Queensrÿche — Q2K
The Art Corner was a series of articles by graphic artist Mattias Norén, who was part of the DPRP team and designed the layout we had at the time. In this series, Mattias reviewed the artwork of albums. The series started in January 1999 and ran for about 18 months.
The original introduction of the series is included below and will tell you what it was all about. This category no longer runs, so information about submitting an album for review has been removed, but we're keeping the archived articles as a separate series in the Features category.
Check out Mattias Norén's company website: ProgArt!
Dear visitor of The Art Corner!
Some people say that it's just the inside that counts, but I'm actually one of those men that cares much about the outside as well! :-)
The Art Corner only concentrates on the outside. What I think about the inside, the music, I'll keep for myself in this case.
Each album has been given 1 to 5 points in seven different categories.
- Design / Composition: Is the idea and layout good?
- Technical skill: Is the artist good at what he is doing?
- Connection to the music: Is the artwork inspired by the music, album title and the lyrics? Does it feel good to look at the cover at the same time you listening to the music?
- Logotype: How good is the design of the logotype?
- Typography: How good is the typography? (cover and backcover)
- Booklet: How good is the typography, artwork, layout and paper quality?
- Disc: How good is the typography, artwork, layout on the disc?
Mattias Norén
Queensrÿche — Q2K (Atlantic - 83225-2, 1999)
Design
Cover artwork and concept by Rory Berger
Inside artwork by Garrett Barati
Band photography by Hans Martin Issler
Scores
| category | score |
|---|---|
| Design and composition | |
| Technical skill | |
| Connection to the music | |
| Logotype | |
| Typography | |
| Booklet | |
| Disc |
Score: 3.2
Comments
We have got used to see Hugh Syme designs on Queensr˙che's albums, but responsible for Q2k is a new name for me: Rory Berger. The cover is a real nice piece. I could be wrong, but I suspect most of it is 3D rendered, while it doesn't look as plastic as most 3D images do.
Unfortunately the rest of the artwork can't keep up with the cover. The booklet is one of those terrible fold-outs, and it's very boring. The band photo is also manipulated in some 3D program, but this time we can see this boring plastic style much more obvious than in the cover.
The cover can keep up with Hugh Syme's work, but the booklet looks really cheap. You could expect more from a well known band like Queensrÿche.
