M3 2015

Maryland's annual all-day rock festival for what is primarily forgotten hair bands, M3, just occurred over the past weekend. The overall design of this poster pretty much fits the idea of what a modern-day hard rock festival poster should look like - some rusty demonic imagery, a dark background, capital letters throughout. With the exception of the headliners, who use their logotypes, all of the acts are listed in a capital, thin, sans serif font, showing that they don't exactly mean serious business, but still want to be loud and in your face. It is nice that the band names are neat and orderly rather than leaving them all as the same font size and having them stick out at the end without any invisible edge that lines them up. The host listing at the bottom, particularly with 'Tawny Kitaen & Bobbie Brown', feels off. It might be better to keep them all on one line or use two lines to list the hosts rather than mixing it up in the middle.

The box art for the complete series of Dr. Katz (the packaging of which was very nicely put together), primarily uses the Courier New font outside of the show's logo. All of the information fits well, and nothing is tightly packed into the space provided. The centered text under the bonus features feels weird when I look at it, but I suppose it looks better centering the information in order of appearance rather than "pyramid-style."

Dasani

The Dasani water bottle label is the typical blue that dons most water bottle labels. The text is all appropriately placed and uses the space well, as is to be expected from a widely known brand seen practically everywhere. As such, I can't really say I have any issue with this.

Pokémon Red

The box art to Pokémon Red features the very popular Charizard on the front. Beneath the instantly recognizable logo is the franchise's motto, "Gotta catch 'em all!" Judging from the font style and the color choices alone, it is pretty clear that Pokémon is targeted toward children. By the time the games came to the U.S., the show had already started airing 22 days prior, so kids were already familiar with the logo, meaning the Charizard slightly overlapping the title did nothing to hide its identity.

The back cover features the logo again along with an overview of the game. Nothing overlaps any text (except the player character's hand on the logo), as the text works around the images so it can be read, as should be expected. I don't really have any issue with how the box art is laid out.

Fountains of Wayne - "Traffic and Weather"

The artwork for Fountains of Wayne's Traffic and Weather is very toned down with the psychedelic style, especially compared to Drivin' N' Cryin's Songs from the Psychedelic Time Clock, so this is probably more along the lines of what the latter should have done. While the design is strange, it does not seem like too much is going on. The text is all very clear and easy to read, although the white band name is backed right up against that white star, so the star should probably be moved away from the name just a bit.

The tracklisting on the back is good, too, and it calls back to the font of the album title on the front. The space was used very well, although I would like to see another yellow star on the right side to fill in some of that negative space.

Soul Asylum - "Let Your Dim Light Shine"

Soul Asylum's Let Your Dim Light Shine, the follow-up to their mainstream breakthrough album, Grave Dancers Union (not that that even matters here; I just needed an introduction), featured yet another dark cover that graced a good portion of their albums and singles. While the text, which appears to be handwritten, is much easier to read when it falls on the darker portions of the photograph, which is pretty much the bulk of it. When 'your' reaches a lighter part, it kind of blends in and looks like "let you dim light shine," but anyone with a basic understanding of grammar should pick up on what it really says right away.

Old 97's - "Drag It Up"

The design on the cover of the Old 97's album, Drag It Up, is very interesting, looking like someone had ripped pages from a book or magazine or newspaper and pasted them together and painted on top of them. The text is very carefree, in that sense, because it does not adhere to any boundaries set by typing normally. The band name stands out a lot, which is fairly important when looking for them in a music store. The album title, however, specifically 'Drag', does not stand out as much with the blue text on top of the blue background, though there is a black stroke around the title to separate. At least with the blue on yellow, it is clear that there is an album title, so it is not all bad, and it is important that the album title be separate from the band name so it doesn't all look the same, so the designer did a good job on that part with the different colors, too.