Project 4: Experimental Design WIP

Objective:

Use music to create an emotional, engaged and stimulated response for design vehicles that will support an artist and album of your choice.

A LP record jacket, vinyl, sleeve, and disk label.

- Design with non-pictorial narratives in the abstract.

- Visually represent a particular style that looks and feels like music.

- Control the abstract with grids and elements of structure.

- Image manipulation & color correction.

- Identify the differences in designing online products vs designing for print.

- Prepare files for print and web materials.

- Conform to project specifications/design requirements.

- Have a complete and thorough knowledge of working with pixel based tools.

- Develop a skilled eye for image and type composition.

The first mind map I made was for the band INXS.

INXS mood board... they have a specific color scheme on their logo and most of their albums for the color red. They also use a star in their logo and singer Michael Hutchence wore star pants at performances.

The second band I chose was Collective Soul.

I decided to chose the band's grunge period to focus on, since that is when their most popular songs were put out.

Crowded House mind map.

I chose to go with a theme of actual houses for Crowded House... after doing a Pinterest search that brought up unrelated house pins, I was inspired by the wooden and cardboard building sculptures. They also have a very bright, primary color scheme that I would like to keep.

U2 mind map.

I decided on the early/ punk period for U2. It is probably the least popular period, so creating a new look for an early album would not completely destroy the association with classic album artwork. It is also a very interesting time and place to me, at the end of the violence during the time of the Irish Troubles.

The last artist to decide between: Jeff Buckley.

Jeff Buckley really does not have much existing artwork (from only making about 1 1/2 albums) so I had to decide for myself based on just the music. I went for a Rococo/ modern faux luxury aesthetic, tying in song titles such as "Lilac Wine" and "Jewel Box" for the lavish look, with a bit of a religious flair for songs "Hallelujah", "Grace", and "Eternal Life".

I decided on U2! Redoing their "Boy" album, which has a non-recognizable cover for casual fans, would be perfect. This album is under appreciated, and the themes mentioned in songs such as teen years and violence make for a great theme.

Here is the link to my Pinterest boards for the rest of my images.

With these marks, I mostly focused on rubbings of surfaces that were a little grungy, beat up, corroded, or rough to try and establish a dirty, careless, punk-like feel. I was drawn to the uneven marks such as the ink pad and the watercolor with impressed lines that created a brick-like pattern. All of the watercolor marks were very organic but the haziness/ smokiness that they create is also part of the mood I am going for.

With this thumbnail idea, (bottom row turned sideways) I began with the idea of a simple brick wall featuring graffiti, the most prominent words being "U2" and "Boy", the album title. The back and sleeve front and backs would be sections of all different types of wall textures, one section for each different set of lyrics. The album label would feature a swirl of color with Claddagh ring hands clasping the hole in the center. The open inside would feature silhouettes of the young band members filled in with black and white photos, colors in the background.

For this idea, I developed the idea of the design of the car smoke and fire from my first mood board. I would have more of that design on the front cover, smoke on the back, and the same continued onto the label. The lined from the pattern would run behind the same silhouettes from the first one on the inside of the cover. I played with the idea of a guitar neck on one half of the sleeve and the body on the rest.

I really developed the idea of featuring a "punk" person for this one. I was inspired by the images of boots on my inspiration boards and decided that as the album opens up, more parts are revealed. The best part of this idea was a mouth around the center of the label so that when the album is playing, the center post will look like a cigarette.

I used the boot inspiration again with this one, emphasizing the different sides and aspects of the boot this time, The back side of the sleeve would simply be footprints from the boots. The label would be simple stripes of color since the rest would be black and white, and the inside covers would be the silhouettes again but with those same color stripes behind them.

For this thumbnail, I kept the Claddagh label, substituted a desolate and grungy black and white alley image for the inside of the covers, and a photo flat lay of objects representing the themes and song tiles for the front and back covers. Sleeve would feature a brick wall background with concert announcement posters to feature the lyrics.

This is my rough for a layout for each of the pieces. I combined a few ideas, using the photo flat lay for the covers. I used the poster idea for the lyrics, but added one for each song rather than one poster for all of them. I used the Claddagh hands for the labels.

I combined a lot of ideas for the inside covers, using the band silhouettes in the foreground of the flame lines and patterns.

After arranging my own objects on a white background, I took photos and placed them into Photoshop. This is after color and level correction. I purposely left white spaces for the title and artist name, and for other objects that I planned on adding in that I did not own myself.

This is after adding in several of the missing objects, such as the photographs, pocket watch, and Claddagh ring. I also added a few vector images on top of the paper to appear to be drawings.

Here is the basic image that I took for the back cover. I decided to just take a section from the arrangement for the cover photo, as if someone had looked closer. I am planning on erasing the existing type to replace with the lyrics.

This image shows some of my layers and my process for adding the marks. I removed the light scribbles from the actual image next to the piece of charcoal, and replaced it with the much clearer, nicer mark from the mark-making experimental process.

Here are more marks that I added to both the cover and the back. I have also added a solid red spine at this point.

Here I began to figure out my label for the vinyl. I knew I wanted circles, and I took the Claddagh hands from another photograph of mine.

Here is the completed label (minus the type) on the vinyl.

Here is my tracing of the Island record label for the back cover. I ended up using the font Arial for the letters, with some added tracking and spacing.

Here I began to work on the sleeves, by adding layers of textured paper to a brick background in an attempt to achieve the look of posters.

Here are all of the papers. I used filters and overlays for a few to make them different. I rotated them and added drop shadows to each, as well, to give dimension.

I decided to use the images from the cover for each of the "posters" Since I am dedicating each paper to the lyrics from a different song, I decided to place the icon that represents each on the corresponding paper.