Music and the work process

I have noticed that 99% (and yes these are all observational statistics) of designer, advertisers and artists in general like to listen to music as they work. Many of my colleagues even get mentally "lost" in the combination of working on something while listening to something. There is something that simultaneously calming and inspirational about music, and this combo just pushes the creative process along.

Sometimes I think it is because all of the arts are linked. My designs have been inspired by anything from photos, to movies, to books. Partly, I guess this is because of inspiration coming from everything. But I still feel like the arts in generally are linked to one another, in a way that "like breeds like." Music is especially potent; however, and I am not quite sure why that is. While a book my inspire me, I cannot read and design at the same time. And looking at a photograph could further help me with a project, but I would not stare at it the same way I can listen to a song over and over. There is just something about music.

Some of it might be the ability to capture a felling, which music is quite good at. However, that is not all music does. Especially when different types of music can make people feel different ways, not matter what the sentiment of the song is. Perhaps what it really boils down to is connotations.

Design has to take into account all the connotations of all it's elements. Does read mean passion or danger? Will the type be bold like a groundbreaking decision, or bold like a punch in the face? Music can give us the right connotations as well. Lets play a dangerous sounding song to work on the red composition, or something encouraging for the groundbreaking one. Most importantly of all, we can play a song that makes us feel comfortable, since the best work is done when someone feels comfortable enough to work

Since this post was all about music, here are a few random artists I like to listen to.
Pogo-SplurgenShitter
Efterklang- Mirador
Detektivbyrån - Om Du Möter Varg

Project 1- playing with type

This was just something I decided to play with.

Type is such a functional design element that sometimes we can forget how elegant/pretty/interesting it is in it's own right. So I wanted to push type to abstraction in order to appreciate the from rather than function of letters. Also I wanted to make it a bit of a challenge to myself so there were rules.

Each tile could only have in it: two letters, two colors, and I could not change change the structure of the letters in any way. I did tilt or enlarge them but that was it. Lastly all of the letters are in the same typeface: Times New Roman

Can you guess all the letters? Hint: I only used the letters a, f, b, e, k, b, q, s, and g. Oh and I used caps and lower case.