No name experimentation. The men from uncle…
Art Chantry. Art@artchantry.com
Some stars are so big that we call them by their first names only – Cher, Bing, Madonna, Elvis, Ozzy. It takes a certain celebrity status to achieve that sort of recognition. Stars with even higher esteem are given nicknames that we can recognize immediately – bogie, satchmo, bird, trane, the boss, der bingle. to be nicknamed and celebrated under a nick name is true love. It goes way beyond celebrity into some sort of collective family consciousness.
Then there is a weird sort of status that I show you today. To begin with, I’ve been a collector, chronicler and student of weirdass record covers my entire life. I can’t tell you how many records I’ve purchased just because of the weird cover (5,000? maybe. maybe more.? dunno). Some of the most interesting music I’ve ever listened to has been on records with incredible or ridiculous covers. Festooned with monster type, op art, dark humor, grotesque images, illegible scrawls, ‘trick’ photography, general madness and bad taste. I LOVE that stuff. It proves the old advertising maxim: ” a great cover won’t sell a bad record, but a bad cover can kill a great record.”
But, what about records by people that are so famous, that you don’t even need to put their name on the cover? Where does that fit in? Just a photo and a title (maybe). That’s all that you need to do to sell even a really lousy record. What sort of fame is that? What sort of weird marketing concept is that? what sort of gestatlt is that?
Art:that type is a sample of a 'family' of type called 'interlock'. however, most "interlock" was not 'type' but hand rendered lettering (like this is). machines really can't make those interlocking decisions as well as us, ya know? they ain't got no eyes. however, there was a typeface called "interlock" (we see it around as "ad lib" these days) that interlocked and had many extra versions of each letterform (to fit together in the puzzle.). the actual entire font was huge, so it was expensive. i'd love to find more about interlock type, but nobody sees fit to write about it because it looks so low brow and stupid. not very "high design culture" taste., ya know? so, most of it's history remains hidden. Read More:
Over the years (and concentrating on the ‘pre-rock’ era, before the floodgates of peculiar marketing opened wide)) I’ve only found two records that were by people so famous and so beloved that they were instantly recognizable by ages eight to eighty. Considering the enormous number of records released just since WWII, that is an extremely small count. It is a very special level of celebrity.
One was a record titled “nice & easy” and featured a b&w photo of Frank Sinatra kicking back in a lunge chair and smiling at you like your own uncle Frankie visiting in your living room. it’s actually a great recording, my personal favorite Frank Sinatra record. but his name doesn’t appear on the cover. It’s on the back cover, but in unobtrusive type mixed in with the other info. No big deal. EVERYBODY new that face, that smile, that style. It was uncle Frank. visiting again. What more do you need?
The other is the record cover I place before you today. To begin with, I’m going to ignore the “monster type” design solution here. That’s pretty weird, but denotes a sort of casual humor to the design that straighter type would not. It does the job – clumsily, but ok.
Michael Fremer:Listening to this new Mobile Fidelity reissue of Sinatra’s 1960 classic had me thinking of how a younger generation might react to hearing it in 2009. There’s nothing like this now and don’t tell me it’s Michael Feinstein or Harry Connick, Jr. or Michael Buble, because it ain’t. Sinatra voice is bigger, bolder and stops time in ways the others can only wish they could. The arrangements by Nelson Riddle and the musicianship of the studio cats all playing live are also difficult to duplicate today as is the intimate, warm sound—as warm and intimate as the live-in-the-studio performances. These were events captured live to tape, not
io creations that live only on tape.
But, who the hell is this? Obviously we are supposed to instantly recognize him. we’re supposed to understand the “what’s-his-name” joke. We’re supposed to know that stupid jaunty little hat and that ski nose and that wry smile. He looks like another uncle come to visit.
Well, he actually was so famous and so causally accepted into living rooms that he really was a sort of uncle. his name was Jack Paar. He was (not the first, but) the guy who made the ‘tonight show’ famous. long before Johnny Carson became an icon, Jack Paar was hanging out in our living rooms and making us comfortable. This guy was maybe among the most famous people in the world during his career. He was so famous, we didn’t even need his name to sell his product. now, THAT is something. Even Elvis needs his name on the record cover.
After the rock era obliterated most rules of marketing and promotion, a million record used that technique – usually with little success (‘Blind Faith’ anyone?) but, back when the rules were still being written some designers and promoters were able to experiment with things and actually get away with murder.
I just want to acknowledge and salute those unknown designer guys out there that had the nerve to play this weird game and get away with murdered record covers like this. Ouch.
ADDENDUM:
Art Chantry:i suppose you could “digitally render” anything – even the human face. and if you’ve seen avatar, you’d understand that we aren’t that good at it. probably never will be, either. yes, there was an entire family of typefaces called ‘interlock. all sorts of weights and italics and extended and condensed versions. i have an old type catalog with them sampled. it’s kinda cool. but the problem is that most people , even back then, used the machine as a typewriter and not a typographic design tool. so, the ‘interlocking’ looked terrible and failed utterly. the market for that typeface family died with it’s bad usage by non-typegeeks. the same fate befell hundreds of otherwise interesting designs.
the best interlocking typography is always done by hand. nowadays that means simply scanning in your art. easy. but, of course, you have to know how to actually use your hands to draw. THAT’s the hard part. …i love this thing. try to actually imagine walking into a meeting (the boss, the other execs, maybe the artist’s management and maybe even the artist himself) and then showing them THIS! man, that took GUTS. i wonder what the designer said to actually SELL it?…
…this record came out a long time ago – and it was a totally different world. we can’t really think how these people thought. it’s just to alien to us. too much stuff has happened and we’re a completely different world view and mindset now. they might as well be martians. but, the one thing i can pretty much guarantee that was EXACTLY the same as today is this: the visual artist on the project was the lowest man on the totem pole. so, no matter who came up with the “concept” (such as it is) i know the visual artist took all the crap for everything that went wrong and none of the gratitude for anything that went right. am i wrong? tell me if i’m wrong here…
Read More: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=366904393872&set=a.313476963872.144857.608898872&theater
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