Delete Forever
A conversation about addiction, grief and loss with Grimes.
Objective
To create an editorial spread showcasing Grimes, not only as an artist but someone with experience and that has perspective on the topic of grief, loss and addiction.
Inspiration
This was heavily inspired by the art and music of grimes, my personal life experience having lost many friends to addiction by either death or no longer having them in my life due to their addictions. I was also very inspired by Grime's song "Delete Forever" which is a song about a close friend passing away from an overdose. Having friends pass away is always jarring, but I think there's a particular hurt that comes from being young, and watching other people you love that are close to your age change entirely or pass away very suddenly. Addiction is a subject I think we don't talk about enough as well, there's a lot of stigma around it, but the truth is we all have known or loved an addict. Living in Montreal and watching the opioid crisis destroy the lives of so many was also a very big inspiration. Grimes as an artist is also a big inspiration for all of my work.
Design Elements
The hand drawn elements were made by me in Procreate. The photo is from a photoshoot taken by Photographer Michael Avedon. The spread was created in Adobe InDesign in CMYK and ready for print with printers marks. The Mockup is from Mockuptree. I tweaked the lighting and added a glitter overlay over the table and changed the color in Photoshop.
Process and Methodology
My process is always starting with wanting to make a specific type of design, and I knew I wanted to make an editorial spread. I spent a lot of time looking at and saving editorial spreads that I found online. I also have a stack of fashion magazines at home that I use for reference and inspiration. I also knew I wanted to make it about Grimes and I listened to her music and watched some interviews to decide the subject of the interview.
From here I played around in Procreate and InDesign taking inspiration from the photos I had saved and played around with the design.
Once I had received feedback and re-evaluated my design I made my final copy and got it plugged into the mockup. Even when using pre-made mockups, I always like to change them a bit to add a personal touch that matches the design itself.
From here I played around in Procreate and InDesign taking inspiration from the photos I had saved and played around with the design.
Once I had received feedback and re-evaluated my design I made my final copy and got it plugged into the mockup. Even when using pre-made mockups, I always like to change them a bit to add a personal touch that matches the design itself.
Procreate Process Video
Challenges and Solutions
The first challenge was finding a way to create a spread that was not just focused on Grimes as an artist and have it be more like an authentic editorial, having the subject matter be more about an issue or opinion than promoting a product.
Like I mentioned earlier, listening to music and interviews with Grimes helped me pick the subject.
The second challenge is always deciding how I'm going to lay out a piece. I do a mix of looking at references for industry standard formatting and finding a balance with my own tinkering, trial and error.
Thirdly, I shared my first draft of the editorial because I could tell something was off. I shared it in a Grimes fan group on Facebook asking for feedback and had another Graphic Designer reach out to me in the comments with text alignment and font feedback.
Having the input of other designers and from the general public is always really important and her advice and changes made it into my final product.
Like I mentioned earlier, listening to music and interviews with Grimes helped me pick the subject.
The second challenge is always deciding how I'm going to lay out a piece. I do a mix of looking at references for industry standard formatting and finding a balance with my own tinkering, trial and error.
Thirdly, I shared my first draft of the editorial because I could tell something was off. I shared it in a Grimes fan group on Facebook asking for feedback and had another Graphic Designer reach out to me in the comments with text alignment and font feedback.
Having the input of other designers and from the general public is always really important and her advice and changes made it into my final product.
Thank you for taking the time to view my project 💚✨
