Connan Mockasin - Logotype Research

Starting with the logotype for Connan Mockasin seemed like a logical first step. It needs to successfully communicate Mockasin’s sound, as well as be bold and eye catching enough to make it draw attention.

Eckmannpsych - Eckmann was a typeface created by Otto Eckmann in 1900. In terms of its form, it looks like a blackletter font with more curved and unusual letterforms that give it an Art-Noveau inspired look, similar to Böecklin but a lot more subtle. In 2018, Eckmannpsych was created by Future Fonts - a contemporary and psychedelic update to the original typeface. Connan Mockasin’s music is often described as psychedelic so it would be effective to use a psychedelic font like this to communicate him. I like how all the letterforms are curved and have rounded ends instead of points, it reminds me of the smooth ‘caramel’ sound that Mockasin has. 

Pierre Vanni - Pierre Vanni is a Paris based art director and graphic designer. Vanni designs with sensuality in mind as opposed to intellectuality, focusing more on feel than function. His work is playful, bright and has a dreamlike quality, often with psychedelic gradients for backgrounds. The feel of his work definitely matches Mockasin’s psychedelic dreamy surrealness. The logotype for his publication project ‘Audimat’ is simple rational sans serif type that has been warped and it made me think of this logotype more as a contained graphic image as opposed to just some typography.

Metronomy - Metronomy are a British electronic band. Their logotype is curved and gloopy, resembling a viscous substance, it has this feel of movement to it, you can imagine seeing it drip down. A logotype like this would work perfectly for Connan Mockasin because you can imagine it being caramel, therefore embodying his sound, and the album very well. I would like to try some practical methods of making type like this, possibly getting a thick substance like caramel or honey and trying to make type out of it. 

Tyler Spangler - Tyler Spangler is a California based designer and artist. He creates very bright psychedelic compositions with warped and playful type, when speaking to its nice that he described his work as “a rainbow flavoured popsicle dipped in the ocean and placed on a rock to melt”. He often just uses a rational sans serif font, meaning the focus is then on the deconstruction of that type which gives it a certain physical quality, as if you’re imagining what has been done to the type, whether it looks as if its been stretched, melted, crumpled etc. This definitely matches Connan Mockasin’s vibe, especially the more curved melted type. Much like the Metronomy logo, it makes me want to experiment with creating type physically out of jelly or rubber or something. 

Caramel - Connan Mockasin - Idea Generation

As a way of generating ideas I decided to listen to Caramel and make a list of all the words you could use to describe it, the words are a mix of genres, general adjectives and words associated with the idea of the album sounding like caramel.

Caramel

Dreamy

Slow

Viscous

70’s Soft Rock

Smooth

Psychedelic

Avant Garde

Gloopy

Rich

Thick

Soul

Sexy

Synth

Chorus

Clouds

Soft

Gold

Mellow

Seductive

Surreal

Romantic

Narrative

Gradual 

As another method for generating ideas, I visually mapped 3 of the songs on the album; I took into account the feel of the songs, the dynamics, the tones, the beats and the instruments and formed shapes representing the song. I also took into account the colour and how it represented thew songs, the colour palette for the 3 of them is fairly refined because the songs all have a similar feel, so this colour palette could definitely be effective to use, I especially like the use of gold representing the songs; it visualises the the smooth, reverberating, chorus effect in the tones of the guitar as well as representing the colour of caramel very well. 

Connan Mockasin - Research and Facts

• Mockasin commonly plays with a Fender Stratocaster which he has modified by cutting off the top sides to create a uniquely shaped guitar.

• At the time of the release of his second album Caramel, Mockasin stated that he had rarely listened to any music at all for the past ten years, giving him space to focus on his own sound. 
• Connan Mockasin’s real name is Connan Hosford, originally when he arrived in the UK it was with his band ‘Connan and the Mockasin’s’ a name he chose because of his skills at making Mockasin shoes out of dirt bike tyres and sheep skin. Eventually as he become a solo artist, he adapted Mockasin as the surname for his stage name.
• As well as music, Mockasin dabbles in painting, the cover for his first album ‘Dolphin Love Forever’ is a self portrait he painted of himself. His paintings are surreal, colourful, imaginative and childlike. He also often paints his face and body for playing live or promotional imagery for an album, sometimes this is is to channel a certain character within the record, in a slightly David Bowie sequel manner. 

• In the album Caramel, Mockasin added some low pitched talking/vocals. He dubbed the character ‘The Boss” who is supposedly the central character of the album who is in love with a dolphin, a character coming from his very first album “Dolphin Love Forever”.
• When recording Caramel in a Tokyo Hotel room, Mockasin would often invite groups of Japanese girls to hang out in the hotel room when he was recording, they can be heard a few times on the record, most notably when chanting ‘Connan!’ At the end of one of the tracks. 

Reading about Connan Mockasin certainly gives some insight into his very unusual character, however I think in terms of utilising this research, I will mainly want to focus on the album Caramel and the ideas behind it so that the visuals and design are relevant. Perhaps when designing the logotype, which technically would stretch itself beyond just the album, I can use more facts about him in general. 

Caramel - Connan Mockasin - COP Design Project

After deciding to rebrand one of Connan Mockasin’s albums, I set about listening to all three of them, reading about them and deciding which one to choose. I decided to go with ‘Caramel’ (2013). The reason for this being that I really like the sound of it, its got an interesting concept and it was recorded in an interesting way. I also have mixed feelings about the existing album cover so I thought it would be interesting to redesign it.

‘Caramel’ was released in September 2013, Mockasin did not record the album in a studio and instead opted to record it in a hotel room in Tokyo, saying he liked the relaxed atmosphere. The concept and idea behind the album is really simple yet interesting, with Mockasin stating - “I wanted to make something simple. Something nice and relaxed. I liked the name, and the album just came up around that. It's what I felt like 'caramel' music would be. - Listening to the album, you can definitely hear and feel that caramel idea, it’s a soft, smooth and laid back sounding record. 

The Guardian reviewed the album in 2013, giving it 4 stars out of 5, the review is very interesting:

“There's a complicated subplot running throughout Connan Mockasin's second album. According to the Kiwi psych singer, it involves a dolphin, a man being in love with said dolphin, a car race and ultimately a car crash, but you wouldn't necessarily ascertain all this from listening. Instead, Caramel sounds more like an LSD binge in a sleazy motel, or an elf covering a Barry White album, or maybe even a rom-com set on Mars. Following 2011's revered Forever Dolphin Love, Connan has created a collection of trippy, mutated soul songs wedged between dreamlike interludes (Why Are You Crying features six minutes of panting and sobbing). He mimics the hip-hop mainstream to brilliant effect, and tracks such as Do I Make You Feel Shy, I'm the Man, That Will Find You and Roll With You fuse such a surreal mix of pixie enchantment and pimped-out creepiness that it's impossible not to be seduced.”

Whether its true or not, Mockasin’s description of the songs being about being in love with dolphins and car crashes is certainly perplexing, however I think the metaphors the reviewer used to describe the album are certainly very apt:

“an LSD binge in a sleazy motel”

“an elf covering a Barry White album”

“a rom-com set on Mars”

The record is certainly very interesting and the more I read about it, the more ideas I have for the design process. In November 2013, Mockasin talked to Interview Magazine about the album, here are some of the things he said about it:

“I just liked it and I thought it was a nice name for a record, just as simple as that. Then I wanted to make a record that sounded like what I thought caramel would sound like. So I just had a month to do it in a hotel in Tokyo. I like having limitations with recording and just bringing my own small amount of equipment. It just excited me, the idea to do it there.”

“I just had a little bit of equipment, and I had to be quiet in the hotel without annoying people too much. I mostly recorded on my own but had my drummer come for a little bit and had some Japanese people coming and hanging out. It was just really simple and funny, lots of fun. Then you go outside and it’s Tokyo.”

What would you say if you were trying to articulate some of the main ingredients of caramel?

“Sort of smooth, feeling relaxed and easy, just simple. A little bit slick, nothing too complicated. I think I was aware that we’d be having to play these songs live, so I wanted to make it a bit easier. The last record, I never thought it was going to be released, so it was a surprise and it was really hard to play them live. So I wanted to make something a little bit easier.”

"I got really excited about playing guitar when I was young because I was watching a Steven Segal movie, Under Siege 2, and there was this [imitates a guitar riff] and it was Jimi Hendrix. I’d never heard it before.  I said to my mum, “What’s this? This is amazing,” and she said it’s a man called Jimi Hendrix, and we got a record, Band of Gypsys. She played it for me, and I was like, “This is amazing. I want to play it.” So I put it on tape and just kept replaying bits and trying to figure it out.”

Theres a lot of good insight into the making of the album there which will certainly be important when trying to get an appropriate feel for the design. Its also interesting to read about Mockasin in general, he’s quite a character so I may do some more research on him and find some interesting facts because its weird and interesting stuff like that which translates into design aspects really well. 

COP - Design Project

Theres seems no better way to demonstrate and explore how important design is in the consumption of music than to create branding and promotional material for a musical act. I’ve previously mentioned how whenever an act releases a new album, it’s often like a soft rebrand or an update to their image; a new concept/idea. Creating branding for an album seems like an apt way to be able to design a few different elements such as an album cover, promotional posters, a logotype and maybe even merchandising and set design. 

So what album should I focus on? I came up with a few ideas, firstly I think its important that the album have a strong feel and concept to it, this will just assure there’s plenty of ideas and research which can be linked to design concepts and visuals. I think it would be better to pick a lesser known artist; iconic bands and musical acts are like ‘charismatic brands’, they’re so engrained in culture that there’s no way I could redesign the Sgt Peppers album cover or update the Rolling Stones logo without it feeling wrong, because these visuals are already so well established. I also think it’s important to pick a modern and contemporary artist because the design would be much more relevant and more modern design methods such as animation (e.g. for a set design) would feel better suited to it.

Connan Mockasin 

Connan Mockasin is a musician from New Zealand, he’s released 3 studio albums; Forever Dolphin Love, Caramel and Jassbusters. I’ve been listening to Mockasin a lot lately and realised that he fit the criteria for my project. His style/genre is fairly ambiguous and fluid, his music has been described as: Psychedelic Pop, Neo-Psychedelia, Dream Pop, Space Rock, Avant-Pop and Experimental Rock. What draws me to producing designs for one of his albums is this ambiguity and individuality in his sound; while I could pick a punk or metal band and have a clear visual style associated with the genre, I thought it would be more interesting to pick someone like Connan Mockasin who’s got a much more obscure style and therefore the visuals and design will be much more relevant and individual. I can take influences from psychedelic design however a lot of the design will be a product of research and looking into the album, therefore it will feel much more associated with that individual album. 

Initial Essay Planning Ideas

In order to have a logical essay with the information and research ordered rationally, I think perhaps I will structure my essay by finding 4 or 5 fairly broad ideas of how graphic design effects the consumption of music and have those as sections. In each section I will have numerous sources with countering arguments that I can triangulate and different examples of how this idea may or may not be true. 

Section Ideas

• Album Covers - After reading The Branding Gap, thinking about how musical acts are brands, this focuses a lot on visual identity, how musicians brand themselves. Elements like the album cover play a big part of this. I think the most obvious thing you think of with this essay title is album covers and how you can cast a judgement upon the music pre-emptively by visually assessing the cover - judging a book by its cover. There will be a lot to discuss in this section and it may be one of the bigger sections of the essay. 
• Identity Theory and Subcultures - Another section could focus on identity theory and subcultures. Design for music visualises and captures the style and essence of that act. In turn, throughout the last century, this has led to the formation of subcultures. One could argue that the design/branding of these music acts has influenced the style of these subcultures and subsequently influenced the identity of its followers. In the punk era, the DIY aesthetic was incredibly popular, fans would cut up and collage type and imagery from newspapers and magazines to create covers, posters, pamphlets and zines. Thinking about this as a design practise/style, it become the voice of that musical movement/era. 
• Design Increasing Success - The more successful and widely known a musical act is, the more it is consumed. How has design aided some musical acts by giving them exposure? It could be the use of big billboards, controversial album covers or something even more intriguing, for example the vinyl release of David Bowies ‘Blackstar’ contained all sorts of hidden messages depending on what you did to the vinyl record and its packaging - this created a level of intrigue which made people want to buy the record.
• Logos - How important is a bands logo in the consumption of their music?
• Production? - vinyl is becoming much bigger now, however most people listen to music on streaming services where you only see a little icon for the cover. David Bowie Blackstar
• Gig Posters - hatch Show print

Sounds Like Branding - Jakob Lusensky

Having read “The Brand Gap”, “Sounds Like Branding” seemed like a good book to follow because it specifically talks about branding with music. Unfortunately what I found was that the book more so talked about how music is used in branding, I.e. songs in advertisements etc. So although the book was less relevant to my topic then I would have liked it to be, it still had a few good points. Here are some of the key points I found in the book:

• Music Creates Identity - “music is so closely tied to our sense of identity and self. Another study by Rentfrow and Gosling shows people believe their taste in music reveals who they ‘really’ are more than films, books and - yes shopaholics - even clothes. The music we listen to seems to be a social marker telling the world who we are and what we believe. No wonder music has been at the core of every significant subculture of the last 50 year’s” - This ties in with subculture and identify theory, an idea I intend to explore in this essay. 
• Musics New Role in Advertising - “Bands and artists who might not otherwise be heard get a chance to be heard by a much larger audience by piggybacking on the marketing power of the brand.” -  While this talks about how advertising and marketing have influenced the consumption of particular music artists, it made me think that perhaps design has done the same. The consumption of any given musical act is directly related to their success; the more successful and widely known the act is, the more they will be listened to. Perhaps with some research, I could find examples of design that has helped give a musical act success or exposure, what springs to mind is large billboards - when music acts use large billboards for advertising, they can often try and grab as much attention as possible by using eye catching and bold design techniques. 
• Brand Identity - “The brand identity is defined as how a company is perceived and the values associated with it. These associations are a sort of implied contract between the company and its customers. The terms are simple. If a company does what is expected and sticks to its brand principles, the consumer agrees to stay loyal and solicit its products or services whenever possible.” - I just found this section about branding quite interesting when thinking about a musical act as a brand. This way of thinking almost suggests that brands are successful when they stay the same and keep offering the same product or service. However other quotes I’ve found on the topic suggest innovative ideas and modernising the brand are important. 

The Brand Gap - Marty Neumeier

In order to research the idea of musical acts being brands and how their designed elements effect and create their brand, I read ‘The Brand Gap’ by Marty Neumeier. The book aims to ‘bridge the gap between business strategy and design’ and it gives a lot of insight into the definition of a brand, how brands can be successful and how we as consumers respond to them. Here are some of the points that Neumeier makes and some of the theories he shows that I found relevant to my project:

• In the introduction, Neumeier defines what a brand is, first and foremost by defining what it is not - ‘a logo, or any other kind of trademark, is not a brand itself. It’s merely a symbol for it. Second, a brand is not a corporate identity system.’ - ‘a brand is not a product.’ - ‘ a brand is a person’s gut feeling about a product, service or company.’ - ’the brand is identified by individuals… each person creates his or her own version of it.’ - This definition definitely aligns with what I was thinking about how a music act can be defined as a brand. And it tells me that design plays a part of a brand by influencing consumers ‘gut feeling’ - e.g. with a music act, typography or imagery can be evocative of a certain genre or style, and when a musical act uses design principles appropriately, its telling consumers of that genre that this band fits within the music that they consume.
• Charismatic Brands - ‘a charismatic brand can be defined as any product, service, or company for which people believe there’s no substitute … Because its the language of feeling, and, in a society that’s information rich and time poor, people value feeling more than information’. Neumeier gives examples of charismatic brands such as Apple, Nike and Disney - constant topics in cultural conversation. They have become ‘modern icons’ because they stand for feelings; intelligence, efficiency, strength, power, joy, imagination etc. 
• Tribalism - ‘A brand creates a kind of tribe’ - ‘You’re part of a select clan (or so you feel) when you buy products from these clearly differentiated companies.’ - This idea of identity theory and being part of a tribe or clan is a massive part of the consumption of music; music is a really big part of peoples identities and looking into subcultures, it sometimes consumes their whole identity in regards to style, how they dress, how they act, what they do etc. a good example of how this can applied to design is band merchandising - when you walk down the street wearing a band t-shirt, you are effectively advertising the fact that they are part of your identity, so the design of that t-shirt plays a big part, it needs to effectively communicate that band and genre/style.
• ‘It’s magic, not logic, that ignites passion in customers’
• I mentioned before, The Beatles and pondered how important graphic design was in the consumption of their music, Neumeier actually touches upon them when talking about the ‘MAYA principle’ - the most advanced yet acceptable solution - its the marketing practise of creating fresh ideas that often ‘zig when they should zag’ - ‘An effective use of the MAYA principle was the career of the Beatles. They began in the early 1960’s with songs that were commonly acceptable, then raised the bar of innovation one record at a time. By the end of the decade, they had taken their audience on a wild ride from the commonplace to the sublime, and in the process created the anthems for a cultural revolution. Their formula? As one critic observed: “They never did the same thing once”.’ - Having read this, the importance of graphic design in their musical career becomes clearer; as Neumeier said, they took their audiences on a journey, each record was different, and by doing this they would have had to convince their audience to some degree to get on board with a very different new record, perhaps design was important in this stage to convince the audience, give them something visual to associate with the record. As Aristotle said ‘Perception starts with the eye’.
• Neumeier talked about his experiences in branding and design and how different people respond to design differently - ‘we began to realise that the audience for one product was likely to be different than the audience for another, and that its taste in design was also likely to be different’ - Obviously the case with music and how different design styles are associated with different genres and audiences. Later Neumeier talks about a test called the swap test where you swap the logos/visual identities of two brands to see if they work - ‘a good brand icon is like a tailored suit - it should only look good on you.’ - If you swapped round the the rational narrow sans serif type of an indie folk band’s logo with the sharp, metallic and slightly illegible type of a metal bands logo it just wouldn’t work.
• The living brand - ‘Business is a process, not an entity. Successful businesses are those that continually adapt to changes in their marketplace, the industry, the economy and the culture. They behave more like organisms, than organisations, shifting and growing and dividing and combining as needed. Unlike the old corporate identity paradigm that prized uniformity and consistency, the new brand paradigm sacrifices those qualities in favour of being alive and dynamic.’ - Every time a musical act releases a new album, it can often be like a rebrand or un update to the brand, adapting the design and branding of them to meet the demands and style of the modern audience would be important, so maybe graphic design plays an important role there - keeping the identity of the band current, as Neumeier said earlier in the book - ‘branding is simply a convenient package for a business idea’.

How Important is Graphic Design in the Consumption of Music?

As a precursor to doing some more in-depth research with books from the reading list I compiled, I decided to summarise my initial thoughts and ideas on this question. This way I have some idea of what I’m looking for whilst researching and it gives me a base stance to work up from, whether my research supports these initial ideas or actually I find the opposite. 

Clearly graphic design is very important in the consumption of music, it’s used for album covers, posters, promotional material and marketing, set designs, merchandise and more. Right off the bat, album covers spring to mind, in the same way we’re not supposed to judge a book by it’s cover, but we actually do, it’s exactly the same for an album cover; it’s a visual representation of the music and as consumers of music, it gives us insight into whether we want to listen or not. Over the years, different music genres have become associated with different styles of design and often the first step of consuming music is to see the album cover and analyse how it matches what you perceive as your music taste. This is why graphic design is so important in this stage. 

With the word ‘consumption’ within the title of this essay, and considering music listeners as consumers, you can also think of music acts/artists as brands. And once you consider the question through that lense, it’s easy to see how important design is in music. Massive brands like Coca-Cola or Apple have instantly recognisable logos and visual identities and consumers of these brands have brand loyalty to them because their branding achieves instant contact, looking at the theory of identity, as consumers, the brands and products we consume become part of our identity. It’s the same with musicians who build up a following, acts like the Rolling Stones or Metallica have instantly recognisable logos, and this gives consumers reassurance, they take these designed aspects as visual confirmation.

I think looking at the question through the idea of branding will play a big part, and one thing I should explore is in what ways do we consume music, and is graphic design integral in all of them? 

One example I think would be really interesting to explore is ‘The White Album’ by the Beatles, which was just a blank white record sleeve with their name embossed very small on it. Firstly, is this a lack of graphic design, or is the extreme minimalism a conscious design choice? Secondly, the Beatles are a great example to use, though they did have a logo which we all associate with them, it was rarely actually used by them. Also, all their cover art was always very different. Is this an example of a music act which didn’t need graphic design in order to be heavily consumed because of their reputation. Ironically they are the most consumed music act ever. Was this purely the case because of the landscape of the music industry at the time; with no internet/social media, people needed to listen to the radio, watch tv, go to record stores. In the 21st century, the internet has not only brought about more music acts but it has brought easier ways to instantly consume music as well, for this reason, is graphic design essential in the consumption of music now, if it wasn’t already before. 

COP3 Proposal Presentation