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Sonic Graphics/Seeing Sound 

(2000) 

by Matt Woolman showcases a rich genre from jazz cover art to club flyers, from CD-packaging to fly posters and gets to the heart of the relationship between music and its graphic expression.

Sonic Graphics/Seeing Sound, design

 Today’s designer superstars have often forged their graphic design language in the world of music.

 

From jazz cover art to club flyers, from CD-packaging to fly posters, the culture of music offers unlimited possibilities for visual experimentation. Sonic Graphics/Seeing Sound not only showcases this rich genre, but is the first book to get to the heart of the relationship between music and its successful graphic expression.

 

Exemplary work from studios around the world is presented in three sections: Notation analyses the use of sign and symbol systems in creating identity and branding for music artists, recording projects and performances; Material considers how products can package the intrinsic nature of the music they contain; and Atmosphere looks at how space and multidimensional environmeaants can be used to visualize sound. A reference section includes studio websites and a glossary.

 

Matt Woolman is Assistant Professor of Communication Design at Virginia Commonwealth University, where he is also Design Director of the Center for Design Studies. He is co-author with Jeff Bellantoni of Type in Motion.

 

Source: Thames & Hudson

 

 

ISBN-10: 0500282609

ISBN-13: 978-0500282601

 

 

Sonic Graphics/Seeing Sound, designSonic Graphics/Seeing Sound, design

Reading

Eye 76 (2010) is Eye's first-ever special issue on the dynamic and continually inspiring sector of design for music. Designers are in a privileged position to add visual drama to music; to make it more understandable and enjoyable; to communicate the intangible essence of vibrating air molecules into the worlds of words, images and moving graphics. Design can make music look good, but when they really work together you have magic. (Eye magazine)

Notation. Calculation and Form in the Arts (2008) is a comprehensive catalogue (in German) edited by Dieter Appelt, Hubertus von Amelunxen and Peter Weibel which accompanied an exhibition of the same name at the Academy of the Arts, Berlin and the ZKM | Karlsruhe. (ZKM)

Rewind, Play, Fast Forward (2010) – The Past, Present and Future of the Music Video by Henry Keazor, Thorsten Wübbena (eds.) brings together different disciplines as well as journalists, museum curators and gallery owners in order to take a discussion of the past and present of the music video as an opportunity to reflect upon suited methodological approaches to this genre and to allow a glimpse into its future. (transcript Verlag)

 

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Maxim Zhestkov (1985) is a video artist, and motion and graphics designer based in Ulyanovk, Russia. At the age of six he was given his first computer, a ZX Spectrum, and devoted his time to drawing huge and very detailed illustrations. He was also a keen gamer, and believes his enthusiasm for design and CG effects can be traced back to those days. After high school he undertook a degree in architecture, which he followed by studying graphic design, fine art, illustration and sculpture. In 2009 he signed to Partizan. (Maxim Zhestkov)

Matt Pyke (*1967) is a painter, photographer, artist, curator, designer, animator, director, producer and lecturer based in a log cabin studio in Sheffield, UK. He founded Universal Everything after 8 years at the internationally renowned studio, The Designers Republic from 1996 - 2004. (Universal Everything)