Neville Brody is an English graphic designer, typographer and art director who is always pushing the limits of visual boundaries. He is an inspiring designer because he always thinks outside the box in his designs, to anyone he's designs are amazing! A Lot of my work from high school has been inspired by his designs.
"He is an alumnus of the London College of Printing and Hornsey College of Art, and is known for his work on The Face magazine (1981–1986) and Arena magazine (1987–1990), as well as for designing record covers for artists such as Cabaret Voltaire and Depeche Mode. He created the company Research Studios in 1994 and is a founding member of Fontworks. He is the new Head of the Communication Art & Design department at the Royal College of Art." (1)
When Neville Brody first started design it was in the era of when punk was just starting to become popular, a lot of his older designs have more of a punk look to them. in some designs you can see some influenced by Artdeco. "It was his strong interest in art movements such as Dada, Futurism and Constructivism which influenced much of his work. These movements deconstructed old ideas about painting and art and design in general." (2)
Constructivism movement is a artistic and architectural philosophy that originated in Russia beginning in the early 1900s by Vladimir Tatlin.
This is one of my favourite designs (a movie poster) Brody did for Oceans 12. This poster is unified by the colors and styles of the almost silhouette figures. They have an epic yet sleek feel to them. The number 12 clearly justifies the name of the movie “Oceans 12”. The cast of the film is listed at the top of the poster. This is so the cast names will not seem like they are floating in the middle of the design. The date of the release is at the bottom right corner. It also has a reference to the film before this (Oceans 11). There is negative space around this typography, this means that it helps it stand out to the viewers of this poster. This also makes the date catch the eyes of the viewers. There is movement with the figures in walking position and it forces peoples eyes to move around the image more. The silhouettes are walking and moving off the page that gives the effect that there will be a lot happening in the film. Also again catches the eyes of the viewers. The use of just shades of black, white and red was very effective in creating a style to fit the movies. The shadows of the silhouettes give us the illusion of them walking to a light. The white background acts as negative space.
References -
(1) Neville Brody. (2005, August 16). Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved April 6, 2020, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neville_Brody
(2) Neville Brody graphic designer. (n.d.). Createit. https://www.scottishschools.info/Websites/SchSecWhitehill/UserFiles/file/Higher%20Art%20Homework/Graphic%20designer%20Neville%20Brody%20facts.pdf
(3) The graphic language of Neville Brody: Wozencroft, Jon: 9780789306531: Amazon.com: Books. (n.d.). Amazon.com: Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more. Retrieved April 5, 2020, from https://www.amazon.com/Graphic-Language-Neville-Brody/dp/0789306530