IDM: The Sounds of The UK

Art Direction, Graphic Design, Packaging Design

This project is a fictional deluxe box set designed at Luca School of Arts, Ghent for the assignment of promoting a music genre during the 2nd year graphic design studio. I selected the IDM music genre because of its experimential feel which provided many associations for the concept.

Netta Szabo Logo DesignNetta Szabo Logo Design

IDM

Nobody ever wanted to call it IDM. Braindance, electronica, bleep techno – anything was better than the US-centric (and still awkwardly disparaging) ‘intelligent dance music'.

The genre started in the 90s as a reaction to Europe’s goggle-eyed rave culture, IDM was ultimately driven by the development and proliferation of cheap (often free) music production softwares.

 

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Sound

The music has a very electronic, inorganic sound, regularly combined with very irregular, sometimes frantic, rhythmic elements. A lot of the music was composed using synthesizers, and probably even more was done using laptops.

Popular tools for this were the various modular software synthesizers and applications such as Ableton Live, what requires the use of layers and a very scientific approach.

Netta Szabo IDM The Sound of The UK Brand Design BlueprintNetta Szabo IDM The Sound of The UK Brand Design Blueprint

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