CLUBS, MUSIC, GAMES, DESIGN
From watching all of the iconic Playstation adverts from the 90s, I noticed that the directors would purposely not mention or show any video game being played, or the brand name. Instead, the focus was more on the feeling from playing, such as 'elation', a sense of power, or even insanity. This made me think about how video games actually provide these feelings, and how game composers achieved this, whether it is through the graphics, the game concept itself, or the music.
In my research into video game music, I thought it would be interesting to incorporate the influence of electronic club music in video games and vice versa. I found many graphic designers who tied into this relationship, where some would translate the feelings/or sound of the music into artwork. I thought I could do this with images or text in my publication.
TwoPoints.Net
In response to the '2020 reading promotion plan' by the Spanish Ministry, Two Points.Net designed a logo to promote it. The studio proposed a design that would incorporate a "system that generated different logos and its own visual language" to be displayed in Spain's four different languages. They started researching the books of today, their readers, the means of reading (devices or physical books) to grasp the audience and effectively communicate with them. They finally focused on two points - to link reading to "something fun" and to appeal to a diverse group. They were inspired by the Spanish saying, “Leer te da vidas extra” meaning “reading gives you extra lives”. This concept of 'extra lives' is popular in video game designs, visually communicated in games of the 80s and 90s. The video game idea correlated to the "fun" key point of their design and also the modernised method of reading on electronic devices.
Megadrive to Mega Hit: Why Video Games Are So Tied to Club Music
https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/a3pb45/video-games-90s-club-music-commodore-amiga
The 80s and 90s was a revolutionary time period for the music and video game industries, where technology was rapidly advancing. Softwares produced tools to easily and cost-effectively make music and. In the article, Nick Dwyer describes "legendary" club Yellow in Tokyo which played host to many Djs such as "Derrick May, Kevin Saunderson… those kinda guys played regularly and composers like Yuzo and Motohiro would go, hence the influences you can hear on the Streets of Rage soundtracks". Video game composers who frequented the clubs would often be inspired by the music played in Yellow - "Dance music’s influence on the video game industry spread like a virus".
There's something very free about Sam Bailey's work. There's an experimental and playful quality to it, and that's why I was drawn to his designs for inspiration. Describing himself as "self-taught" in itsnicethat's article, he watches youtube to learn new techniques which he then messes around with on programs such as photoshop. For example, using the warp tool, or drawing on images and then using the clone tool to glitch it. He also alters the codes, which he has done recently in his latest project with pictures of basketball players to distort them. He then takes the most interesting piece of this image and blows it up. I also like the images he chooses to create with. He can take mundane objects such as a shoe or car and edit it so that it becomes part of an alter-universe. I feel I could incorporate his technique easily into my own work, perhaps editing an image of my everyday life or adding bright colours to a bleak picture.
Classic PS1 Games in the square CD format.
Bold text, colourful and graphic. Often reflect the idea of the game - tomb raider, tomb stones.
David Rindlisbacher
David Rindlisbacher takes inspiration from geometry in buildings which he sketches then distorts and disrupts with technology.
While minimal, there’s certainly a defined visual language to David’s work. He favours a monochromatic palette over colour, sans serif typefaces over serifs and grid-based, typography-heavy designs. “It is because of these tendencies that I make a concerted effort to introduce certain design elements that kind of break these patterns, be it with lettering features, with 3D components, animations, illustrations, etc,” he adds.
10 Next-Level Graphic Designers Changing the Way Club Culture Looks
"For all of its progressive sonic experimentation, electronic music often feels like a blank canvas. Unrelenting kick-drums or atmospheric synths are inherently abstract, making it more difficult to grasp what producers and DJs want to say—at least in comparison to genres like hip-hop or pop, which frequently use lyrics to impart meaning".
"This is why graphic designers and artists play an especially critical role in the world of electronic music, helping to convey a DJ's musical sensibility or the atmosphere of an upcoming rave, often more viscerally than a press release or artist's statement ever could. Over the years, well-conceived imagery like Emil Schult's record sleeves for Kraftwerk and Ninja Tune's logo of a cloaked figure hurling a vinyl 12 has become definitive reference points, proving that the way music looks can be just as considered as the way it sounds".
- Ali Gitlow
Some game design covers from Shortlists's 'Top 50' game covers.
"8 tunes from video game soundtracks that sound like club bangers"
DJs Teki Latex and Nick Dwyer are interviewed on music used in the gaming industry, and compare the similarities to a club DJ set today.
"In the 1990s, the global mainstreaming of dance music coincided with the popularity of fourth and fifth generation home gaming consoles like the Sega Mega Drive and Sony PlayStation". Gaming theme tunes were inspired by the dance music tracks and both industries benefited from this 'collaboration'.
"The formal qualities of dance music just made sense for video games: simple, rhythmic, repetitive, and produced using the most futuristic machine technology on the market".
Yuzo Koshiro, “Spin on the Bridge” from Streets of Rage II (Sega Mega Drive, 1992)