Click to See Complete Forum and Search --> : Speaking of grunge ... lol
Didn't want to hijack the other thread so ...
Ok so I have this new client right? It's just for a personal blog, she's a college student -- feminist, political, intelligent.
She created this image that I can only describe as "grunge" and said that she wasn't wanting to use that exact image as a basis of the design, but "something like it."
I want to take a stab at this, but I'm not really sure where to start -- or how I might go about creating "good grunge."
Where should I look for inspiration? I am assuming a lot of brushes and photoshop goofing will be involved. This is not my normal style, but I'd like to see if I can pull it off.
Any tips?
reuber1
03-02-2006, 08:08 PM
I'm sure you could easily find resources on the interweb.
Check http://www.netdiver.net/powagirrrls/. I go to that site for inspiration alot, and this particular section is dedicated to excellent female designers.
David Carson works come to mind...not direct knockoffs, but you can get some good ideas from his stuff.
Thanks reuber. :) I'll be doing bunches of interweb searching too, but appreciate the tips.
morea
03-02-2006, 08:17 PM
I'm a grunge virgin so I can't really help you. I'll check my bookmarks when I get home and see if I have anything in my "ooh neat!" folder.
Logo-Mechanix
03-02-2006, 08:24 PM
Sure it's not grungaphobia Morea?
balou
03-02-2006, 08:37 PM
Thanks for this post EC - I didn't see this before attempting to hijaculate CraigB's thread.
So, like Morea, I too am a grunge virgin. I'm now in the school yard asking questions...
Is all the stuff on that netdiver site categorized as grunge? Or is grunge just a broad description used when no other style name comes to mind? What other categories are there used to describe current design? Like the iPod silhouette ads - what are they categorized as?
*giggle, giggle, looks around for teacher*
reuber1
03-02-2006, 08:41 PM
It's not entirely grunge, but I find a lot of tastefully done grunge there. There's some minimalistic stuff there, some pixel sites, illustrator centric sites, etc. Very ranged, and very well done. That site has many excellent design examples, whether it be through the site itself or the work in their portfolio. It's a nice, all in one place. Except the author needs to lay her IM speak to rest.
balou
03-02-2006, 08:45 PM
I saw your two example on the other thread. I love the good example - Nemperez. Maybe I'm too old but when I see that I think more in artists terms and would describe that as collage - or is that too general of a term?
I think I'll have to find a couple three hours sometime and do a search on "grunge" on here and start reading away. And so begins my grungimacation.
reuber1
03-02-2006, 08:48 PM
Look up an Advanced search for "GRUNGE" as the keyword, and search in the Showcase section, then sit back with a bowl of popcorn and your favorite softdrink, and prepare for some laughs.
I suppose if you're going to do grunge, you'd better be good at it.
I'm not really hung up on terminology or stylenames. Grunge, collage, whatever. A lot of it looks the same.
mar1300
03-02-2006, 09:37 PM
I too am a grunge virgin, and would love to learn how to do it. Never know it might come in handy down the road. Perhaps put my own little twist on it.
Mynock
03-02-2006, 09:49 PM
All this grunge talk is making my skin itch, good thing I have my spray near by.
balou
03-02-2006, 10:00 PM
Lol!
I think the essence of grunge is definitely layering textures, type, images so that you have a collage of elements that eventually work well together. I have found that you have to work and work and work on a piece to get that grungy feel. I've made (poor) pieces with hundreds of layers. I guess that grunge is supposed to feel old, dirty, used etc. So i guess you have to try and communicate those themes.
I actually find grunge personally difficult, probably because im a new modernist.
shadepics
03-02-2006, 11:31 PM
A lot of the time i think 'grunge' is accidental rather than inspired as such. Just play around with blending layers and the threshold until it happens lol.
I actually asked my client how she felt about a "punk rock poster" style. I love all those old Sex Pistols album covers and stuff, maybe I can work with that as an inspiration if she goes for it.
I'm not young anymore, I don't like "playing in photoshop" which really is what I think is required to do this. And to do it right, you have to have that AND a really good sense of design. I might be screwed? LOL
Rocketpig
03-03-2006, 03:44 AM
EC, if you want to go for a "classier" version of grunge, you might want to look into some kind of weathered & battered look on a piece from the 1920's.
I've found that is the style of "grunge" (really it's not grunge) that I like best. Use some classic imagary and mix in some flowing paisley-type (d'oh, wrong word but I can't think of anything better to describe it) objects in the background mixed with modern typography.
I'm having a hard time describing what I'm imagining. NemPerez is about the closest thing I can think of right now. His site would be a good place to start IMO.
Rocketpig
03-03-2006, 03:50 AM
Hah! Found it!
Courtesy of Jeff Fisher and his book, I found the studio I was thinking of:
http://www.shadowlandstudios.com/
Go to Porfolio/Posters. That guy has some awesome stuff there. Kinda grunge, kinda retro, EXTREMELY cool.
Oh yeah Rocketpig, I LOVE that style! I don't think it's edgy enough for this client, but I love that link, I'll be filing it away. Thanks. :)
balou
03-03-2006, 04:27 AM
I liked that link too. EC, did you go to the gigposters.com (http://www.gigposters.com/) link? Band posters galore in there.
Haha I'm there right now!
Rocketpig
03-03-2006, 04:36 AM
Oh yeah Rocketpig, I LOVE that style! I don't think it's edgy enough for this client, but I love that link, I'll be filing it away. Thanks. :)
Okay, let me get this right:
Your client wants grunge style and is a feminist, political, and intelligent but that style isn't edgy enough?
How about slapping "I HATE CONSERVATIVES JUST LIKE THAT ***** ROCKETPIG" in Papyrus at a 45 degree angle across a normal grunge design?
BTW, Comic Sans might also work but you might have to "weather" it a bit.
Hahahahahahhahahah! :D
I couldn't even make fun of that if my fiance wasn't a liberal femicon... It makes for good opposition to my Libertarian way.
Actually it might be edgy enough for her. She just wrote me a big long email and I think we're on the right course:
I like the art of people like Kandinksky, am all about collage art work, social awareness posters that pop culture looking... just contemporary, abstract, that all works.
And then more stuff about her political activism and whatnot ... this is so my kind of client!! lol
BTW if shes a designer, then why are you designing the site for her? Then again its all work
oh okay she seems to have reasonable knowledge of designers, not a lot of people know Kandinsky (yeah he was a painter but he did teach at the Bauhaus). I must have misread college student as being design college student.
Nope, just an uber-liberal art loving academic type. As I said, my kind of gal! I just hope I can pull it off. ;)
My kinda girl as well :) i'm sure you'll be fine. BTW i have a massive custom collection of blueprint brushes if you want (they include all the blueprints to the Apollo modules)
Thanks cjoe. I never turn down brushes, but I think for this I'll probably make my own out of various text passages, imagery, etc. based on "her" ... that's what I'm simmering in my brain right now anyway, well see.
Hey cjoe, since this is the grunge thread, maybe you can post something that shows off your brushes *hint hint*.
rockem
03-03-2006, 04:01 PM
some really really nice work here
http://www.iso50.com/
reuber1
03-03-2006, 04:04 PM
some really really nice work here
http://www.iso50.com/You're right. I almost forgot about his stuff. AWESOME.
Hey cjoe, since this is the grunge thread, maybe you can post something that shows off your brushes *hint hint*.
yeah sorry i fell asleep after leaving the computer for a short period of time. I'll brusherize somthing up for you...
Here ya go:
Not very good but its got a few of my blueprint brushes in there: Just PM your email and i'll send them to ya.
http://img482.imageshack.us/img482/2783/skillsample36nd.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
beautiful. This reminds me of my favorite brush site on the net, lemme see if I can find the link.
sweet thanks, im not really a grunge person, but i try to stay reasonably up to date with the styles. My set is fairly clean by grunge standards so you might want to take to them with the eraser
fiend
03-14-2006, 07:43 AM
Oh yeah, I love the grunge look...
wasapa
04-10-2006, 04:13 AM
David Carson the father of grunge (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Carson_%28graphic_designer%29)
also do a google search and buy books at amazon.