Barcodes

There are many troublesome elements in packaging design, but without restriction us designers wouldn’t be necessary. In today’s music industry there are all sorts of parental warnings, codes, logos, icons and legal jibber jabber that we must organize to work with our designs. Over the years I have found that photographer, illustrator & designer Paul Romano does this exceedingly well. He has designed the packaging for several prominent heavy metal bands (as well as others) including my favorite band Mastodon. I contacted Mr. Romano a couple of years ago about the exceptional barcode design he did for Mastodon’s Leviathan, a concept album about Moby Dick. To my surprise he responded the very next day.

(Mastodon, Leviathan back cover by Paul Romano that inspired me)

This is the email to Paul Romano from Feb 28, 2006:

I would just like to say that the work that you do for Mastodon has been very inspiring for me. I am a pre-graphic design student at CSU Long Beach and I just can’t get enough of the work you do. I love Mastodon’s music and the look you have created for them is fantastic. Your graphic shapes are sick and the photos and illustrations you use are terrific. Your integration of the barcode into the packaging design gave me a whole new way to look at once burdensome elements of packaging. Anyways…keep up the good work.

Zac Calbert

<——————————{RAMONO’S RESPONSE}——————————>

Hey Zac,

Thank you very much. I am currently working on the upcoming Mastodon record (and a bunch more). The photos and illustrations are actually all taken and painted by me as well. It is very rare that I use stock photography. I mostly concentrated on fine art through out my life. The principals are the same, shape, composition, color, texture.

Yeah, those barcodes. I hate them so I try to find a way to incorporate them. It was really important where the white was placed on Leviathan. So it had to be the whale. I think my favorite barcode is still the one I did for Nasum; stretched with a devil’s face amongst the bars. I am not looking forward to that very burdensome FBI warning that is on so many releases now. I am sure it will have to be on this next Mastodon.

What is pre-graphic design? Do they make you take courses in many disciplines, drawing, 3 dimensional design etc.? Thanks again, feel free to write anytime. My responses are a bit slow, I keep myself a little too busy.

Paul.

(Nasum, Helvete back tray by Paul Romano that he mentioned)

Here are some other interesting barcode treatments Romano did:

(A Life Once Lost, Hunter back tray by Paul Romano)

(Turmoil, Staring Back back tray by Paul Romano)

The whole reason this exchange popped into my head was because I noticed the unusual barcode for Kaboom energy juice. It was a person climbing up the barcode like a mountain. It is a great element to express “this is an all natural energy juice, it’s healthy, not a sugary soda! Drink me and go do active, outdoorsy, hippie stuff!” Take a look:

This caused me to search the web a bit and upon further browsing I found Barcode Revolution which I believe is a joint venture with a Japanese packaging company. They have all sorts of interesting barcode solutions. Many of them are kind of static, but there are a terrific step in designing burdensome, necessary elements. Here is some of their work:

This just goes to show that there is almost always a way to make things just a little more interesting and fit with your design. Good luck.

Here are some barcode art sites you should check out:

TUO*COU

(Models: my sister Kristi & good friend Eric)

This is the first shirt that I put into production. It is a satire on my home, Tuolumne County. It is a play off of Nor Cal and So Cal and the lame, imaginary rivalry between the two (Of course I like Northern California way better then the southern portion). I created it in the winter of 2006 while I was living in Telluride, CO after I left CSULB and Southern California for good. Soon after producing these I decided to drop the usage of TUO*COU. There were too many similarly named/looking groups including So Po (Sonora Posse) and TUO CAL (Tuolumne California). I hated continually explaining that I had nothing to do with those groups and that I didn’t “steal” their idea. TUO*COU was a term coined in my social group by my friends Kyle and Eric (pictured above) while they attended the University of the Pacific together. Here is the tattoo that Eric had done years before I ever made the shirts:

(Tattoo by Tree at West Side Ink, Tuolumne, CA)

Cougar Hunter

This is a t-shirt concept in the works. It is inspired by my brother and his antics at the local  bars. Check out the Products category regularly to see new the shirts and prints available to purchase.

Artist Survey #2: Megan Tucker

I have known Megan Tucker since we were very young. Living in the same small town we went to the same elementary school and knew a lot of the same people. She recently became active in our local art scene and is someone I can always count on to help further our local underground arts movement.

(Down to the Roots)
(O! Brother)

Name: Tucker

Location: Sonora,CA

Medium(s): anything and everything-mixed media

What do you consider yourself (artist/designer/other)? Painter

Where can we see your work (place/publications/url)? A couple on MySpace  www.myspace.com/piratescavengers

When did you start gaining interest in artistic forms of expression? Straight from the womb

Who/What inspired your interest? The eternal void

Where do you first remember being exposed to art? Being taken to museums in the city when I was really young by my mother

What is your day job? I work at The Country Store in Sonora- it’s a local health food store

Why do you create? The only constant we have in our lives is change, we need to be ever-changing, evolving. If I’m not creating, I am stagnant and feel lost.

Is there any recurring theme in your work? Nature is always a part of my pieces. Feathers, crows, mountains… Essentially the result of being born in Sonora.

What do you want from your work? No essential expectations, roll with the punches…

What do you want viewers to take from your work? Just a glimpse into my head I guess- it’s a visualization of how I was feeling at a certain point in my life…

How often do you work on personal projects? Not often enough…

How often do you work on commissions or commercial work? I’m just starting to design tattoos for people- thats on more of a trade system.

Does your art support you financially? Its hit or miss, most of the time I want things other than money.

Do you feel preoccupied with your art, do you think about it often during the day and night and do you anticipate your next session? I am my art

What do you do in your spare time besides your art? I’m trying to study to be an herbalist…

Which musicians are you currently interested in? The list is never-ending….the fleet foxes, devendra banhart, led zeppelin, the beatles, the avett brothers…

Are there any events you are looking forward to attending? November 8th A craft bazaar of sorts in Oakdale, I think I will be at a booth…

How long do you generally take on a piece? I will dwell on a piece for months sometimes and sometimes get one done in 10 minutes, theres no telling.

Have you jeopardized or risked the loss of a significant relationship, job, educational or career opportunity because of your art? I don’t think i have…. this is an intense question Zac…

Do you work on multiple projects at once? Yes, I have at least 5 half-assed projects going right now.

Do you have trouble parting with your finished work? its mostly my mother who wants to keep everything I do.

Returning Type

This is a poster I was commissioned to do for the Central Sierra Arts Council. The Returning show was filled with the work of artists like myself who were raised in Tuolumne County, moved away and concentrated on creative/artistic fields. BZ Smith, Marilyn Hobbs and myself were the organizers of the event and while I am still in town I hope to take it over and bring more up-and-coming kids into it. Many of the artists are part of my Artist Surveys so check those out. This project was severely influenced by the work of Roberto de Vicq de Cumptich, an amazing typographer. My father gave me a book of typographical portraits that de Cumptich self published and I was immediately in awe.

(portraits from de Vicq’s book Men of Letters and People of Substance)

I have since seen many many different versions of typographical illustration. A recent one I stumbled across was the 12 month, typographic, pin-up calendar by London design agency Taylor Lane. It was a promotional piece that I am sure got them a larger customer base. I haven’t found all of the images in one place, but the blog 2WENTY 4OUR has a few.

(Miss Bondini, January. Taylor Lane promo piece)

*I have just found that EPiCA has all of the images at high resolution!

Oregon Farm

This weekend I went to Oregon and saw a lot of beautiful country along the way. This is a farm I stopped and shot on the way home.

Artist Survey #1: Todd Russell

Todd Russell and I met at CSU Long Beach. We had some design classes together where we critiqued each other’s work and became good friends. He has since moved to New York and became a big shot Art Director for Island Def Jam Music Group. Jon McLaughlin – Ok Now, Kerli – Love is Dead, and Rise Against – Appeal To Reason are Russell’s most recent offerings. Rise Against & Jon McLaughlin were just released Oct. 7th. He is currently working on the upcoming release for Hoobastank.

(Rise Against – Album Illustrations: Tim Marrs)

(Sound the Alarm)

(Kerli – Front/Back Illustrations: Natalie Shau)

(The Roots – Co Art Directed with Kenny Gravillis, Illustration: Mel Marcelo)

Name: Todd Russell

Location: New York

Medium(s): Mainly digital

What do you consider yourself (artist/designer/other)? Art Director/Designer

Where can we see your work (place/publications/url)? iTunes, Best Buy, Amazon, Virgin Megastore etc.

When did you start gaining interest in artistic forms of expression? When I first started interning at Interscope Records

Who/What inspired your interest? JP Robinson and other designers in the music industry that was I exposed to. Just looking at random cd packaging, good and bad, from artists I knew and ones I didn’t.

Where do you first remember being exposed to art? My family has a history of having backgrounds in fine art so I guess at home as a child growing up.

What is your day job? Creative Director for Island Def Jam Music Group (I oversee all the creative aspects for a given project – photo shoot, packaging, design, video, viral/online content etc.)

Why do you create? Because I enjoy making art that can be viewed in the public eye

Is there any recurring theme in your work? No not really, sometimes I use the same elements, but because of the wide range of genres I am given I have to go in different directions all the time

What do you want from your work? To guide projects so that visually and aesthetically it can be the best it can possibly be

What do you want viewers to take from your work? That is hard to answer because most if not all my work is based off of commission so usually I am working for specific artists and trying to put on paper what their vision is and what is going on in their minds. Most of the time they hardly care what the public will think, as long as they are happy then I consider it a job well done.

How often do you work on personal projects? Who has time for that?

How often do you work on commissions or commercial work? All day

Does your art support you financially? Fortunately, yes

Do you feel preoccupied with your art, do you think about it often during the day and night and do you anticipate your next session? All the time, I have to

What do you do in your spare time besides your art? Read, watch TV, browse the internet and see what other artists/designers are doing and try to get inspired.

Which musicians are you currently interested in? Usually I listen to a lot of artists who I am working with to help get in that mindset. But right now…TV on the Radio, Beck, Death Cab for Cutie, CSS, Cut/Copy, Innerpartysystem, MGMT, Justice, Kenna, Portishead, Ra Ra Ra Riot, Lil Wayne, The Roots, The Game, Nas, Young Jeezy, Jack’s Mannequin, Rise Against, Alphabeat, Cold War Kids, Kanye West, N.E.R.D…

Are there any events you are looking forward to attending? Not that I am aware of now, usually I just scour the museums to see if there are any good exhibits, the last one I went to was at the Brooklyn Museum to see the work of Takashi Murakami

How long do you generally take on a piece? Varies, depending on the timeline of a project, Two weeks, One month, 24 hours…

Do you work on multiple projects at once? All the time

Do you have trouble parting with your finished work? No, but the question should be do you have problems making changes to something you have finished and spent a long time working on? Yes, making changes that compromise my work for the worse is possibly one of the hardest things to do.

Interrobang Revolution‽

Intro

The interrobang is an interesting and underused punctuation mark that very few people know about. As you can see it is a combination of the “?” and the “!” giving typesetters the ability to excitedly ask questions, make a statement of disbelief or ask rhetorical questions without using two punctuation marks. In my typesetting experiences, I have had a few hang-ups on punctuation. I often ponder the proper use of an ellipses , a semi colon ; (which I doubt I have ever used correctly) or multiple marks such as ?! or !!!. Below is an excerpt from Wikipedia that describes the birth of this mark.

“American Martin K. Speckter invented the interrobang in 1962. As the head of an advertising agency, Speckter believed that advertisements would look better if copywriters conveyed surprised rhetorical questions using a single mark. He proposed the concept of a single punctuation mark in an article in the magazine TYPEtalks. Speckter solicited possible names for the new character from readers. Contenders included rhet, exclarotive, and exclamaquest, but he settled on interrobang. He chose the name to reference the punctuation marks that inspired it: interrogatio is Latin for “a rhetorical question” or “cross-examination”; bang is printers’ slang for the exclamation point.”

P.S. Fuck you guys that misuse Wikipedia. It would be a credible source if you would let it.

Problems

  • Readability: The counter can be lost when shrunk to body text size.
  • Confusion: It is a mark that is not used in major publications and has not been properly introduced to the public.
  • Availability: The majority of fonts do not offer the interrobang so customization will be necessary.

Your Duty

It is your mission to bring the interrobang to the general public. Make this forgotten mark prevalent in your work. We have let our letter forms get boring and standardized. Befriend the Underdogs of Typography and help them gain a place among the periodicals and text books of the future. Explore and research the interrobang and other lost glyphs. Knowledge is power

  1. Original TIME article on the introduction of the interrobang June 21, 1967.
  2. www.interrobang-mks.com/
  3. In depth and informative musing on the interrobang at Suresha.com.
  4. The key commands shown in the image above were found on The Write Bailiwick where the author also discusses the pilcrow or “new paragraph symbol.” They are very similar looking, but I will leave the pilcrow for another day.