When Linkin Park came into the public conscious the alternative scene was full of Nu-Metal and alot of the hideous rap rock that gave rise to bands as diverse as Korn (originators) Coal chamber (Goth metal) Limp Bizkit (plain rap rock) Spineshank ( Industrial rap rock) and Ill Nino (Latin rap rock) it was a pretty dire time as bands like Slayer Metallica and Megadeth had pretty much lost the interest of the masses. There were a few bands worth keeping an eye out for like Converge, Killswitch Engage and Linkin Park having been lumped in with the Nu Metal crowd this was mainly due to their use of electronica and their use of rapping in their songs.
What struck me most was the visual element of the band in 2000 when Hybrid Theory came out you could not go far to escape the striking art work of Mike Shinoda. It was everywhere posted up in shops pasted in the rock magazines one of the good things about being signed to a Major label like Warner Brothers.
In his own words "the band had looked through books for inspiration on how to present themselves for the first time". What they chose was a winged soldier this was a way to describe the bands blending of Hard rockier passages with their softer electronica elements. There were various designs of the soldier on the singles cd sleeves.
As a piece of design I thought it was striking and a pretty good introduction to the band.
Contained with in the pages of their sleeve was a mixture of screen printed visuals along with hand drawn elements set against photographic film strips.
Next up was Meteora
The art work here was mostly photography based. A graffiti artist at work on a piece, here i liked the clean aesthetic of the layout and design it is hard to fault it really what I was originally looking for from the work was a bit more graphic in its execution. What I mean here is that on the Hybrid Theory art work there were hand drawn elements along with the screen printed visual.
No comments:
Post a Comment