₊˚⊹Hi again!
I’m back with more reflections and graphic design to chat and gush about!
Last weekend, my boyfriend and I went on a walk around town that’s close by where he lives. We went into some shops, got a croissant at the bakery and walked in the park. It was so hot outside and I had sweat dripping down my back. Gross <3 But I had such a wonderful time. I love small towns full of small businesses, beautiful scenery and good food.
At the park, I took a picture of a squirrel eating some nuts on a picnic table with my film camera. I cannot wait to get the picture once I get the roll developed. Here is a photo I took on my phone for the time being.
One of the stores we went to was an antique store. I’ve been to this store before and got some older “TIME” magazines from there.
I was searching for some inspiration of course and hit the jackpot. 8 track cartridges! When I say I hit the jackpot, I just mean I took some photos. I didn’t buy anything.
While I was looking through them, I didn’t really know what they were at first… These are not of my time, obviously. But I do remember the website 8tracks.com during 2014 Tumblr era days. I used that website maybe like once or twice. That was the first thing I thought of when I figured out I was looking through a briefcase of 8track cartridges.
Here are the designs that I loved when looking through!
₊˚⊹8 track graphic design
These 3 cartridges show some similarities. A bright colored rectangular square with a squared in design, illustration or image.
The “Best of The Beach Boys” has as design with display text, a collage of the band members, and a list of the songs separated by color to differentiate the titles. AT first, it feels like the bright yellow-green background is an odd pop of color but adding it into a color palette side by side, it looks good! I realize that it brings attention to the main squared in design.
The Elvis’ Award Hits design features an illustration with repeating records. I love the font (or typeface if you’re annoying) for ELVIS, set in the black textbox. It’s a retro electronic display font made up of dots. This font from Fontshare is a great option if you want to achieve this kind of look to one of your projects!
And then we have James Taylor Walk Man with a black & white photo of him accompanied by a solid mauve pink background. Under the image, is a simple layout of text with information like his name and about Warner Brothers. The graininess of the black & white is a classic.
Now, I got one more cartridge design that I loved that didn’t fit with the other three. Which is this one from Johnny Cash.
I absolutely love this one! It’s so simple. The aging and what seems to be water damage of the paper, resulting the texture, adds so much to the design even if it wasn’t on purpose.
If you were to write this text into Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop onto a plain artboard it looks so bland, but once you add it to the cartridge, everything about it is immediately elevated! Sometimes something simple like this, is really all you need.
I can’t wait to go back to more antique stores and look for these briefcases full of 8 track tapes!
₊˚⊹Some online things about 8 tracks:
I know I said this newsletter was about design inspiration outside of the internet but sometimes you can’t avoid it! I wanted to learn and find more.
These 8 track cartridge designs truly peaked my interest. I had to do some searching on Pinterest to find more inspiration. And of course I made a board with the ones I liked!
I also found this website for a store that’s based in California, the 8 track tape store. They have a catalog of 8 track tapes you can choose from and order online! You can choose a mystery bundle of 10 classic rock tapes or 10 country western and more. Fun!
₊˚⊹Dancing Type
I was inspired to make my own playlist of “8 tracks“. It doesn’t have to stick to only 8 songs but that’s what I did anyway to keep it simple.
But keeping it simple was quite difficult to do… I’m incredibly indecisive. But most of these songs, I feel pretty strongly about. What would your 8 tracks playlist look like?
₊˚⊹My Birthday is Next Weekend!
To completely change the subject. My birthday is next weekend! And if you didn't know, I sell posters, stickers and other goodies of my own designs. Starting August 3rd (my birthday), I will have a 25% off sale! No code needed :) Woohoo!
That’s all for now! Stay tuned for the next newsletter. Let me know what you think. I am still figuring this thing out so feedback is appreciated <3
I plan to keep this newsletter free, but if you want to support my writing journey, the best way is buying me a coffeeજ⁀➴