Best of 2015

Album Covers
Bjork "Vulnicura" ;; Father John Misty "I Love You Honeybear" ;; Future "DS2"

Book Covers
"One Day in the Life of the English Language: A Microcosmic Usage Handbook" by Frank L. Cioffi ;; "Drinking in America: Our Secret History" by Susan Cheever ;; "The Musical Brain: And Other Stories" by César Aira

Movie Posters
"It Follows" ;; "The Revenant" ;; "The Witch"

First impressions are incredibly important when it comes to visual design, but with the sheer amount of consumable media that is released each year, it can be hard to remember your favorites from month to month.

With the album covers, I chose three examples that captured and held my attention. Bjork always has tremendously compelling album covers, and her frequent collaborators M/M and Inez and Vinoodh. I love the arresting image and the super interesting color palette.

What I like best about these three book covers in particular is their unique takes on cover design. Ranging from more traditional to experimental, each cover has excellent composition, typography, and overall design. I especially love "The Musical Brain" cover, and it's use of simple, but classic typography and illustration.

To be honest, as of writing this blog post, I have not seen any of the three movies I chose to feature the poster for. Each poster represents a different approach to poster design. "It Follows" goes retro and alludes to it's old-school horror roots with illustration and expressive typography. "The Revenant" is the most contemporary and 2015-looking of the bunch - with it's dynamic composition, restrained typography, and nearly monotoned palette. "The Witch" is probably the most 'conventional' in it's overall aesthetic, but I really enjoy the choices made from top to bottom. It's mysterious, dark, intriguing, and best of all, leaves me interested in the film itself.