New Order versus OMD

Taking a page from my time in DC, I recently suggested that the monthly DJ gig with friends Jen and Genevieve expand to try a ‘versus night’, specifically New Order versus OMD, as both the latter and Peter Hook, former bassist of the former, were due in town in the coming months.

I was curious if the blissful, insane fun I had at Cure vs. The Smiths, New Order vs. Duran Duran and Depeche Mode nights at DC’s Black Cat (special nod to DJ Michelle Guided for providing much of that soundtrack) could be replicated – on a much smaller scale. And hey, if nobody showed, at least we’d enjoy a night of great music.

We sold the idea to a skeptical manager at The Independent Bar that hosts our low-key, all vinyl gigs. Now for a poster design.

The Design

It starts and ends with Peter Saville. Saville’s design defined an era. His work with Factory Records, his iconic cover designs for Joy Division, New Order, OMD and other post-punk bands emerging from the UK in the late 70s and early 80s are instantly recognizable.

I had a lot of fun playing in his sandbox as I went from producing one design to four. The designs are all mashups. The main poster utilizes the bold lines and streetmap grid look of New Order’s 2016 ‘Music Complete’ album while incorporating the tan, brown and green color scheme from OMD’s 1983 album ‘Dazzle Ships’, both designed by Saville. I added the fuchsia for some pop as I felt it complemented the other colors and contrasted the black line art well.

The typography is strict Helvetica, which lent itself to the utilitarian look of a lot of the early Factory Records and Hacienda materials.

Each of the posters pulls from New Order – OMD – Factory aesthetic and style – all shaped by Saville. Famously, the sparse ‘No’ that featured on New Order’s ‘Waiting For the Siren’s Call’ was actually a response by Saville to a request to design the album cover.

Mahi Patient Video

August 28, 2022August 28, 2022pcharbonneau Leave a comment

I am fortunate to enjoy a great collaboration with our videography and PR team at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital. I have been encouraged to explore and learn more video animation and now regularly get brought in on our patient videos to provide intros and transitional slates and animated typography in what has become a seamless process with our videographer Juan.

While we strive to maintain a consistent look and feel from a brand standpoint, there has been a push to customize the patient intros so they more reflect the individual patient and their story. It’s a nice challenge and provides a chance to get creative!

Mahi is a firecracker battling – and winning – her struggle with cerebral palsy. She was born prematurely after her parents were involved in a car accident and her ability to maintain balance and walk has been a priority for her team at All Children’s.

For the intro to her patient video, I wanted to introduce a sense of movement to highlight the strides she’s made which are on display in the video above. The line art animation was a new wrinkle in my AfterEffects repertoire and once again I found myself excited and joyful at learning a new technique.

I fell in love with movies and moving images at a young age and I think personally moving past graphic design as a more static thing into this realm is what is really firing my enjoyment of the process. Vibing with our team as we think through the possibilities is just as important.

Gordon’s Live!

February 13, 2021pcharbonneau Leave a comment

On February 8, the Power Records Project streamed a live performance of an original Flash Gordon radio serial from 1935. It was the next step in the evolution of an idea that grew out of my two-week adventure with COVID back in March. Something that started out as an individual endeavor has grown into a fun, creative troupe of seven. After kicking around ideas to expand beyond re-creating old book-and-record adventures, we decided to get goofy and do a live performance on Zoom and streamed through FacebookLive.

From a design standpoint it was fun for me to create some teaser and Zoom background graphics, as well as a short teaser video that allowed me more practice and play time with After Effects and Premiere.

With over 325 views as of this post, we’ve exceeded all of our modest expectations.

Lights, Camera, Auction! Logo

September 19, 2020September 19, 2020pcharbonneau Leave a comment

The VIP Auction was an annual fundraising event through the Johns Hopkins All Children’s Foundation. Each year, a committee voted on a theme and encouraged attendees to dress the part. In 2019 for example, my colleague Nannette created a kick-ass look for the Rock the Night event with a hair metal feel without sacrificing the ozone layer.

For 2020 the theme was Hooray for Hollywood and I was assigned as creative lead. My design married an art deco font with a Saul Bass 1960s movie poster feel. Unfortunately, the pandemic forced the cancellation of the event, which was scheduled in April of 2020. Much of the materials were already produced, including the logo, invitation, backdrop and nearly all of the signage.

Power Records Presents…

May 11, 2020September 5, 2020pcharbonneau 1 Comment

I shed a serious but thankfully mild case of the Coronavirus in early April and as my physical energy returned, so too did my creative energy. But where to channel it?

I decided to re-create an homage to one of my favorite book-and-record stories from my youth.

As we all practice physical distancing – in my case it was nearly 28 days of total isolation – we seemed to embrace or re-embrace ‘comfortable’ forms of media and mediums. Maybe it’s a simple psychological reaction to our new uncertain realities. One of my comfortable mediums are the old Power Records adventures from the 1970s. My brother and I spent hours listening and listening again to stories of Spider-Man, Captain America and the Falcon, Werewolves, Dracula and Frankenstein’s monster, reading along with the comic panels while the record scratched and popped with the… erm…finest Power Records voice talent money could buy.

One of my favorite stories was Spider-Man and the Invasion of the Dragon Men. It had Spider-Man wisecracks, dragon men from space and their leader, Draco, who somehow picked up a distinct New York accent during his travels across the cosmos (Peter Pan/Power Records was based out of New Jersey). I knew I could have fun with it.

It allowed me to dip my hands again in Adobe Audition and Premiere where I could set up slates and titles and layer my audio in with sound effects I downloaded from the BBC Sound Effects archive (it’s seriously incredible). My plan was to do all the voices, but I ended up recruiting my talented cousin Abby on the female characters. My best friend Jon provided some musical cues and after about a week of editing, it was done!

Tune In Next Time

When I posted the finished video to YouTube and linked it to my social accounts, a very lovely thing happened. A few friends expressed interest in wanting to contribute if I planned to do more stories. After some coordination, six of us – myself, Jon, Abby and three other friends – did a virtual table read over Zoom to kick off the start of two more book-and-record adventures! It was more fun than I hoped it would be and I’m now even more excited to continue this little project and follow where it leads.

Need Even More Power?

Medium ran a story about the history of Power Records, with a bit of a hip-hop bent. They were apparently a fertile ground for sampling. Who knew?
There’s also an older blog that seems like an exhaustive repository of everything Power Records if you are looking for a rabbit hole to explore.
Of course, many of the old Power Records stories are available to watch/listen on YouTube, uploaded by fans.

Record Store Day 2019

April 20, 2019pcharbonneau 1 Comment

RSD2019 After providing the Record Store Day poster design last year for local landmark Bananas Records, I was fortunate enough to be asked to work on the 2019 version. Sometimes it helps to be in the know with those in the know.

RSD20192 I was given a lot of leeway in terms of direction again this year. Since Bananas doesn’t really have a budget for these things, it’s essentially a pro bono gig. I’m big believer that designers should be compensated for their design. I’m also a big believer in the relationships you form with people and being in position to help out in ways that don’t always result monetary transactions. Let’s just say my vinyl copies of Depeche Mode’s Black Celebration and Simple Minds’ Sister Feelings Call have left me properly compensated. I look at it as a chance to flex my creative brain on projects outside of my job at the hospital. I’ve worked hard in recent years to build relationships that afford me the privilege to work on fun side projects like this.

There are a lot of great designs of past RSD posters and since it’s an international event, that allowed for a treasure trove of ideas to inspire what became the finished design. I liked combining the idea of the vinyl record and its grooves with the orbits of our solar system’s planets. It helped that the lineup at the store consisted of eight acts and a food truck (sorry Pluto, at least you were represented).

RSD20194 As with any design exploration, a lot of the fun is coming up with various concepts and then leaving it up to the client to decide which they like best because they always choose your favorite. Excuse me while I turn off my sarcasm alarm. I was really happy with my exploration on this one though and although my personal favorite is the minimalist design utilizing the banana silhouette as the arm of the record player, I was still happy with what Bananas chose.

Peter Charbonneau Design

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