Music Art #22. The Cure, The Hanging Garden

Today we move closer to the spooky dark impression that The Cure often evoke in their music and lyrics with an image for their song The Hanging Garden. As we progress with The Cure this week be prepared to experience haunting and unsettling imagery. At least achieving that feeling will be my goal. Today I used a photo that I took this past spring right before the trees had foliage. I inverted the photo creating a negative image and over processed it with some hue, saturation and level adjustments. Then added some elegant yet grungy typography. That’s it. Fairly typical of mid-1980’s Cure imagery. My favorite album art by the way is The Head On the Door. See everyone tomorrow with more Spook-tacular design! ~Sean

Follow this blog on Facebook and Twitter. Thank you all for your support!

Music Art #12. CAKE, Live At Northern Lights!

Today I created a concert poster for an actual upcoming Cake show in Clifton Park, NY. I kept with the traditional feel of a Cake album cover. The band name typeset in Copperplate Gothic. A simple subtle pattern in the back ground as well a s a simple color scheme. And a simple but iconic piece of artwork is an old time microphone. This is an actual show in September so get your tickets! Anyway, I hope you like. See everyone tomorrow! ~Sean

Follow this blog on Facebook and Twitter. Thank you all for your support!

Music Art #8. Duran Duran, My Own Way.

Today  created artwork for the track My Own Way, which can be found on the RIO album. I used simple shape forms, arrows, to represent direction. I also borrowed similar colors from the album artwork found on the RIO album jacket keeping it simple by only utilizing two of those colors, a lavender blue and medium plum red. See you all tomorrow! ~Sean

Follow this blog on Facebook and Twitter. Thank you all for your support!

Music Art #7. Duran Duran 1980-ish.

Today I designed around an old Photo of the Fab Five! This image couldn’t possibly have been taken anytime after 1982. This design addresses nothing specific. Just the band as they were right before they took the music world by storm. I was humming the tune Planet Earth in my head as I worked this on up. “Bop bop bop, Ba Bop bop bop ba, this is planet earth!” I posted the video on the Circadian Creative Facebook page if you are feeling nostalgic. Enjoy.

Attention: Now you can receive my daily updates on Twitter and Facebook. If you are on Twitter please follow the blog by clicking here. If you are on Facebook then become a fan of the Circadian Creative’s Facebook page. Help me get 25 Facebook fans this week! Click the link in this post, or the Facebook icon in the right hand column of the home page. As always, thank you all for your support!

See you all tomorrow.
Sean

Music Art #6. Duran Duran – King of Nowhere.

This morning I was browsing Facebook and watched a video update from Duran Duran’s Nick Rhodes. He said the band was working in the studio material for a forth coming album. In fact, he mentioned the title of one of the songs. The title of the track is “King of Nowhere” so I was inspired to create artwork for the potential single. I kept to a minimalist design. Not knowing exactly what the song is about I chose the iconic crown to represent a king. The title of the song is set on the black half of the background, perhaps signifying a place called nowhere. Anyway, that’s it for today, hope you enjoy!

Follow Circadian Creative on Facebook and Twitter. Thank you all for your support!

See you all tomorrow.
Sean

Music Art #5. TMBG Logo Concept.

Can you tell what one of my favorite bands is? I know, it’s difficult to say. For yesterday’s design I created this logo concept which I really like now that I see it a day later. So, I wanted to display it more prominently today. I chose to render it over a photographic close up of an old time accordion. TMBG was big into the accordion in their early days. The band definitely utilizes a retro inspired design sensibility in their album art and other imagery. Retro and vintage were my inspirations when creating this logo yesterday. I think today’s over all design reflects and respects the band’s taste quite nicely. What say you? Any TMBG fans out there?

Attention: Now you can receive my daily updates on Twitter and Facebook. If you are on Twitter please follow the blog by clicking here. If you are on Facebook then become a fan of the Circadian Creative’s Facebook page. Help me get 25 Facebook fans this week! Click the link in this post, or the Facebook icon in the right hand column of the home page. As always, thank you all for your support!

See you all tomorrow.
Sean

Music Art #2

Anyone who knows me knows that I am one of those people who when they hear a unique word or sequence of words is likely to say “you know, (that) would be a great name for a band!” Now I wish I would have written them down over the years. Well, the other day while watching television the Geico commercial where they show an ex-drill sergeant as a therapist came on. At the end where the sergeant calls the client a “Jack Wagon” I said “Jack Wagon would be a great name for a band!” Today I would like to present to you the album cover for Jack Wagon’s debut album, titled Welcome to Fabulous Mamby-Pambyville. I think they are a Ska band.

Attention: Now you can receive my daily updates on Twitter and Facebook. If you are on Twitter please follow the blog by clicking here. If you are on Facebook then become a fan of the Circadian Creative’s Facebook page. Help me get 25 Facebook fans this week! Click the link in this post, or the Facebook icon in the right hand column of the home page. As always, thank you all for your support!

See you all tomorrow.
Sean

Brand Re-brand. Bonsai Today Magazine Cover Redo.

I spent a little bit of time on today’s design. This is a redo of the Bonsai Today Magazine cover. I chose the Logo that I created on the 22nd. If you go to that post you will see the original magazine cover. My main gripe with the cover design has always been the typeface chosen for the word Bonsai. Other than that the cover design is brilliant. It draws the readers focus to a masterpiece bonsai and gives some brief descriptions and a brief list of the items you can expect to find on the inside of the issue. I have kept true to the design strengths of the original in my layout below. The main alteration in my version is the inclusion of my Bonsai Today Logo as well as changes to the typesetting for the issue number and issue date. I also wanted to honor John Naka so I chose one of his creations, which is also perhaps my favorite bonsai of all time, “Goshin, protector of the spirit”. John Naka’s contributions to modern bonsai are many. The small photo to the bottom right of the tree is a photo of Naka with the tree in 1980. It’s also worth mentioning that the 11 trees in this composition symbolize Naka’s 11 grandchildren. Naka passed away in 2004. I was a big fan and this is a little tribute to him from me.

Attention: Now you can receive my daily updates on Twitter and Facebook. If you are on Twitter please follow the blog by clicking here. If you are on Facebook then become a fan of the Circadian Creative’s Facebook page. Help me get 25 Facebook fans this week! Click the link in this post, or the Facebook icon in the right hand column of the home page. As always, thank you all for your support!

See you all tomorrow.
Sean

Brand, Re-brand. Bonsai Today Logo Redo #2.

Today’s design is a lazy one. This is a variation on the Bonsai Today magazine logo. I chose to use green this time and I used Clarendon Bold for the word Bonsai. That’s it. Hope you like!

Attention: Now you can receive my daily updates on Twitter and Facebook. If you are on Twitter please follow the blog by clicking here. If you are on Facebook then become a fan of the Circadian Creative’s Facebook page. Help me get 25 Facebook fans this week! Click the link in this post, or the Facebook icon in the right hand column of the home page. As always, thank you all for your support!

See you all tomorrow.
Sean

Brand, Re-brand. Bonsai Today Logo Redo.

I spent a large part of my morning pruning my meager bonsai collection which has inspired today’s design. Today I decided to experiment with the Bonsai Today magazine logo. This was a magazine published by Stone Lantern during the 1990’s and 2000’s. The magazine is currently out of print but the publisher manages a website called Bonsai Bark which contains great articles on the sublect. I used to look forward to getting my copy every quarter I believe, or maybe it was every two months, I can’t remember. It was a great magazine and contributed greatly to my bonsai education. Here is a cover from one issue.

I chose to change the typeface and incorporate an icon, which I created, of the silhouette of a bonsai tree. I kept red as the primary color but used a slightly darker version. Shown below are two variations. Tomorrow I will revisit the logo and experiment some more. See you then.

Attention: Now you can receive my daily updates on Twitter and Facebook. If you are on Twitter please follow the blog by clicking here. If you are on Facebook then become a fan of the Circadian Creative’s Facebook page. Help me get 25 Facebook fans this week! Click the link in this post, or the Facebook icon in the right hand column of the home page. As always, thank you all for your support!

See you all tomorrow.
Sean