The more you do, the more you haven't done.
You’ve Got a Face Like a Bulldog Chewing a Wasp
A great phrase that’s full of personality felt like it needed to be big, bold, unafraid, and un-subtle. Large swaths of loudly collaged images juxtapose in order to visually exaggerate what is so viscerally verbalized. Then hit with the rhythmic yellow line that emotes the sound we can all hear in our heads as the wasp rattles and buzzes.
Great Minds Think Alike
A great example of backwards thinking. While sitting in the dentist chair for my 6-month checkup, my x-rays were displayed in front of me to search for cavities or wisdom tooth problems. The bold, graphic nature of the imagery struck me as being useful for something–but what? Here were the beginnings of arresting visuals in need of content for meaning and context. Pouring over my list of phrases and quotes, this saying immediately fit the bill. With some careful application of color and type the idea was complete. The moral of the story is to keep a record of anything interesting. You never know when or how it can be used in the future.
Party Like a Rock Star
If I wasn’t a graphic designer I would be a rock star. Aside from the inability to sing, and complete lack of musical talent (I’m working on rectifying that with electric guitar), the flashy, rebel lifestyle was something I daydreamed about endlessly in junior high. Looking through music magazines, I imagined I was David Lee Roth or Ozzy Osbourne living a raucous, envied life of excess and danger.
Speak for Yourself
A simple twist, symbolically and literally, for a somewhat jarring effect.
These Violent Delights Have Violent Ends
Yes, it is a bit shocking. Yes, it will make many people uncomfortable. And yes, I considered not including it in the book for fear of it being labeled as “smut”. But it is not gratuitous. It has meaning. And, unfortunately, rather appropriate meaning in context of how dark our world can be. This passage from William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet strikes me as being rich with mature dimensions. I wanted a visual that was equally arresting.
Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell
Iggy Pop is a hardcore/punk icon known for his subversive attitude. This song lyric from his time with The Stooges screamed to be visualized with an underground, DIY, garage band, music flyer style. Dirty xerox collage and lettering along wth an unexpected, somewhat disturbingly ironic image takes a cue from the music scene of the 1970’s. An anti-aesthetic aesthetic for anti-aesthetic music.
Space Case
At the time of this design, our daughter was 8. I’m not sure about your 8-year-old, but ours had very selective hearing, and remembering, and reasoning—often conveniently spacey. So when playing with mirrored photography on an iPad we made this base image. The alien, almost futuristically religious visual felt like something out of a sci-fi movie. Finishing it off with a galactic backdrop and type style completed the illustration of a being from the stars. The double entendre didn’t hurt either. She won’t like this when she’s older.
When All You Have is a Hammer...
This is the Andy-Kaufman-moment of this book. Kaufman was a comedian often criticized for comedy that was thoughtful at the expense of actually being funny. This design is really thoughtful at the expense of being aesthetic…at all. But hopefully you wondered why the hell you were seeing random nails throughout the book–doing what the phrase means. Does design always also need to be pretty?
The Second Mouse Gets the Cheese
A fun sequence for a fun phrase. If the second mouse gets the cheese, then what happened to the first? Cut construction paper allows for this repetition of form from mouse to mouse while allowing the imperfections in shape that keep the tone lighthearted. Cutout circles suggest eyes, holes in the cheese, and the crumbs for the victorious mouse (holes merely displaced from their original spots). Computer vector shapes would certainly have been quicker and easier to make, but would have lacked personality, thereby detracting from the character of the spread.
