Akai MPC60 'Midi Production Center.' After the closing of Linn Electronics, Roger Linn developed this highly-regarded drum machine/sequencer for Akai. From the art director's website: https://www.ericwrobbel.com/art/akai.htm

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Akai ads—one size does NOT fit all

After the closing of Linn Electronics, Roger Linn developed this highly-regarded drum machine/sequencer for Akai. I was greatly pleased when Roger requested of the Akai people that I be brought in to prepare the product’s first ad, especially after the strain of our last meeting, the day I resigned the Linn Electronics account. The ad features my typical big big product shot. The vertical stripe layout worked alright, but it would have worked much better had a second product not been added to the ad at the behest of the Akai Professional people in Texas. But that is nothing, nothing compared to what happened subsequently, as you will see below. Having “bought”  a professional graphic design from a “big shot LA designer” (who, me?), the Texas people proceeded to milk the layout for subsequent products– hacking, hammering, bending, and beating it into submission every which way.


What: Copy assistance, design, production art.

For: “A Midi Production Studio in a Box” full page color magazine ad

Client: Akai Professional

When: 1987






Is this ad layout supposed to be a joke? Having paid once for a professional ad layout for their Akai MPC60, the Akai Professional people in Texas proceeded to milk that layout for subsequent products--hacking, hammering, bending, and beating it into submission every which way. The result was a weird, exceedingly ugly group of ads, one of which is shown here for your amusement. No joke, but it sure looks like one! Akai X7000/S700 digital sampler, 1988: https://www.ericwrobbel.com/art/akai.htm Having paid once for a professional ad layout for their Akai MPC60 by Roger Linn, the Akai Professional people in Texas proceeded to milk the layout for subsequent products--hacking, hammering, bending, and beating it into submission every which way. The result was a weird, ugly group of ads, one of which is shown here for your amusement. The ad 'Automate...Eliminate' is for a laxative? No. The Akai Digital Matrix Patch Bay System PG1000 DP3200 from 1989 https://www.ericwrobbel.com/art/akai.htm

The result of their hammering and hacking was a weird and exceedingly ugly group of ads that I collected for my own amusement. I include two of them here for yours. Please remember that, beyond having my original layout “borrowed,” I had nothing to do with bringing this ugliness into the world.

Oh, and that headline! Automate! Eliminate! —Sounds like some sort of robotic laxative! The ad with that brilliant headline was for the Akai Digital Matrix Patch Bay System PG1000 DP3200 and appeared in 1989. The other ad, for the Akai X7000/S700 digital sampler appeared in 1988.




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