Album Cover: A Tribe Called Quest

Date: February 16. 2011
Source: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw6xvYeZ6iPUEAdwkY_cNUy9unEY2DuCYC6tY-duy0vV6vrHOVaAZWxt7eIAccxrdXjPB3tbduiiSMYay8XAzfH_5pJqkq9MNqcB0PeCO5WRFUg9-yKLBjS-Xr3awp6fCyPyUcMhU8EPE/s1600/atcq_-_the_low_end_theory-front.jpg

Critique: A little disclaimer before getting into the design, I am a huge rap fan and I take a lot of design notes looking at the album covers. Throughout my years of working with design, I have taken a lot of influence and inspiration through album art and fashion. This is one of my favourite album covers of all time. The use of complimentary colours on the black background is so eye catching. The paint strokes making the persons' silhouette is brilliant and the placement of text is great. The album was released in 1991 and is considered a classic.

VMAN Cover

Date: February 16, 2011
Source: http://www.thetodayexperience.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Kanye-VMAN-Cover-450x5751.png

Critique: This is a recent design for Vman magazine. I absolutely love this cover. I really like how the text is placed on the magazine. I feel a lot of magazine covers feature too many text on the cover. Keeping it to a minimum is great because you pay more attention to the actual cover, rather than having a lot of text get in the way of the image on the cover. The colours used are great. It has great contrast with the black background. The photography was done by Karl Lagerfeld, who is a popular designer. And the coolest thing about this cover is the bill coming out of Mr. Wests' mouth is actually real. They either glued or somehow attached an actual dollar to the cover, which I think is really cool. Unfortunately, I was unable to find a retailer around Toronto to purchase the copy and see it in person.

Tek Savvy Ad

Date: February 16, 2011
Source: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimKrVDRFMEX17bmPRxsMQF9KvVAuU4VYZsDXacjk1t7wiSqQfEqqRJiRIsbJy0RLY4wVfyOHz_MPIYSeXl2jQMBUtIiL-l8e7KXIRDexW-2DTZo5hHslDjq7vVbrE_0uCqLDOfpeC0NMI/s1600/teksavvy-sans-contrat.jpg

Critique: Alright, so as soon as this assignment was given, this ad came to mind. Well, not this exact one, but Tek Savvy has ads on streetcars and public buses and I see it all the time that look very similar. I am not a fan of the ad. The model selected for the ad and his clothing and facial expression is a little confusing. I have showed many friends this ad and they all responded similarly. They respond with, "That is such a creepy look" and it really is. The overall layout looks very cheap and most likely done by an amateur with little to none background in design. The typeface is not working either, the placement of the text looks like it was done in 1 shot with a center adjustment setting and a few spaces between the text. There is not much I actually enjoy about this. The best piece within this ad would be the logo, which I'm still not a big fan of either.