Nine Inch Nails Promotion - VIRAL

'The Year Zero game consisted of an expansive series of websites, phone numbers, e-mails, videos, MP3s, murals, and other media that expanded upon the fictional storyline of the album. Each new piece of media contained various hints and clues to discover the next, relying on fan participation to discover each new facet of the expanding game. Rolling Stone described the fan involvement in this promotion as the "marketing team's dream".^[10] Reznor, however, argued that "marketing" was an inaccurate description of the game, and that it was "not some kind of gimmick to get you to buy a record – it IS the art form" '

The promotion of Nine Inch Nails album Year Zero from 2007, is pretty interesting for a few different reasons. Firstly the album was a concept album criticizing the contemporary policies of the US government by presenting within the album a vision of 2022.
Year Zero was made into a larger, bigger project then just an album, it created a alternate reality game, where any fan was invited to become involved by the band leaving USB sticks in random area's at gigs across the world. on these USB sticks where a number of things, voice recordings, artwork, MP3 tracks, artwork, murals and number of messages which together created something bigger, later leading to hidden websites created by the band's marketing team.

NIN mural found in Shoreditch, created by painting onto plywood, then onto a billboard. 

Poster found under a bridge on Old Street, opposite the above billboard.

Renzor, the bands frontman on the concept  - 'The USB drive was simply a mechanism of leaking the music and data we wanted out there. The medium of the CD is outdated and irrelevant. It's really painfully obvious what people want – DRM-free music they can do what they want with. If the greedy record industry would embrace that concept I truly think people would pay for music and consume more of it.'

Self defined.

Looking into some kind of promotion in the music industry.  Really cool video promoting Arcade Fire's new album The Suburbs before it was released, an interactive video that became personal to the viewer.

 

 

Doesn't quite have the same effect in my home town as in the Paris one!

Self Defined Project.

 

Poster Design for a Lubbock band. type used - Chinchilla and Americratica. 

Pretty sure the image was originally a lino cut, which I have along with screen print have become interested in. The use of just 3 colours on the brown background allows the image to become more prominent over the text.

 

Poster Design for a gig for House of Blues records by Robynne Raye. Type used - Gothic Light and Colombian Antique Double Outlined Shade. Not sure about the drawn image of a figure,as it looks clumsy, but I have looked at this due to it's use of mixed type within the poster. It creates a gritty end product which works well within it's intended young audience.

 

Calendar design for Word Literacy of Canada by Sarah Wu. Just thought this was an engaging collection of images, which could be used for inspiration within this brief.

 

Promotion for RAIN by Matthew Beckerle of Creative Activity Design Company. 

I will be looking at promotion and advertisement at unique and different levels for my Self Defined product. This promotion is a small collection of cards aimed to interest inquisitive individuals of the design industry. 

 

Interesting little book about recent art in memory or rock 'n' roll, kind of corny but the layout if refreshing. By Eric Heiman.

   

Final TypeFace with 0-9

Typography 24.

Some decorative fonts I found in an informative book on typography by the type directors club.
Looking into how typeface is important within visual communication products and how it is used for different dramatic effects.

 

Example of typeface being used within packaging, here it is being used with Bjork's CD and Sleeve cover. The text integrates with the original image, as if flowing from the mouth. Although the text is a bight bold colour the softness of the  style of the text allows this to work with the soft image.

Type within magazines. These magazine spreads are taken from Durban magazine in South Africa, by Orange Juice Designs. The top left typeface is clearly inspired by architecture, from what I can tell based upon a bridge. I want my typeface to be clearly inspired by my object, not just using it as different type of media.

 

Another example taken from magazine pages, this one is taken from Copy Magazine in Vienna by Sagmeister. 

Few type based peices from this months ComputerArts magazine.

 

Above, Neil Harvey - Atomic Circus. inspired by a statue in Birmingham's Custard Factory. The busy atmosphere of this piece creates the circus enviroment, inviting the viewer to take a closer look at such things as the text.

 

Sean Freeman - Band of horses typeface, created for a gig poster, the use of bold white shades within the text on a deep black background creates a crisp clean design. 

 

Agata Dudek, Ghost writers - Although I feel the type in this piece is nothing special (and obviously intentionally simplistic)  it works well within the busy flowing image due to it's composition.

 

Text from a advert I found in Computer arts magazine that caught my eye. The way in which the background complements the text, yet blends well with it is what allows it to grab peoples attention.