It's hard to describe Flight of the Conchords since they have pretty much invented a musical genre. At the very least they have carved out a niche best described as 'comedy-folk music' (think Tenacious D with a more acoustic sound). Their songs tell bizarre and funny stories and they perform them around the world. I came across one of their gig posters, as a visual statement it sums Flight of the Conchords up nicely. I particularly like the unusual choice of colours and the simplified line art style. This is just one of many impressive illustrations from the portfollio of tyler stout, it is also an excuse for me to post a clip of a conchord show below- enjoy!
The Small Stakes is a small design studio. It mainly produces gig posters and promotional material for various bands. A couple of their posters really caught my eye purely because of the 'restrained' design.(Assuming that anyone reading this is also studying graphics)Like me you may find that the most difficult part of creating a design is deciding what doesn't need to be there. I think it takes a certain amount of confidence in your own skills to keep a design really simple. Partly because you fear that a 'simple' design might not reflect all the effort you put into designing it.The people at Small Stakes are obviously not lacking in confidence since most of there work is simplified to the max. I have to admit not all of it appeals to my tastes. I think some of their stuff is a bit too arty- almost pretentious. However the examples above are visually striking. The subtle design successfully generates intrigue which suggests, that at least sometimes simple is best.
