Eric M Chicago » Graphic Design

Born This Way Album Cover – A Designer’s Perspective

ericmchicago — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 15:26:41 +0000

Lady Gaga released her Born This Way album cover last night at midnight CST and the reaction has been exactly what you think it would be:

If you’re not a designer or an artist, you’ll probably either love it or hate it within 3 seconds of seeing it. If you have a designer’s instinct, you’ll hate it. If you have a designer’s perspective, you’ll love it. And I’ll tell you why:

First of all, you have to count this as a complete success. Why? Because she got what she wanted from the designer. She’s incredibly proud of this cover and she loves it. As far as designer/client relationships go, the client walked away from this project happy and fulfilled. Great, so where does that leave you? Hating what she wanted? Don’t be so quick to knock it off your radar, you have to think like an artist to get there:

There are two major design-level themes going on here: Less-Is-More and Retro-Grade-Amnesia.

Less-Is-More: Well, it’s a minimalist cover so the name speaks for itself, but think along the lines of “Less Complicated is More Involved.” If you move aside the aesthetics (which we cover in theme #2) and look at the content of the art, you have a half-motorcycle, half-girl. The genius of this image is that with such a simple idea she has tapped into numerous themes and references. First, we have the mythology. She’s the modern day Hell’s Angels Americana Minotaur that existed 20 years ago. Untouchable, mythical, magical, and ever-elusive. Then notice the more subtle suggestions that run the gamut from literal to abstract: She wants you to ride her. She’s on the road to becoming who she was born to be. She’s a machine. She’s complete nonsense. She’s completely serious. She’s simple. She’s complicated. The list goes on and on. If you truly look at the content and think about all the different meanings that you can see in it, you have a piece of art doing exactly what art is best at doing.

Retro-Grade-Amnesia: My god, she and her designer have completely forgotten that MS Paint already happened. This composition has designers from coast to coast scratching their heads and wondering, “What happened to the aesthetic she was building?” They’re wondering that because while Gaga and her team have been through many phases and representations, most recently becoming increasingly 1984 West Coast darlings, they have done so in an outwardly “forward-thinking” way. It’s been in a way that flirts with retro-80′s while making use of contemporary design aesthetics and standards. In this cover, they are fully committing to the past. Gaga and her team haven’t forgotten that MS Paint already happened, they’re going back and completely exploring the possibilities of it. Her music and her fashion have been an aggregation of pop culture, and now her designers are getting on the bandwagon. Don’t expect everything she puts out from now on to look like this; this is simply her designers jumping on board and committing 100% to the retro-style she’s setting up for them. And it has many really interesting effects on modern-day consumers. People are ‘underwhelmed’, ‘disappointed’, ‘confused’, and so on (and of course her Little Monsters think it’s ‘brilliant’, ‘gorgeous’, and ‘sick’). Well, here’s the genius of it: In 2 weeks, it will be completely accepted. She can say ‘Fuck you’ to the evolution of aesthetic computer graphic design and she knows that in the end everyone will accept the cover, maybe even end up loving it, and fulfill our destinies of attention deficit disorder virtuosos. In any case, there’s nothing else like this out there in the industry today. Her and her designers may have retro-grade amnesia, but they’ve put out something that is 100% unique and distinct (by today’s standards), and 100% representative of where she is at creatively right now. I think people get turned off because it’s not 100% representative of where THEY are at creatively right now, which is usually the case but rarely seen in this day and age. I don’t know the last time I’ve seen such strong reactions to an album cover – As a designer and an artist, I find the precision with which she keeps every last person completely surprised by everything… well, nothing less than art itself.

Why It’s Important For An Actor To Have A Web Presence (And How You Can Get One)

ericmchicago — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 02:13:01 +0000

An actor’s website is an investment, not an expense.

It’s important to have a web presence as an actor. Even if you have an agent. Paul Russell, casting director, director, and author of the hit book ACTING: Make It Your Business – How to Avoid Mistakes and Achieve Success as a Working Actor says “…if someone gives me an actor by reference, the first thing I’m going to do is Google. And if that actor’s website doesn’t come up, or if they don’t have anything that comes up within the first five results, I move on to the next actor. It’s vital that an actor have an internet presence.”

Seriously, listen to Paul Russell. A lot of people do. Here’s what they’re saying about his book: “Actors everywhere who are trying to succeed in the business, young or old on stage or on camera, in New York or anywhere in the world, take note: This is your roadmap.” -Bernard Telsey, casting director (Rent, Sex & The City: The Movie, Wicked)

Click here to view the embedded video.

He goes on to mention that the website doesn’t need to be extremely complicated; but it does need to give them a full picture of who you are and what you can do (reels, audio clips, etc.).

I have fantastic experience designing websites that do just that. I typically design Flash websites for actors and other performance artists that showcase a full range of media and photos and give casting directors easy access to you and your work. (And yes, in addition to Flash sites, I also develop CSS/HTML websites as well)

With every website I design I submit fully standards-compliant Sitemaps to Google and all major search engines, so your Google ranking stays hot and you get seen.

If you’re an actor, singer, or other artist looking to build a web presence, contact me at ericmchicago@gmail.com for an estimate. I generally complete artist websites within 2 weeks and I offer the best prices you will find for custom professional web design. Once the design is completed, you only need to pay $4/month for the hosting.

Some of my other services include:

PDF File creation (containing your headshot and resume) – perfect for email submissions
Headshot retouching – anything from small fixes to face lifts (you’re the boss)
Comp cards/business cards/mini-headshot cards

You can visit www.ericmchicago.com to see some examples of my print work (I’m in the process of re-doing the site to include a web portfolio), but for some examples of my recent work please feel free to visit some of my recent artist sites:

Chrissy Gardner (Singer/Songwriter)

http://www.chrissygardner.com

Harmony France (Actress/Singer)

http://www.harmonyfrance.com

Jess Godwin (Singer/Songwriter)

http://www.jessgodwin.com

Dawn Harkins (Singer/Actress)

http://www.dawnharkins.com

Eric Martin (Actor/Singer/That’s Me!)

http://actor.ericmchicago.com

Actor Site, Actor Website, Custom, Design, Eric M Chicago, Graphic Design, Musical, Musical Theater, Musical Theatre, Paul Russell, Theater, theatre, Vocal, Website, work

Back in the swing of things…

Get Started With Photoshop CS4

ericmchicago — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 01:56:09 +0000

I get a lot of people asking me what the best way is to get started with graphic design. I always have some immediate resources that I use and refer them to, and I also have my standbys. Here are some of my favorite recent resource finds and standbys that you can visit for some great inspiration, tools, and techniques to use with Adobe Photoshop CS4.

Adobe Photoshop CS4

Well, this is the first step. You can download a free evaluation copy to use for 30 days before making your (very worthwhile) purchase!
Qbrushes.com

Qbrushes is one of my favorite new finds. It is a great resource that is FULL of amazing, detailed, and hi-resolution Photoshop brushes to use in your projects!
Dafont.com

There are a lot of great font resources out there, and this one almost never fails me. Most are free for personal use, and you can test out your typography with custom text before you download!
Tutorialvault.net

It can sometimes be a daunting task to find just the right online tutorial for the project you’re looking for. There are some great subscription-based resource libraries (see below), but if you’re looking for some quality, free help, this is the place to go. With over 2500 tutorials on almost anything you could imagine, this site constantly inspires me in my projects.
Lynda.com

As far as training libraries go, THIS IS THE TICKET. They have an unbelievably extensive database of VIDEO tutorials for all Adobe products (currently to CS4) ftw! They have hours of extremely helpful videos on each Adobe product available for subscribers to watch at any time. You can, however, watch a select number of videos from each product without a subscription (aka: free). I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this site to anyone who wants to learn all the nooks and crannies of Adobe CS4 in the most efficient way possible.

Enjoy these resources as you get to know the amazing possibilities held within Adobe Photoshop!

Cheers!

Eric M Chicago

Free Eric M Chicago Website Background

ericmchicago — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 18:00:48 +0000

Hey all! I was playing in Photoshop the other day, making various backgrounds for my Twitter profile, blog, Fafarazzi profile, etc. and learning various techniques for making seamless tiling backgrounds. Here’s one of my favorites that I made, and I’m making it available for you to use as you like! You may want to compress the image yourself before using it; I posted as lossless an image as I could get through jpg. This background image can be used for any standard non-commercial use. Enjoy!

Cheers!

Eric M Chicago

You Know You’re A Graphic Designer When…

ericmchicago — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 00:00:57 +0000

So here’s some unambiguous warning sings that you’re well on the way to becoming a design nerd or that you already work as a graphic designer:

You can spot bad typography from 100 meters away.
You can name more than 200 fonts in under five minutes.
You are completely immune to subliminal advertising.
You look upon a well-designed project with either: sympathy OR extreme jealousy.
Your hand is permanently stuck in the shape of a mouse.
You practically take caffeine intravenously.
You have an appreciation for everything unique.
You’ve been spending three days non-stop on a project and it still looks like shit. You find yourself overcome by Deathlust.
You buy a CD or DVD only for the artwork.
You look at the clock and see it’s about midnight and think “I’ll go to bed now”… and you actually go to bed at about 2-3 am.
Seing someone use Lens Flare or Comic Sans adversely affects your blood-pressure.
You have a thing for chairs. You don’t know why.
You maintain a grid system for your refrigerator magnets.
You sit at work for eight hours straight just looking at your monitor, waiting for a spark of inspiration that doesn’t come.
You’re up ’til 5am because you came up with the best idea ever while brushing your teeth.
The hottest dream you ever had was “Trace contour… Find Edges… Pinch… Extrude… Smudge Stick… Motion Blur…. Sprayed Strokes…”
You know Lorem Ipsum by heart.
Activating your entire font collection makes your computer crash.
You spend $200 on a font for your personal website because “it’s the only one where the lower-case g is just right…”
Looking at a menu makes you go “hmmm, ITC Baskerville italic” rather than “mmmm, lunch!”
You use words about fonts you dislike that other normal people reserve for fascist dictators and serial killers.
When your significant other/ friends have threatened to never speak to you again if you point out one more font to them.
Apple+Z is the first thing that goes through your mind if you drop and break something.
You actually understand this post and pass it on to your friends.

Thanks to Frau Haselmayer for this post!

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