Word Leftovers: Joshua (Blue Note)

One thing I've tried to do through my Word project is to train myself to re-imagine Bible stories as I read them. What if David and Goliath was a boxing match in the 1930s? What if Song of Solomon was a romance novel? What if Meshach did a hand plant in the fiery furnace? This time I wondered, what if the story of Joshua and the walls of Jericho was a Blue Note album from the 1950s?

Kicking it Old (Testament) School

Yeah, I thought I was done with the Old Testament too, but there are still a few concepts like this one that just won't let me go until I create them. This includes the possibility of a talking donkey making an appearance down the road.

This design is a square, not a rectangle. For the next one could you make a three dimensional rhombus?

Yeah, not only did I make a Bakulaic-like quantum leap back in the Bible, but I also made this design a different dimension than my other ones. The reason is that I based it on the Blue Note album covers from the 1950s, all of which are square. For those of you who may not know, Blue Note is a record company mainly known for releasing jazz albums. In the 50s and 60s they helped launch the careers of jazz greats like Thelonious Monk, Kenny Burrell and Miles Davis. Their album covers—many created by designer Reid Miles—were as cool and unique as the music found inside them.

The photo I used is of the late great Miles Davis and was taken by William P. Gottlieb. When Gottlieb died in 2006, all his images were put into the public domain.

And no, I won't be doing any rhombuses. (Or is it rhombi?)

Are you gonna get your John on next week?

As I've been working through the gospels, there has been one event that has been calling to my design brain more than any other... Jesus' death and resurrection. With Easter approaching (and Ash Wednesday coming up this week) I figured I'd do a set of designs based on those events. So over the next seven weeks that is what we'll be Wording on.