Let's get this over with.

Everyone knows, the first post of a blog is that strange self-loving "I'VE STARTED A BLOG" thing and aside from a few ideas for the future it contains very little of anything interesting.

Well this is where that changes!

Firstly, click that little play button and we'll begin.
This is the blog for my (Vincent Walden) dissertation research and this will be the first entry of many. You may notice; that if you followed my instructions you likely be listening to some pretty swell jazz right now – because that's exactly what I'm doing whilst writing this.

For my dissertation I want to focus upon the graphic design and modernity of 1950's jazz records, to see if their styles and ways help influence modern day design, or whether in fact it's the opposite and they merely created a cliché for 'cool jazz' records.

I wanted to do this because I have recently become a record collector, and through that I started collecting Jazz – noticing that the design on some of these record sleeves not only said no to the norm in the mid 20th century but also stuck a huge 'design middle finger' out at the rest of the record in the rack. This to me was exciting, drowning out the likes of Bon Jovi with strong photography mixed with obscure layouts.

I had began to notice that for some records their typography was great and very much unique; especially when I cross referenced it with modern typography. So the idea to cross reference with modern day to see if these records made an impact or whether they made a cliché of themselves sounded like a brilliant idea to me—even if my tutor did help me realise this, more than I had myself.

I will for example be looking at the likes of Blue Note Records, and examining the wonders that their sleeves hold. I will also be looking at more modern design, to hopefully see if the design held upon these records helped shape the design I know today.