OUGD406 - Contemporary Designer Research - Ben Arfur

OUGD406 - Contemporary Designer Research - Ben Arfur

Ben Arfur is a Welsh self taught graphic designer who has most notably worked on a multitude of album covers and posters. His work utilises a range of ideas and processes from bold typographical components and warped grid systems to the use of illustration and photography, he is undoubtedly able to stylishly capture the essence of whatever record sleeve he is designing. Arfur states some of his inspirations to be the work of designers such as Saul Bass and Herbert Bayer and theres no doubt his work contains stylistic references to earlier decades of modernist graphic design looking at some of his geometric almost architectural posters with rationally regimented type and grid systems.

In terms of how Arfur’s work relates to designing for a specific micro genre of music, one must simply look the range of record sleeves he’s produced, for example his recent cover for the band Boy Azooga combines digitally collaged imagery with bold usage of typography, all in a concise neon pink and blue colour palette, capturing their synth funk pop style. Ultimately it is really Ben Arfur’s precision in a multitude of visual processes which allows him capture any style required, and when applying these principles to this project, his work serves as a reminder to firstly pick an appropriate visual process, and secondly to not rely on perhaps mimicking a visual style of the era of Art Rock e.g. Push Pin Studios and instead use more sophisticated and contemporary design principles in conjunction with using the appropriate visual inspiration.