Record Labels and Studio
I heard back from my mentor and he is willing to establish an hourly power design session once a month. I just have to come up with a topic and let him know a couple days so he can prepare for it. We’ve been trying to set up a time next week but he is only open for lunch on Thursday. Unfortunately I have class all day and it won’t work.
I’ve been brainstorming some ideas for a topic and had an idea yesterday while watching several rock bands play. The first band had great chord progressions, where together, and really epitomized the “new wave” and indie rock genres. They really sounded very catchy yet maintained technical good intricate music. The lead singer sounded like a mixture between Deathcab for cutie, My Chemical Romance (which I don’t like), and maybe a little Oasis. The guitars had the same chord distorsion that made the Killers popular. One song very obviously was thrown in a attempt as a single ballad. I even heard a chord progression that was very similar to the Beatles Abbey Road Album. It was a mish-mash of styles, genre, and music but it sounded good.
My problem with the band was exactly why I liked them in the first place. They sounded like a lot of bands that I liked, even to the point of lifting certain elements. While it is very important to maintain influences, it is critical to develop your own sound-not just imitate. This got me thinking about it’s relation to design. Understanding design techniques and maintaining influences is paramount to having a successful design. However, just regurgitating past iterations might look and perform great but it will never have a following because it is lacking originality and personality. This is something I have been struggling with in my designs. Using the target marketing research information, branding, design fundimental, etc, etc and integrating them in a way that is has your own style is a challenge.
This got me thinking further about sticking to your design philosophy. This is another element needing attention. Can you have a bout of exuberance that is flamboyant when your designs are utilitarian? Would designing for a certain brand dimenish the authenticity of the design? There is a real threat of “selling out” as a designer. I haven’t really thought about selling out since I left my music career aspirations back in college and ended up working in sales and marketing (some would say this is selling out) to get money. I used to scoff at the people trying to belittle my career endevors saying the whole notion was childish. They had the luxury of being able to choose a job (or not) that didn’t interfer with their ideals in anyway.
Now looking back I really do think it is necessary to sell out, at least in something. It gives you perspective, and matures you, and really enforces, or in certain cases changes, what you value and aspire towards. I really wonder what that band will be doing in five years. Will they finally find their own sound; if they do will they still be popular? Then there is the other side of the coin, if they are not popular because they developed their own sound was it worth it? Most definitely, one can only fall on your sword once for what you believe in. I think that is why I became a design now, later in life because I’ve experienced success and selling out. Now I’ve jumped genres, and record labels and am hitting the studio.
