"Global Village Coffeehouse" aesthetics: C/D?

I linked to it on the VW thread, but for the sake of this thread, here is where the Global Village Coffeehouse aesthetic is laid out:
https://www.are.na/blog/the-global-village-coffeehouse-aesthetic

Also, from the same site, a glorious gallery of examples:
https://www.are.na/evan-collins-1522646491/global-village-coffeehouse

― jaymc, Monday, March 11, 2019 7:56 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

seems to me that global village coffeehouse aesthetic is very much not what this vampire weekend cover is going for

as in no hand drawing, too minimal, not very natural or earthy looking, no wavy lines, etc.

Yeah, there's something different going on there for sure.

The thing about the cover I'm thinking of re Vampire Weekend, is that I don't actually know the group very well. However, I'm familiar with the cover because someone on ilx mentioned it, like "remember when _______ came out with that weird album cover? What a mistake!" or something.

Font is wrong, but...

http://img.clipartlook.com/http-www-teacherfiles-com-clipart-earth-day-earth-day-25-jpg-earth-day-clip-art-250_250.jpg

maybe the VW cover looks familiar bc... it is a blue and white earth on a white background and this image has been everywhere for a long time. sorry i am being kind of a dick

also deep forest these guys were on this trip for sure

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Forest_(Deep_Forest_album)#/media/File:DeepForestDeepForest.jpg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f0/DeepForestDeepForest.jpg

the little logo seems congruent, not sure about the rest of it

this was their whole vibe!

Deep Forest is the first studio album by the musical group Deep Forest, consisting of French duo Eric Mouquet and Michel Sanchez. The album mixes New Age electronics with UNESCO field recordings of music from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Solomon Islands, Burundi, Tibesti, and the Sahel. Deep Forest was nominated for the Grammy Award as Best World Music Album in 1994. For Sanchez and Mouquet, the most important purpose of the album was to express their own fascination with the Efe people, and open the world's ears to the exquisite sound of a quickly vanishing culture. As Mouquet noted, "It's not very often you can hear a Pygmy singing on the radio."

Yeah I think some of these are getting pretty far afield from what's essentially a clipart globe w/words wrapping around it (tho I agree it's prob. gesturing toward the era in question)

The white album cover thing is definitely of the time though

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/98/Seal-Seal%281994%29.jpg

http://jamiroquai.com/upload/jam_new/albums/album-cover-1.jpg

xp. ok yah very on brand.

strikes me that the java logo is a bit this

The white album cover thing is definitely of the time though

It's a shame The Beatles never thought of it.

seems to me that global village coffeehouse aesthetic is very much not what this vampire weekend cover is going for

― ( ͡☉ ͜ʖ ͡☉) (jim in vancouver), Tuesday, March 12, 2019 11:22 AM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I agree. Someone mentioned Global Village Coffeehouse in a Hipinion thread about the Vampire Weekend album, but I don't think it was in reference to the cover, more just the general ~vibe~ that the band seems to be currently interested in.

The discussion of GVC in the Vampire Weekend FOTB thread was prompted by this Jordan S. post:

idk the visual aesthetic they're referencing in this stuff is pretty obvious to me... i guess ezra & i are roughly the same age and prob grew up around a lot of the same ppl (upper middle class suburban jews) but ironic riffing on the iconography of boomer hippies-turned-settled down adults and their kids (life is good brand clothes, tevas, fonts on the first wave of organic products, environmentalism, jam bands etc) is pretty in the sweet spot of the kind of social milieu this band has always occupied itself with

I was hoping this thread would be more about GVC and less about the VW cover!

Yeah. This whole aesthetics captured a certain middle aged contentment, still clinging to a vaguely progressive mindset. So boomers in their 50s basically.

From the gallery:

https://d2w9rnfcy7mm78.cloudfront.net/2365279/large_139ea3eea71eb5497d36ec66fb814677.jpg?1530161891

lol

I'm very into that gallery

i don’t know, who cares? design looks this way because this is what design looks like in 2019, we don’t always need to ascribe moral qualities to aesthetics

― marcos, Monday, March 11, 2019 11:50 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is so motherfucking otm i can't even

I think it’s just the 20 year nostalgia cycle we’ve been experiencing since, like, 1973

i was just thinking about how it was weird at woodstock they had sha na na play dress up 50s rock when many of the original rock n rollers were still doing great work at that time and killing it live

That's an interesting point, there aren't even any on this list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodstock#Declined_invitations_or_missed_connections

Looks like Chuck Berry (for example) was actively playing festivals that year: He also played at large events in North America, such as the Schaefer Music Festival, in New York City's Central Park in July 1969, and the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival festival in October. (per Wikipedia)

I tried Googling the question, and the best I could find was a web page containing this info:

Elvis himself had no interest in hippies. He was a part of a previous generation and viewed hippies as a threat to society.

i think design trends are interesting, idk

xp

You should follow this blog (serious, not snarky, suggestion): https://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/

i didn't realize 'global village coffeehouse' was actually a term used outside of this thread

https://www.are.na/evan-collins-1522646491/global-village-coffeehouse

anyway this was the first thing that came to mind

http://https%3A//www.nonesuch.com/sites/g/files/g2000005811/f/styles/album_detail__545___545_/public/201709/Le%20Mystere%20Des%20Voix%20Bulgares_1%20black.jpg

meh

http://https%3A//www.nonesuch.com/sites/g/files/g2000005811/f/styles/album_detail__545___545_/public/201709/Le%20Mystere%20Des%20Voix%20Bulgares_1%20black.jpg%3Fitok%3D1aR49Iru

mother fucker just look here: https://www.nonesuch.com/sites/g/files/g2000005811/f/styles/album_detail__545___545_/public/201709/Le%20Mystere%20Des%20Voix%20Bulgares_1%20black.jpg?itok=1aR49Iru

i think design trends are interesting, idk

― Trϵϵship, Tuesday, March 12, 2019 5:47 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i agree! but finding design trends interesting doesn't require us to imbue them with moral value. brands widely shifting to sans-serif typefaces in their logos in 2019 does not warrant moral outrage imo

I think outrage overstates my position. I love minimalism but don’t like how it’s becoming de rigeur.

xpost ah, I thought about that "les voix bulgares" cover too !

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Division_Bell#/media/File:Pink_Floyd_-_Division_Bell.jpg

urgh
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5182VSyGE6L._SL500_AA300_.jpg

pink floyd design rules!

Really like this thread! The first thing that came to mind was the second Soul II Soul album:

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61ISrAr0oUL.jpg

I guess someone mentioned Putumayo comps upthread already, but those are the first things that come to mind. They seemed to be in every bookstore and coffeehouse in the 90s. Were any of them ever any good? I remember listening to a few and not thinking much of them.

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3427711619_10.jpg

VW cover feels kinda like a shit ver of this to me

https://e.snmc.io/i/600/w/f59054970a2db9b20278fe89c7617fb4/1931175

This Canadian celtic-tinged college folk-rock thing:

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51huzAlcbRL._SX425_.jpg

Nice! Got some globes in various positions, a terrible font, elongated torsos, equitable gender representation...

The print edition of the New Yorker 3/11 (lol) is plastered with this aesthetic

Vw and the ny’er being synced up seems about right ...

xp - when you think about it we all live in this house called planet earth

There's a Facebook group simply titled "Global Village Coffeehouse" that has loads of examples, for fans of the style. It's not quite the same but the "Shiny Happy People" video reminds me of this aesthetic--maybe the similar vibe of "earthy multicultural positivity".

Not the same vibe, but speaking of that era's design, also worth a look is the "Factory Pomo" group, which compiles this style:

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GNeiWPpVzEc/WAQwxqEMzYI/AAAAAAAAEcs/ekVCMisKDzg8MS8VAAt_7fNJ_3nmvDMcACLcB/s1600/front..jpg

Thank you, blatherskite! I'm pretty sure that the album cover I'm thinking of would fit more comfortably into the Factory Pomo genre. I joined the group and there are definitely a lot of earth/nature symbols in there too, but in a markedly different style than the Global Village Coffeehouse stuff.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51EVX1G902L.jpg

London, Ontario's own!

The one I was thinking of was

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00000IPKN.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

which wasn't as similar as I thought.

not global village coffeehouse or factory pomo really.

Saw a good example of GVC at my mom's house the other day. It was basically a flat metal sculptural form of the woman in this print. My mom said she bought it in Sedona lol.

https://d2w9rnfcy7mm78.cloudfront.net/3980706/original_04f9ea5e120ee6e319a4e217b2cd0b8a.png