Based on us just having spent 3 months designing for music as a group, it was reassuring to see today’s digital music fans being very opinionated, and also quite savvy, about design and brands that are being built around their favorite artists as new albums are being released.

Three of my favorite creative collaborators, Depeche Mode, U2 and Anton Corbjin, sparked this blog entry. Depeche Mode’s soon to be released single design to the upcoming ‘Sounds of the Universe’ album is, well, let’s face it ‘wrong’. I will not bash it more then others have already done before me, but it is amazing to see fans’ mock-versions appearing online when the single will not even be released until April 6th. As a bonus I throw in the design of the full-length, just so we all understand the depth of the design issue at hand. Anton Corbjin is the backbone of the visual re-launch of the Depeche Mode brand in 2009, and it shows that an amazing creative force with a unique vision for the moving image, does not immediately make a good graphic or brand designer. Or typographer of course:

The mock ‘remix’:

The full length album design (NOT a mock-version):

U2’s just as eagerly awaited full-length feels like the opposite to me and I was taken by its beauty and modern simplicity, yet the equal sign disturbed me mainly because of Coldplay’s very apparent and frequent use of the ‘trade fair’ symbol. Yet, as you can read here, fans of photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto and U2 had their own strong opinions.

And the ‘trade fair’ logo as seen in tattoo form:

The power of brand building, seen in one of its mass market – and most competitive and critically viewed – forms.

On that note I salute our friends at Audiolife for having launched their web site recently. The power of music and design, displayed in a visual language that, we hope, shares common ground.

Anyone who knows me personally knows about my near-pathetic admiration of electronic pioneer band Depeche Mode. A band that had a lot to do with why I became interested in graphic design to begin with. I started collecting their records (Quite passionately, I think my collection reached over 1,500 items, many of which are completely unique) mainly because of the captivating graphic design and packaging. I picked up their 12″ Singles because of the beautiful colored vinyl editions, not the music. After a couple of listens I turned into a passionate follower, so passionate that by 1993 I have thrown an after-concert party in Vienna, Austria, with over 1,000 paying guests. I was 18, I met the band backstage, had a radio interview on Austria’s largest station Ö3, and I of course had to design the posters and flyers for the event based on budgetary restrictions, which in turn contributed largely to me being where i am right now. When I was asked who my biggest artistic inspiration was when I entered Art Center College Of Design when I was 20, I noted Anton Corbijn. Although I am not as impressed with his freeform graphic design work, I am very inspired by his amazing black and white photography and music video work, for my graphic as well as my photography work. Corbijn was responsible for many videos and cover shots of important bands like Depeche Mode, U2 and R.E.M., most notably U2’s legendary ‘Joshua Tree’ cover and Depeche Mode’s classic video to the song of the same status ‘Enjoy the silence’.

Coldplay’s recent ‘video cover version’ of Depeche Mode’s ‘Enjoy the silence’ is a quite funny and well done tribute to the band as well as ‘the genius of Anton Corbijn’, and how appropriate that it is a video to a song that already is known to have the same legendary status in years to come.

Time to revisit Anton Corbijn’s work, best done through the amazing DVD that was released a couple of years ago as part of the brilliant Director’s DVD Series.

As a sad side note, and since we talk about music, I just learned about the death of Isaac Hayes. Another legend that deserves revisiting, even if on a very tragic note. Rest In Peace.

A quite intriguing invention by an artist from Berlin: ‘The Image Fulgurator is a device for physically manipulating photographs. It intervenes when a photo is being taken, without the photographer being able to detect anything. The manipulation is only visible on the photo afterwards.’

Lots of great guerilla campaigns could be created on a very low budget, lots of political events could be scrutinized and press conferences could have devastating results. Thank you Hans for the inspiration.

Italian photographer Mateo Ferrari shows a series of photographs of people being loyal to their cars, over quite a significant number of years. What happened to brand loyalty in the car industry – and where are the objects of desire anno 2008 to be found? How many people do you know who buy (and not lease) and keep their car over the span of more then 10 years?

I think we might, hence I designed these tote bags (Yes, 100% organic and pricey as hell) for our clients as a holiday gift this past December that read ‘If I hear the word ‘Green’ one more time I swear I will switch back to plastic’ on them. In my hobby-occupation of a photographer, my (then) agent urged me to switch my frames to 100% sustainable as she was promoting ‘the greening of fine art’. It would be a big hit, she suggested. It rubbed me wrong. Why would I create and sell a strictly limited photographic print (which in itself is not ‘recycleable’) with the thought of making it into fertilizer? Don’t we have to stop somewhere and make priorities, like combining errands when taking the car or using less paper during the work day? But does a photographer really need to lower the overall quality and vision by having the framing material be made out of hemp instead of wood? I don’t think so.

The same question came up within my team at Geyrhalter Design. We have always been a forerunner in the belief that ‘doing good means good business’. That motto was put into full effect when we joined ‘1% For The Planet’, giving 1% of our profit back to NonProfit Organizations that help protect our environment, but it was also reflected in simple office purchases and a strict recycling policy, as it was always important for me to talk the talk, and walk the walk. That’s when we raised the question about our business cards.Our cards won a whole lot of awards and we receive love letters about them on a weekly basis, not to mention the countless ‘how’ and ‘where’ questions when it comes to the printing process. They embody our brand in a very unique and successful way and what makes them even more special is that – and here is the issue – they are made out of plastic. A very unique printing process, where we lay several layers of ink on a completely transparent sheet of plastic. It’s truly amazing being on press when they are printed to such detail. It’s also a commitment to our brand since each card ends up costing $1.30 in the end.

All that said, there is one thing our cards are not: they are far from ‘green’. As we sat in the office one afternoon and I brought up the fact that i feel Geyrhalter Design is not walking the walk, it started a heated and productful discussion that resulted in the same conclusion I made earlier about sustainable frames for high-end art: ‘No one would trash that card, it really is a unique piece of art, something to hold on to’, someone said, and all nodded.

A mind set that works until the next print run of cards, where we will find a way to make them more environmentally friendly. By a kick-butt design, but also a more sustainable material choice. Until then we will ensure the ones who receive our $1.30 card won’t trash them.

I am sure by now everyone read about how Nine Inch Nails released their latest album/CD/MP3-set á la Radiohead. What really strikes me, and i have not seen that done so far, is that each of the 36 songs has its own ‘record cover’ assigned to it in iTunes. A creative photograph that matches the emotions triggered by the particular piece, which helps tremendously, especially since it is an instrumental album. It gives me hope after still mourning the days where the album or CD cover was a big part of the purchasing process, and together with the booklet, a big part of the all-around brand atmosphere that each artist created by releasing a new album.