Type + Image Design Ideas - Secret 7"

I decided to go further with my Vox amp edit idea, taking inspiration from the album covers I looked at I felt a small section of type on the record would look good, the type would have been lost within the image so added a box around it. This is inspired by an Arctic Monkeys B-side I looked at during my research, the image has a white box around it but does not use type. For this design I chose to use a lyric from another important song by the artist, for this design for Tame Impala I chose the lyric "All those things I ever thought would never end I think there all memories now" from there song 'Suns coming up' talking about there walk into fame and the spotlight and being recognised, I think this is a good quote to add onto the front of the cover to keep mystery on the band and song.

Again I used the same style as the first image but felt a black box around the already dark image didnt look right and the effect was lost so attempted using a white border with black text instead.

This cover is for John Lennon Imagine  and uses lyrics from his song how do you sleep. 

I felt this was my most successful of these designs and felt the colours worked well along side one and other. This would be the cover for The Jam Art School as it is bright, colourful and artsy. I have taken a lyric from there song burning skies to place on this cover.

I like the idea of the box around the type but I feel the choice of type makes the work weaker, I need to be clear on what quote or lyric or word I will use for my design If I want to follow this route.

Rost Berlin Inspiration - Secret 7"

I looked at the artist Rost who uses drawings and photography to create posters and cards. Rost takes or draws images, edits the colours and shapes within and adds a section dedicated to type. The 3 examples of his work above are from his set of Berlin which looks at the architecture in Germanys capital, the set is inspired by manga, Rost utilises Japanese type to caption his work, this obscurity is something I could use within my work, title the cover in a language which is unreadable to keep its identity a secret. 

Vox 2 Further Edits

Again using the image of my VOX amp I used photoshop to edit photos further and push the images further. Being Inspired by retro styles (1960's styles) Pop art and such I produced these designs, I felt they were interesting and worked well but were not as strong as the images I had edited simpler than these. I felt that the use of shape was visually pleasing but not as much as the previous experiments I had made. These images gained a positive response from peer feedback yet was told that the images were over edited and I should make it simpler.

Vox Amps Digital Edits

Having initially used hand drawn methods to generate ideas for my final outcome, I came up with the idea of focussing on musical instruments, initially drawing trumpets, piano keys and jazz instruments, as well as my own VOX guitar amplifier, I then had the idea to photograph it and use it to edit and change it, this idea was inspired by a number of aspects within my research including the music videos I looked at, this was also relevant to a number of songs which I could use through the competition (Both John Lennon and the Jam having used them through there careers).

I took photos of my amplifier using my DSLR Camera, uploaded them to my computer and began to play around with the image I felt came out the best. I ran the image through numerous different editorial effects on both Illustrator and Photoshop, playing with contrast, hue, vibrance Etc. I used the effects which were available on both resources. Here is a number of images I produced. 

Some of these designs were stronger than others and I felt could possibly be used as final resolutions yet wanted to take the images and brief further and create something more than just a block image.

Music Videos Research.

I looked at a range of music videos whilst researching and when I was drawing some designs up, some of these stuck in my mind and I felt I should add them to my research as they have influenced a range of my ideas. Firstly Is the video for 'One More Time' by Daft Punk, an animated video which uses bright sharp colours under a grain to make it appear to be an early 90's anime film. It employs styles used in Chinese animated films to create a bright cinematic style video.

'Bad Habits' - The Last Shadow Puppets. - This video is filmed in a club in America which has later been edited. The producer of the short video has layered effects throughout this video, distorting images, adding colour over the top of the video and also layering two parts of the video over each other, creating an old style Noir video for the rock song. These effects are interesting even when paused as still images, I want to employ this style to my own work.

'Lonesome Street' - Blur. This video (and the album which it appears on) is heavily inspired by Chinese culture. It is set in a dance hall and has a group of Chinese interpretive dancers dancing to the groovy song. The aesthetic of the song is really soft and subtle, the use of the Chinese type adds a lot to the video.

'Mirror Kissers' - The Cribs. Again this video employs editorial of a video post production. Once again the video is exciting and similar to the collage styles I've researched. The still frames from this video are interesting and again easily translated to my own designs, which I will employ.

'The Hunter' - Slaves. Another video which has been heavily edited. Changing the saturation and hue of the scene and distorting the movement to create interesting shapes. Again I would like to attempt a similar edit style on my own drawings or imagery.

Collage and Paint Experiments. Secret 7"

Having looked at collage as a big part of my research I naturally wanted to experiment with this medium. I wanted to create a colourful piece which was influenced by the change of social and cultural tone of the 60's. I gathered news papers and free magazines to get a wide range of images which could be used to create my designs. I started just experimenting with the colourful shapes I found, not having an aim just creating new exciting messes of imagery.

I started to combine hand drawing and collage to create ideas for the album cover, these came out rather strong, with positive feedback from peers. I was told to work more on the lemon sherbet concept digitally, scanning it in and editing it on photoshop, I shall follow this route.

I tried to combine one image with an image that contrasted it in mood, to see if I could create an obscure mixed piece. These designs looked nice but were not as strong as my other designs, they did not have much to them in comparison.

I began to generate ideas using water colours creating small mixed colour ideas. I also continued to look at flower, continuing the influence of 1960's influence feel, these felt good yet still only initial ideas, they needed to be further looked at digitally I felt to create something different.