These were blogged elsewhere- More on Harry Potter.

I wasn't very taken with them, but when they turned up on Grafik magazine I thought about them again. Now they are fairly obviously anachronistic- 7's pseudo cut vinyl print effects rendered in contemporary colours and a bit of (maybe naff?) glamour at the top.



But, you see, that's what Harry Potter has to be now. It's no longer an event. It's a brand and brands exist in memory (especially emotional memory). The next Harry Potter book can't look like the last in the line because there will not be another next-in-the-line. Even the movies are nearly done with. So Harry Potter can't be a thing of the moment- it has to be dislocated from the moment. That way it can stay on the shelves long after it has stopped being fashionable.

So what have I been doing today? Mostly reading, Derek Birdsall, John Hohculli and 'Really Great Packaging Explained'- which is full of very sound (sounding) real world design advice. I have been thinking about the Grid, especially after Germano Facetti and Dave Pelham's work on Penguin. I've always used something like Birdsall's Modular grid, but my base units have usually been derived from one or two key x heights (which might account for my being stingy with lead). What if we tried artwork or photography, but broke Birdsall's rule of respecting it and cropped it to the point of abstractions, found some detail that bridges two worlds. Chest is full of the interstitial shapes and objects...

Reading is a bad habit, and most of the books are about internal typography, which is a separate issue- insights on format and jackets are what I need. I also need to stop reading. It's keeping me from taking the plunge into my sketch pad.