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@thebnxcontest
The photo that I am submitting is one that I took inside an abandoned high school in Gary, Indiana. I tried to use my own photography style and link it to Francis Wolff’s style that he used for Blue Note. My goal like Francis was to highlight the artist in action in an authentic and meaningful space. I was really influenced by the John Coltrane Blue Train, and Wayne Shorter’s Night Dreamer.
The typefaces that I used in it are Perpetua Tilting MT and Helvetica.
Katie Klema
Cooper- Hewitt DesignPrep Challenge| THE BLUE NOTE EXPERIMENT
Noah Goodman
I am a freshman in high school and have recently started learning graphic design. I am always excited to design, either in or out of school, like in The Blue Note Experiment. I play the clarinet in the school concert band, as well as in the jazz band. Therefore, not only do I enjoy listening to jazz music, but I enjoy playing it as well. I have an understanding and appreciation of improvisation in jazz, which is a major defining component of the genre.
In designing my album cover for The Blue Note Experiment, I was inspired to incorporate the flat symbol in written music as the “b” in “Blue Note” because I wanted to make a connection between the album cover and the music in which it is representing. When a jazz player improvises, they are writing their own melodies on the spot and not reading from formal printed music. The hand drawn style of the stripes, which run diagonally across the cover, reflect the this improvisational element of jazz. This free-spirited vibe is also exuded by the use of Mistral as a font. I was also inspired by several real Blue Note covers like “Blue Train” in my use of cool colors to provide a calming, bluesy atmosphere to the cover.
Cooper- Hewitt DesignPrep Challenge| THE BLUE NOTE EXPERIMENT
Carry Pak
Prior to this project, I had little to no recognition to jazz music. I never truly understood what jazz was, but listening to the songs from the Blue Note Experiment, I felt a sense of familiarity. In particular, while listening to the songs from the Robert Glasper Experiment I realized from the melody that this is a reminiscence of my past. Teachers in high school, middle school, and elementary school would play jazz while we worked in class. Listening to the melody and instruments in this music makes me remember the time I truly first started writing my own stories and taking my art seriously.
For my album cover, my choice of blue did not necessarily come from the name of the company, but is a reflection of the emotions I have while listening to jazz. I chose blue for the reflection of calmness. The image I chose to create captures a person in a moment of reaching out, ready to conquer their problems and create. We never know what is inside an artist unless it enters our world. For me, art is when clusters of thoughts, imagination, and feelings from the mind and the heart flow into a tool, be it drawing paper or a musical instrument.
Cooper- Hewitt DesignPrep Challenge| THE BLUE NOTE EXPERIMENT
Nina Galvez
On my album cover for The Blue Note Experiment I employed a striking spontaneity while retaining The Blue Note simplicity. My album cover was heavily influenced by Reid Miles’ album cover Grant Green Idle Moments (1964). I chose to capture the elegance of jazz just as Reid Miles did on his cover. To represent the elegance of Blue Note I used a photo of jazz artist, Jason Moran, playing the piano. The photo was modified into a duo-tone of black and blue and brought into a close-up of his hands in the midst of playing the piano. The cover title “The Blue Note Experiment” is written in the typeface Futura. To add a sense of movement and flow derived from the pianist I placed abstract waves inspired by real sound waves. I formed these abstract wavy lines from the repeated word “experiment” to emphasize the action itself. I believe that jazz and like other creations such as art, music and film are generated from experimentation. To capture the image of Blue Note I created this album cover itself through an experiment. As an experimental designer and artist, I had an idea of what I wanted the end result to be, but stayed open for endless inspirations. The end result is a crisp blue image of a pianist in union with the smooth stream of musical magenta waves.
Cooper- Hewitt DesignPrep Challenge| THE BLUE NOTE EXPERIMENT
Christina Young
As a designer, I enjoy the simplicity of clean lines and striking elements. Therefore, I was drawn to the use of basic geometric shapes, unique typefaces, and specific colors associated with the Blue Note Record’s design style. To create my design, I wanted to incorporate all three of these iconic elements as well as the images provided.
I have manipulated letters into simple shapes, taking inspiration from the geometric element of Blue Note designs. The light blue mimics the cool feel of jazz music, and is well balanced by the darkness of the black. While most of the space is utilized, it is not busy or overcrowded. The diagonal cut through the cover is meant to divide the cover into two parts. The first part is for the fantasy best of album of Jason Moran and the second has focus on Blue Note Records as a whole. The faint "75" commemorates Blue Note's 75th anniversary. The tilted text plays with the element of alignment as well as reflects the diagonal by bent perpendicular to the cut. Though there are two parts, the element of color brings them together.
Cooper- Hewitt DesignPrep Challenge| THE BLUE NOTE EXPERIMENT
Nicolette Francis
As a designer I would consider myself an advertiser who creates based on a mixture of tradition and originality. For this piece I was inspired by the blue hues and composition of the album cover for Grant Green’s “Idle Moments.” I used the photo of the piano player to show the simplicity and coolness of the Blue Note Records design style while then pairing it with the abstract headline to represent the boldness and edge of Blue Note jazz. I enjoyed doing this album cover and how it challenged me to break boundaries in my design.
Cooper-Hewitt DesignPrep Challenge| THE BLUE NOTE EXPERIMENT
Caleb Fossum
I am primarily a transit designer. I design my own hand drawn maps, logos and informational graphics. I also design subway trains. Graphic design is required in transportation to give passengers correct information and insure that builders can build trains that transport people in the safest and most reliable way possible. Creating graphic solutions for transit situations informs my approach to projects that are not transit related.
Blue Note graphics convey a mood and work in tandem with the music. Listeners rely on design to know that they can choose their music with confidence in the same way that passengers rely on maps and various forms of signage to get them to their destination.
I like to have a hands on approach as a draftsman. Technology is useful and I use computers for research and reference for my work. When I find the resources I need, I like to draw the design by hand.
I researched Blue Note record covers in order to understand the “Blue Note Style” and then used elements from various Blue note record covers to create my design.
I am an artist currently going to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago for my BFA in photography and being in the city that is so well known for its jazz scene has influenced the art that I practice here. I remember one of my first few weekends in the city, the park was having its annual jazz celebration and I happened upon one of the free concerts. I remember listening to the music and the wild things the drummer was doing that I learned later was improvisation and being in awe of how quickly his mind must have to work to keep up with the speed in which his arms were moving. Although this was my first time hearing jazz with a more mature ear than the one I had in my living room as a child, I was immediately inspired and drawn to the music. I grew up around music my whole life and knew how difficult it was to do the sorts of things that these artists were doing and I found myself wanting to be as talented as them in my own practice.
The photo that I am submitting is a self portrait that I took when I was 17 that was inspired by an Edgar Allan Poe poem. Blue Note Records was able to capture the portrait and identity of an artist like no other and have continued to lead the way with their current roster of artists. I edited the image and text to fit around the theme and style of some of Norah Jone’s album covers. This is my second Blue Note experiment, and for this one I wanted present the contemporary elements of Blue Note, while remaining true to the foundational elements Reid miles and Francis Wolff were able to capture through typography and photography.
The typefaces that I used in this are Handwriting - Dakota, Helvetica and Futura.
Katie Klema
I am an artist currently going to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago for my BFA in photography and being in the city that is so well known for its jazz scene has influenced the art that I practice here. I remember one of my first few weekends in the city, the park was having its annual jazz celebration and I happened upon one of the free concerts. I remember listening to the music and the wild things the drummer was doing that I learned later was improvisation and being in awe of how quickly his mind must have to work to keep up with the speed in which his arms were moving. Although this was my first time hearing jazz with a more mature ear than the one I had in my living room as a child, I was immediately inspired and drawn to the music. I grew up around music my whole life and knew how difficult it was to do the sorts of things that these artists were doing and I found myself wanting to be as talented as them in my own practice. The photo that I am submitting is one that I took at Brave New Voices, an international and annual youth poetry slam that was held last year in Chicago. I tried to use my own photography style and link it to Francis Wolff’s style that he used for Blue Note. The typefaces that I used in it are Futura and News Gothic MT.
-Katie K. (Chicago)
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