OUGD406 - Art Rock - Typography
Because of Art Rock’s tendency for concept driven albums and strong prevailing themes, a lot of the art work and typography of these albums is very independently stylised, for example, the typography for Sgt Pepper’s is decorative and colourful to match the theme of the marching band.
Some of the type on Art Rock albums art is less stylised and more indicative of the era and style of music. The typeface on The Velvet Underground with Nico is an angular geometric modified sans serif typeface to match the avant-garde sharp modernist sound of the album while the typeface for Pet Sounds is in Cooper Black which is very representative of the era and matches the warmer harmonic sound of the album.
The typography on the cover of Rubber Soul is curved and psychedelic, this matches the prevailing style of the hippie culture and post modernism at the time and also matches the photo which is stretched because when the photographer was showing the Beatles the photos he took, the projector was moved, and subsequently showed an elongated version of the picture which the Beatles liked because they spread out over more of the cover.
Postmodernist designers of the time would also have good examples of type which would be representative of the genre. Typefaces from Milton Glaser such as Baby Teeth or Hologram Shadow provide experimental and playful type which would be simple to recreate or modify. Herb Lubalin’s ornamental psychedelic type perfectly represents Art Rock’s intellectual attention to detail combined with artistic expression however would be more difficult to recreate.
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