Maria McCloy: Design of the Week
`It’s like going to the Zoo Lake, taking a shit photo and slapping it on.” This is how designer Nicholas Hauser describes the way in which music posters and covers are usually put together.
He sure as hell is having none of that, judging by his work for some of today’s hottest local artists. And for his poster advertising the D’Gong group Trompies’ remix album Trap and Los, he gets our Design Of The Week award. His knowledge of D’Gong and kwaito influences his designs. For example, he uses a lot of blurring effects in the Trompies poster because “D’Gong is a blend of South Sotho, Xhosa, Afrikaans and English.
“The rhythms are fairly similar, so you have to turn to the lyrics. The main strength is the words. They make it unique.” He adds: “I’m trying to mix visual metaphors.” The Trompies poster is plastered all over town.
It features text from Trompies songs in the background, with pictures of Trompies taken by Lianne Cox on the top half of the poster. Hauser has a fine-arts background and is trying to get away from the “sausage factory mentality. People are only now learning the value of good design and packaging.”