OUGD505 - SB01 - New Age Music Research 03

I have continued research into the New Age Movement and how this cretaed the Genre 'NAM'.

The 1970’s showed that large numbers of people were practicing crystal healing, yoga, macrobiotic diets, astrology, and many more alternative medicines. 

These alternative medicines needed a soundtrack; a kind of music that was much less aggressive than rock, which would be able to serve as a soothing background for New Age healing activities

During the 1960’s and 70’s, there was a huge amount of experimental and electronic music that was highly influential for New Age Music. In Germany around the same time - experimental music flourished within the (so-called) Kraut rock scene. In particular, the synthesiser-based electronic music of Tangerine dream served as an important influence on what would become NAM. 

This genre is also known as Cosmic music which is a broad genre of experimental rock that developed in Germany in the 1960’s. 

The name Karutrock was given to experimental German bands who’s music drew from sources such as psychedelic rock, avant-guard, electronic music, funk, minimalism, jazz improvisation and other world music styles.

OUGD505 - New Age Music Artist 'RuneStone' - Research

After viewing and listening to various NAM artists, I came across a group called 'RuneStone' Their music sounded quite interesting, So I continued my research into their origin and work. As retro as everything seemed.

Runestone is the name of a New Age music Group, made up by Chris Green and Robert Fenner (New Age musicians). Both artists are established  multi-instrumentalists which in their albums include the use of keyboards, guitars, mandolins, native american flute, world percussion, tibetan bowls and the gong. Which means the duo focus heavily on eastern born instruments. The duo or Runstone as they are named first appeared on the New Age music scene in 1993 and has since produced a catalog of eleven albums.

Runestone have come across to be quite a traditional New Age band, as in the sounds they they create come across very stowic.

Below is an example of so,e of their work, which I found quite relevent.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=video&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjs4Kn37eHaAhVKIMAKHaTiB4YQtwIIKTAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DX0ixJ12eDeQ&usg=AOvVaw2KG2p870ASleb6y9CYQ-Yj

I then took a little look on their websit and came across their vast catalog of music, which shows me that these two artists have been creating music for quite some time.

Below a snapshot of their website (not the easist no navigate but the difference comapred to todays websites which are so clean and finished, it is quite a pullback in time, which I find apropriate for the subject)

OUGD505 - SB01 - New Age Music 'Enya' - Research

After delving into some of the origin of NAM I felt it only be apropriate to research some of the best NAM artists. There is one artist in particular that I have listened to in previous years named 'Enya'. I have always loved her music however, I never knew that her music was considered 'New Age' So I was quite surprised to learn that I had been listening to a form of NAM all this time.

ENYA

A song names Orinocco flow was created by Enya which featured in her album “watermark” which was released in 1988. 

Which was an instant success because of it was unlike anyone had ever heard. Enya had a clear, steady and slightly haunting voice which immediately appealed to the world and made people want more. (My personal opinion is that she is that her voice is very similar to that of a slow moving river, very calming yet amplifying and invigorating).

Enya’s music is often classified as world music and Celtic New age, Although Enya herself refuses to accept these labels to her music and insists her music to be described as ‘just Enya’, (however the sound of her music creates the same internal feelings and emotions to that of NAM). 

Enya was one of nine children and grew up in a very musical family, Music was as important as the air she breathed.

At and early age, Enya would sign in her mothers church up until she joined her siblings in a band named ‘Clannad’ in 1980. Enya then went onto meeting producer Nicky Ryan and his wife Roma Ryan and then in 1982 formed a trio which is responsible for the brand ‘Enya’

(Below paragaraph courtessy of Marcome.com) 

“Success followed with albums such as Shepherd Moons (1991), The Memory of Trees (1995), A Day Without Rain (1995), And Winter Came… (2008), featuring Enya singing in English, Latin, Irish, Welsh, Spanish, French and even J.R.R. Tolkien’s fictitious languages in “Lothlórien” (1991). No wonder that she was chosen to sing and perform the songs “Aníron” and “May It Be” for the movie Lord of the Rings, the latter of which was nominated for an Academy Award.’

OUGD505 - SB01 - New Age Music Origin Research 02 + 02.5

Below I discuss more about the origin of the New Age Movement

Theosophy, New thought and Transcendentalism among many others attempted to incorporate the general idea of Buddhism and Hinduism with western mystical ideas and cultures, many new religeons argued for a correspondense between conciousnes and the physical world.

In short meaning; How one thought and felt had consequences in the real world

By the beginning of the 20th century, new religions that utilised techniques drawn from eastern religions that utilised techniques drawn from eastern religions, such as meditation or alternative medicine - Spiritual healing which was spreading across the united states.

The 1960’s saw a huge increase in the amount of alternative spiritualities - baby boomers (people who were born in the years during the marked increase of births following the second world war) - they were disappointed or disillusioned in the idea of the conservative American culture, who then sought spiritual fulfilment outside of Judo-Christian lifestyles.

How did the 'alternative practices link to New Age Music?

Research 02.5

As people began seeking other fufillment through the practice of spiritual healing and mental traquility. People soon began to relaise that a certain type of sound was needed to enhance the proccess of these alternative practices. 

This is when New Age Music really became a 'thing', as it was around the same time that a lot of artists were experiemnting with electronically produced music.

Rock Music

How did the experimentation of electric music and rock music form the prominant creation of New Age Music?

Muscisions and music groups such as tangerine dream created and used electric instruments that would produce beautiful electronic sounding music, which stemmed from the creativness of soft rock. These creative sounds grew and grew to form collections of songs that were used in the practice of alternative medicines and from there new artisits formed who created their own marks and stories in the genre of New Age Music.

OUGD505 - SB01 - New Age Music Origin Research

After searching through a vast collection of Micro Genre's archived on the website Everynoiseatonce.com I came across a slightly familiar genre of music called New Age 

Music. 

New Age Music is defined as ‘Artistic inspiration’ which as the genre ‘new age’ is supposed to provide the listener, feelings of peace, calmness, relaxation and optimism.

It is also the genre of music which is used very often in mediation, massage, yoga and similar kinds of relaxing and energising sessions.

New Age music concentrates more on the feelings it produces rather than the sound or instruments it uses.

The creation of NAM was to provide ambient sounds to provide certain feelings. It does this by creating electronic sounding forms and usually, the instruments heard are the piano, flute, guitar, acoustics, and a wide variety of nonwestern instruments that have the ability to produce natural sounds.  

NAM Emerged as a distinctive and realisitc Genre in the 1970's, however the genre became most popular in the 1980's and 90's. 

To understand the significance of NAM, it becomes useful to understand NAM within the larger subject of the New Age Movement. The NAMovement is a loose conglomeration of alternative spiritualities and metaphysical religeons that emerged or became relaities in the 60's - However the roots of New Age Music go back even further..

OUGD505 - SB02 - Milk Carton Design research 02

Following on from my research I have decided to go ahead and base my future design from the research image which I have placed below.

Out of all the designs I was drawn to this one the most. I like the colour and the delicate design. My favourite part is the white designs on the front of the packaging, they contrats so well against the black and I feel like if the product was placed on a shelf in the supermarket, it would draw in a lot of attention.

I will look into some more deigns that have a similar black and white style, as I believe that the design above would be the most effective. I can see from the image that they have kept the rest of the layout similar to that of a usualy milk carton which I think has a really nice touch. 

These designs above, are a collection of several different products which have been designed with black and white being the change of change compairing to the design of more mainstream products. I love these designs because the black and the white is so striking and really draws in attention towards what the product actually is. I see it in a way that the product is not trying to hide under a sea of complicated colours.

I attained this image because I liked how it displayed a selection of branded products which features the black and white colour use throughout the collection.

I think something as simple as sugar sachaes can have a big impact when it comes to hospitality, they are small but can be very complimetrary to their emviroment depending on how they are designed.

I think these must be like the pringles food, only a premium version. I think that it's a premium product stright away because of the black and white, it sets the mind going stright away "if the can looks premium then so must be the food inside and the ingredients they are made with".

A pretty simple image, yet stll very effective, it's not very often that you see a carton looking like this. I think it's because the mind is so used to seeing product with colourful designs and bold titles being paired with slogans and information about the product on the front of the packaging.

I would like to think that this is a bag of coffee, which has been designed with only black and white. I really like it, because it has sort of like a rustic vibe, there are a lot of different typefaces going on here too which seems to work pretty well - Again I think that using min imal colour gives leaway to being able to experiment more with type and shaping.

The above design is very simple which I love, It looks to be made from metal so I can imagine that the packaging it'self would reflect light which would look very nice considering it is balck and white. I also like how I can easily read the text on the product even though it has been edited to look fairly diffetrent than what the original type probably was. It's very simple and stright forward.

I'm not entirley sure what this product is, maybe it's a game box - but I like the design and the domiannce of the text on the packaging, the typeface looks very simialr to the one that the TV show 'Amelrican Horror Story' uses, which is pretty cool.

I believe that this is cosmentic packaging, maybe a collection? if so I think the use of blackand white works very well here as a group, I like that the packaging design os a little odd, with the fact you can't tell what some of the large letters are. A slightly edgy design even.

I really liked this Coffee Bag deisgn. So simple and effective and it creates this sort of idea that this product is premium just based on the front design of the packaging. The use of large text fills up most of the space which is quite clever. The logo alone is a sure give away that this is a caffinated product.

The above is one of my favourite examples, very modern and stylish. It's diffetrent to the carton designs that you would be used to, it seems a little metric also, probably because of the typeface. I find the image use very striking, I can tell that the images represent a milk glass from different angles.

OUGD505 - SB02 - Milk Carton Design research

Before creating design ideas for my repsonse to this project, I wnated to research some various Milk Carton Designs first. 

I believe that iver time I have seen some amazing, innovative designs printed onto the medium of a milk carton, My favourite out of all being this example below.

A Graphic Designers CV printed onto a milk carton..

Which I think it amazing and I would be massively surprised if he didnt get the job he was applying for with this thing. What I find most inspirational about this, is that the design and style of a typical milk carton is kept, he sort of uses that as a guide as to wear to put i formation about himself for the employer to read, apart from that it is very beautiful to look at bcause of the use of vivid colours.

Below I have listed some more examples that I found very isnpiring and idea engaging.

I liked this design for the simplicity, the colour use is minimal, I love the teal green against the black, it looks very proffesional and tranquil. The use of boxes around the text seems to bring a sense of order to the design which I think it was the designer was goung for. That I also like.

The design above is one of my favourites, Just the use of colour for each type of milk really makes the oevr all designs. I like how the cold use of colour shows which type of milk someone is buying. It resembles the same use of colour that you see on plastic milk bottles in the supermarket,  but the designer here has taken it to a whole new level. 

This design is a lot more illustrated and delciate, mostly because of the joice in typeface. Also the use of an earthy tone for the colour really works on a milk carton and it seems to work very well against the text and the cute image of the cow. The typoeface chocie is a good one, as I believe the text is making some kind of statemnent, I feel that it works very well.

I'v seen cravendale in the supermarkests, although i've never come acrosss this design before. I like the order, simplsicty and the slight touch of colour on each type of milk bottle. I also like hpw the designer has goven the cow som sort of humanised personality, with the wi nking of one eye and the straw in his mouth drinking the milk.

I don't believ that these cartons above are actually miulk cartons however they look very similar. These are juice cartons and I absolutely love them due to the spaciousness the designs seem to display between the images and the text. I like the simple use of pastel based colour also which gives a very nuetral feel to the design.

I beloiev the design above doesn't need an explanation.

These designs are awsome. By far one of my favourites, They look so modern and sleek, and I would feel quite proud picking one of these up in the supermarket, The use of colour makes the design, especially the light blue, the whole deisgn is colured on one colour which I love. I think the simplicity really works well.

Definitely my number one favourite, mostly because of the use of black against white. The obscure glass of milk design onj the front of each is very clever and modernised, not just that but the name 'LACTO' has something to it which draws you in. The design in general is very simpliostioc and beaituful and quite different to what I have seen so far.

Again another more simple design, very delicatley presented and the softer colour tones really help the fact that this is a bottle of milk, yet the designer seems to have gone for a more strigjt forward layout. Which can be very pleasing to the eye.

These designs are amazing, the use of colour and shapes I like but it's the actualy shape of the packaging that I love, it's very geometric and unexpected and I feel like it breaks the bounderies of the expectations that msot people have when it comes to how packaging should look. I can imagine the prices of these bottles of milk to be fairly high..

I believe that the design above is some sort of experiment, at using the shape of a milk boittle to present a design instead of a flat piece of paper.