Memory Lane: Logos and Tunes from Years Past
I have been spending the past week trying to formalize my design portfolio, for use in applications for both schools and jobs. As I have been incredibly busy over the past year, and spending a lot of time weighing options for my future, it has been a very deep and challenging experience. I am going to take a stab at applying to further my education, schools like Pratt, California College of the Arts, and Savanna College of Art and Design. Admittedly, I know very little about good design programs outside of what I’ve read in US News and World Report, so if anyone who is in the know happens to come across this post, please feel free to get in touch either via comments or email!
The image above is a page from my portfolio’s rough draft, which showcases logos I created from 2005 through 2008 (with the exception of number 16, I recently created that one). It’s so crazy how quickly time has gone by, but at the same time I feel like so much has changed. All this thinking about the future, going back to school, investing myself back into my education, got me thinking back a couple of years. As I cataloged my design work from my days at the University of Pittsburgh as a dual major in Business and Psychology, I started to think it might be a good idea to post up some of the tunes I had been listening to back then. If you’re like me, and your music player is always on the Recently Added folder, I highly recommend you re-explore your Library!
Múm – Flow Not So Fast Old Mountain Radio
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In the summer of 2006, I can remember that I had looped this track for something like a week straight. It would be on, at a very low volume constantly, as I spent my post-China summer break in a tiny room in a half-destroyed house on Atwood St. While I still have mixed emotions about the randomized 8-bit arpeg sequence, the underlying melodies in this song are like a warm blanket. , is an Icelandic group, which made it’s mark in the early to mid 2000’s, with tracks that, like this one, straddled idm with chiptune and in many cases, eerie hints of pure pop.
The BNVz – After Hours
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are a group I worked with starting back in 2005, I did everything from graphic design to promotion to management at some points over the years we worked together. In the band’s earliest forms, when I first got involved, they were a blend of live hip hop and about everything but the kitchen sink– funk, punk, soul, and beyond. Logo number 12 above is the logo I designed for them, which we re-skinned and re-purposed about a thousand times. I sometimes brag that I helped write this song I’m posting, but the real reason I’m posting it is because the verses of the two lyricists MH the Verb and Lid, always bring a smile to my face and memories of basement parties packed with fans.
Kaskade – The X
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This next track is one I’m not so sure I should be proud of having played so often. When I went back through my library looking for tunes I used to be playing constantly, and kept reminding myself it had to be from 2005 to around 2007, it got a little challenging. ‘s album Love Mysterious was playing constantly in the background in early 2007, almost like a part of my work routine when I was juggling school, friends, co-founding a nationally establlished airsoft league, and trying to get a magazine off the ground. I got into Kaskade after hearing Tonight a few years earlier, and found tracks like this to be catchy for much the same reason as I liked Röyksopp.
Big Pooh – Just Friends
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Finally, it would be foolish to try and avoid including in some form. I came back across this track, by , and laughed. It brought back more memories of the summer of 2005, living in a different, but equally …er…unique, house with the above-mentioned MH the Verb. I had been introduced to Little Brother about six months earlier, and was all about them for years, I had their album The Listening on heavy rotation. It captures perfectly the sound of that summer– sweltering hot (no AC) hazy, busy as ever, and completely doing its own thing.
Posted in Design and Music Posted by Alex on Oct 19 2009 12:00 pm
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