distinguish who the artist is. But With Blood Comes Cleansing isn't writing songs for listeners like that. They are writing

songs for people who love hardcore music. So, in a way, this typography can become very exclusive and very effective for the demographic they are

writing for. Bands like these are writing music for the love of the music. If making money was the band's main concern, they would have used Times New Roman instead (a

nd italicized it for some extra spice).

The second design that used typography that I liked is a poster for the movie Green Street Hooligans. There are two different typographic styles used in this poser, each of them being very effective. The first typographic style is the title of the movie, Green Street Hooligans. This font has a military feel to it, and is kind of scratched out a bit in some places. This gives the font a rougher look. And of course "Hooligans" is in a bigger typeface than the other words on the poster. Even though I've seen this movie, I think if I hadn't, and then I looked at this poster, I could guess what it was about. The typography is effective in that sense. The typography allows the viewer to classify this as an action movie, and not that a romantic comedy, children's movie, etc. The words underneath, "Stand You

r Ground" also enhance the message of the movie. By the way it is spray-painted on the wall and the fact that those three words are often associated with fighting. Giving the audience another clue to what this movie is about.

The third image I found that has really cool typography is the album cover of southern-hardcore Christian band, Maylene and the Sons of Disaster. This is the cover of their album, "3" or "III" as it's written. I find this typography very effective on many different levels. First of all, the words are placed so elegantly over a rickety ol' southern bridge (assuming it is in the south). The letters flow together very nicely and paint a pretty clear picture to what the band is all about. At first glance I look at this picture and think, "Oh cool! Maylene has a new album out!? I am going to go 'buy' it!". While an old man in Alabama might look at this album and think, "This album looks pretty southern. I want to see what the kids have done to the southern music scene these days!". This typography is effective because it is true to the southern roots of the band, and allows others to clearly understand what type of band this might be before listening to their music.

This is where I got these awesome images from (in the same order the images are displayed)!

http://img.imeem.com/ai/WDL2LKUSPYTCOV774Z7WDIDNWVK4Q2KZ.jpg

http://www.listal.com/image/productsus/1000/B000FBNG1O/dvds/green-street-hooligans.jpg

http://leeswinford.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/maylene_iiicover1.jpg

Bye guys.

Phil

Find 3 designs (posters, flyers, billboards, magazine ads/layouts, album art, political propaganda, product labels, product packaging, DVD covers, whatever) and discuss the typographic choices made in the design. Is the typography effective? Why or why not? Does the typography effectively address a particular target audience and / or support the central message or theme of the design? Etc. Try to identify the font used if possible.
You may photograph or scan the designs, or find them on the internet. Give credit for where you found the designs.