the Spark | illustration and design

spark felidae фелида музыкальный Album minotaurs city cardboard fire flame Iskra

A series of illustrations for a musical concept album in the style of rebel rock. The concept behind these arts is «from darkness to light» and «from gray to color».

Main idea

Felidae (lat.) «cat family» is music band which plays "art-rock". Important attribute of each musician is a cat mask with individual design.

Felidae's songs tell us about personal emotional experience and problems of mutual understanding in modern society. They wanted to reveal these topics in more detail and that's why new album suppose to be a whole story. Something more theatrize and most personal then usual set of music tracks.

That's how «the Spark» idea was born.

the 'Spark'

'Spark' is a social dystopia and kind of fairytale at the same time. This story takes place in the «Cardboard City», where people cannot kindle fire, where any deviation from the usual order is strictly prohibited. The city is ruled by terrifying monsters – the «Minotaurs», and all of the citizens are allegorically blind, deaf and mute.

«That story about the Spark that flashed in the gray city. Its appearance is dangerous for brittle, flammable paper walls, but so essential for city’s inhabitants. Spark is a symbol of hope, love, faith, passion for something really true contrary to the gray days, conventions, selfishness and narrow-minded way of life».

All ten tracks of the new album are connected by the same plot and have a lot of meaningful references to such works as «Fahrenheit 451», «V for Vendetta», «We», «The Bull's Hour» and the others.

Artwork

The main task of the artists was to visualize the songs 'from darkness to light'. Pictures gradually become more colorful and brighter, the characters' images are drawn more clearly on the moiddle and become abstract in the end.

Images in these illustrations are filled with allegories too. For example, 'bandaged faces' symbolises a fear of opening up to the world and being rejected. 'Minotaurs' are an image of soulless bureaucratic machinery. The 'destroyed tower' is denial of violence and struggle. 'Chinese lantern' in Cardboard City is a symbol of hope. And the 'blue butterfly' in the end means peace.