Inspiration: Jamiroquai

Thanks to Paulo's post, it jogged my memory about what exactly inspires me to design. Being an enormous Michael Jackson fan myself, I've used his influence in pop culture in a lot of my work, particularly in my Art GCSE (which I got a well deserved A in), and also my smooth dance moves (see ). But over the past year or so, it's been another artist and his band that have encompassed my work's inspiration and one of their songs even gave me my tag. Jamiroquai.

Like the creation of Epoch, Jamiroquai got together after the lead singer, Jay Kay, wasn't picked for lead singer of another band, some may know as the Brand New Heavies. With the rejection came a "if you can't join them, beat them" philosophy and so he started his own band and the rest is history.

Jamiroquai, and Jay Kay himself, can be recognised by a number of different things. Firstly, when the name of the band is mentioned, the first thing that may spring to some peoples' minds is Buffalo Man, the band's mascot. Drawn by Jay Kay himself, he has appeared on all but two album cover (A Funk Odyssey and Dynamite), and was the sole image on their first album, Emergency On Planet Earth.

If you don't think of Buffalo Man when you hear the word Jamiroquai or the name Jay Kay, then you might have thought about Jay Kay's array of hats. I myself have taken upon his custom to wear hats wherever he goes, although I don't have anywhere near the same number he possess, nor to I have any of the styles. At first, Jay Kay's mother had been known to make his hats, but more recently Jay has been designing them himself and has used a number of different people to make them for him.

Or perhaps it's their videos, and there's one Jamiroquai video everyone remembers, and that of course is Virtual Insanity.

Or maybe Space Cowboy.

But if none of those remind you of Jamiroquai, there's only one thing left: the album covers. The source of many designers inspiration, album covers truly capture the feel of the music inside the circular pieces of plastic, or vinyl, depending on the conissieur. Here are a few.

Anyone who has seen or follows my deviantART will have noticed quite a few of my pieces are named after Jamiroquai songs, and my tag, Starchild, is named after a track from their Dynamite album. For me, they are my all time favourite band, and a great inspiration in graphic design.

Jamiroquai related sites:

• http://www.jamiroquai.co.uk/

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamiroquai

• http://funkin.com/

• http://www.jamiroquaimusic.com/

• http://www.recordstore.co.uk/jamiroquai/

• http://www.myspace.com/jamiroquai