STITCHED CD COVER EXPERIMENT

This is an experiment of a stitched silhouette CD cover of Will Smith. This involved using Photoshop's Pen tool, and using the clipping mask technique to add the fabric pattern in the figure.

I quite liked this experiment because it is a simple but effective technique to use in CD cover art. I also quite like the text for it's boldness, and the surrounding brush marks made by own brush that I created.

 If you want to make one for yourself, here's a link to the video tutorial.

VECTOR IMAGE

This is my badly attempted vector image of Will Smith. This involved me using Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop to make this, with the use of the Pen tool in Illustrator.

Miles Donovan's musical vector image

Instead of reading a whole lot of text of instructions, here's a link to the tutorial video.

I found this experiment particularly challenging, because I've never used the pen tool, to the extent I did for this task ( I  always avoided using it actually..), but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. But with enough practice, I think I could master it really well, and use it for the final piece (but that's going to be a heck of a challenge...).  But for now, I'm quite happy with it, for a first try.

ARCHITECTURE IN HELSINKI: PLACES LIKE THIS

This is the album cover for 'Places like this' by Australian Indie pop band Architecture in Helsinki. It was created by Will Sweeney, who has done another album cover for the same band. The target audience for this might be for young people, most likely males in their late teens into their early to mid twenties, or maybe those who are not into mainstream music.

The cover contains many stylised illustrations, as seen from the giant figure with a radio for a head, and the rather futuristic objects, such as the robot on the right hand side. These may have hand drawn and then cleaned up on computer using a graphic software such as Photoshop. Along with this, and the bold colours, it gives off a generally positive atmosphere, which can be reflective of their music. The typography also has a futuristic look, which goes well with the futuristic buildings (which may have been included as a reference to the name of the band). Although there is a lack of colour, it allows it to stand out from the rest of the colours, and allows this vital information to be seen effectively. If this wasn't the case, then I highly doubt that it would be seen just as well, and it would've been more difficult for the consumer to see which album they were buying. In general, I think that the artwork is an "evolutionary" step, as to how it's been produced. Looking at their past albums, they don't look as convincing or as eye-catching as this one, and they don't make as much of a reference to the band like this.

When I first saw the artwork, I was immediately drawn to the bold yellow foreground, because it seemed to be the only bright colour, and sets a great background for the blue and pink. And the green and its darker shades in the foreground makes the piece look more mysterious and rather intimidating. So, maybe the artist was trying to combine the traditional fine art look with a graphical look, and I think he pulled it off quite well.

'MENOMENA' :FRIEND AND FOE

This is the cover art for Friend and foe, by American Indie rock band 'Menomena'. It was designed and created by graphic novel artist Craig Thompson, who is well known for his 'Blankets' graphic novels, and was even invited to draw a piece during the band's performances in parts of Europe ( which he would tear up and give to the audience). 

The cover has four sides, and has been dry cut to reveal the red and yellow parts behind. When the consumer rotates the disc, it creates variations of the artwork, making it interactive and fun for the consumer (it's almost similar to the sticker concept for the Beck album cover). The images seem to have a stylised appearance, which emphasises the artist's career as a graphic novelist, and the rather aggressive nature of the band's songs. It also emphasises the possible young male target audience, as males are more likely to be drawn in to this type of art.

As mentioned before, the target audience for this type of music may be young people, from their late teens into their early twenties, most likely males, and the images show little to no relevance to the song, a feature seen on most Indie album covers. In addition, the colour scheme is very limited, only narrowed down to grey,light blue, and the yellow and red from the inside covers, but having this draws the viewer's eye directly to those parts, and will most likely stand out from other covers from this feature. This would also be effective for conveying an important message too. There is very little text involved, only showing some dialogue of the characters, including the band's name, but not the title of the album. This can be rather misleading, as the consumer may not know what album they're buying, but simultaneously, it's what makes it unique.

I was sort of taken aback when I first saw the cover, but the more I looked at it, the more I started to like it and appreciate it. Usually, it takes bright colours and great drawings to attract attention, but covers like this defy that rule. Also, it gives me a faint idea of what the music in this album will sound like- aggressive, and, in a way, all over the place,but in a good way, like the art. In general, I think a lot of work and creativity went into this cover, which I admire.

CD ART ANALYSIS

This is a cover of the single called 'Chutes too narrow' by American Indie band 'The Shins'. It was designed by Jesse LeDoux, who works as an art director and designer for Sub Pop Records, a record label.

The image appears to have an avant-garde style to it, which is emphasised by the appearance of the chutes themselves. The method of production is unknown, but if you were to look closely at the cover, you would see that their is written text, which may have been written on a notepad. This may have been scanned, and the  final outcome designed over the scan. Or, it may be a vector image. By including the chutes in the cover, it allows there to be some sort of link. The CD itself also conveys the name of the band to some extent as well.

A target audience that springs to mind, may that of hipsters, beatniks, and even those who are fans to this band, or loyal Indie listeners. 

As well as being quite doodle-like, it's also quite narrative. If you were to unfold the cover, you'll see that the booklet folds out, and is cut into the shapes of the design, also known as a dry cut. The typography is a sans-serif and quite bold,the colours would attract attention easily, since the background is white.

My first reaction to this artwork was quite positive. It's because of its childlike quality with the bold colours of the hills and the simple appearances of various objects, it makes it look quite innocent, until you open the case, and see the design on the CD ROM. When I looked at that, the childlike quality slipped my mind, and I thought it was quite typical of an avant-garde. But despite this, I did quite like the design in general, mostly because of its narrative appearance from the dry cut.

This is a cover of the album 'X&Y' by British alternative rock band 'Coldplay'. Designed by an organisation called 'Tappin Gofton', the simple design actually has a hidden message beneath what appears to be a multi-coloured detonator: "X9Y", which may have just been made to entertain the viewer. However, inside the album cover shown below, contains another hidden message: "Make trade fair", which was for the Fairtrade campaign. The blocks are actually 'Baudot-code' encoding, which are used by telegraphs.

Although the design, does not at all reflect the type of music the band makes, but the bright colours do advance off the page, thanks to the dark background. This may have been a vector image, or the designers may have used a Baudot-code generator to make this. Although seriously limited, there is some typography featured at the left hand side of the cover of the band's name and the name of the album. It is a sans-serif design, and the typeface is simple, making it easy to read, and the colour chosen helps with this too.

When I first saw this cover, when it was first released, I didn't know what to make of it. All I saw, were these brightly coloured boxes, in the shape of a detonator, and that was it. But now, that I've looked in to it, it makes a whole lot of sense, and I think it's rather clever of the designers.

These stickers a part of the CD design for the album 'The Information' by Alternative rock musician 'Beck'. It is an example of a 'made' artwork, which allows the consumer to design the cover to their own liking using the stickers, and the graph paper also featured. The aim of this was "to provide something that calls for interactivity" as stated by Beck himself. But because of this concept, the album was not sold in the UK, as it was a concept to increase retail sales, for the design and not of the music itself.

The target audience of this may have been young people/teens, and the album could imply a message, which could link in with the educational benefit of graph paper.  CAD may have been the method used to create the stickers, which may have been printed out using a plotter printer. Using this to print it put, gives the stickers a professional finish.

I really like the creative scope that's been given to the consumer of this product, because it's very unique, so no one else may have come up with this idea (maybe they did, and decided it was too risky). But because it was banned in a country, I think it best not do have a design like this again, because chances are it would be bought simply for its creativity scope.

This is a cover for the album 'Push the button' by "Big beats"/ Electro duo The Chemical Brothers. Designed by 'TappinGofton', the same people who designed Coldplay's X&Y album cover. It is a calligram with the song name inside of a man's head, and an arm and fist inside his head, similar to a brain and a spinal cord. The design itself is reminiscent of Soviet posters, as seen with the plain colours, which can be symbolic for order, and this can emphasise its propaganda like style. Too much colour would be more of the opposite, may be more of a psycadelic theme.  The possible target audience may be those in their late teens and over, even punks who are in to techno music, and wear huge black platforms, and leather trousers, and long coats (this may be a very wide stereotype, but that's just an image that pops up in my head).

On their CD covers. the Chemical brothers always include their recurring logos to identify their CDs. The colour of this may vary depending on the design of the cover, but it always includes the same typeface, which is derived from a typeface known as 'Sho' and was created by Karlgeorg Hoefer in 1992.

Upon first seeing the work, I was taken aback at how aggressive the work was, from the stark colours and its true likeness to propaganda posters, particularly Soviet Russian. Also, because of the composition, it made me think about the possible meanings that the album could hold, it could be positive or more likely negative, and that, for some reason, made me want to stay away from it and not delve deeper into the possible meanings.

                                                                 

PAPER CUTTING

This is a badly attempted version of a paper cut. As you can see, the first three words, look more like a stencil , than a paper cut (which was my mistake...). But the last three words, I managed to cut out quite successfully, and made surrounding patterns as well. This was inspired by the paper cuts by Rob Ryan (but this no where near his level!).

TYPOGRAPHY POSTER EXPERIMENT

This is a typography experiment which involved finding a picture of a singer, in my case, I chose Katy Perry, and by typing in text and making it into a brush, I spread the text all over the page. Then I chose the colour by going to 'Blending Options', and then chose 'Gradient Overlay', and chose my colour scheme, which lead me to this result!

I quite like this design, and I've always wondered how artists create this effect, and now I know!!

This is my Katy Perry poster, but as a clipping mask. This involved getting the poster, by clicking 'File', and then 'Place', After that, I typed her initials, and then after re-sizing it, I clicked on 'Object' , 'Flatten Transparency', making sure to have the 'Convert all Text to Strokes' option ticked. Next, I made sure that both the text and the poster were selected, and then went to 'Object',then 'Clipping Mask', selected 'Make', and came out with this result you see here. For the shadow, I went to 'Effect', and then 'Stylize', to 'Drop Shadow'. I chose the amount of shadow I wanted and....voila!

STENCIL WORK

This is a stencil work of DJ Jazzy Jeff and Will Smith, made from acrylic paint rather than the typical spray paint. Using a sponge, I dipped it into a small amount of blue acrylic, and then using my stencil, botched the the sponge onto my sketchbook, resulting in this image. I quite liked this method because it's simple but effective, and it's a method that most professionals use for CD art.

Here's another one, but with black acrylic.

BILLIE JEAN INSPIRED ILLUSTRATION

This is my own illustration of 'Summertime' by Will Smith and DJ Jazzy Jeff, in the style of Billie Jean. Using a blue biro was essential for achieving this look, so that it matches Billie Jean's style as closely as possible. I made sure to include the important aspects that I saw in the music video in the piece

BILLIE JEAN ANALYSIS

                                                                                 
This is a print poster called 'Retro basket', created by Billie Jean, for the celebration of 30 years of the brand Nike, and to create interest in Nike's new "Retro" trainers. Being an advertisement, it was probably displayed in magazines or billboards, and is actually a part of a series of 30 posters in honour of this celebration.

The material for drawing the poster was paper, but more specifically, lined paper, as well as biro pens. These would usually be used for doodling designs, which would have been used by a student who is bored in a lesson, and turns to doodling for entertainment. So from this, the target audience was most likely for young people, particularly students. The poster has an American look and feel to it, since Nike is an American brand, and the style of drawing is similar to vandalism, which links in with the possible name of the shoe 'VANDAL'.
There are some abstract aspects in the poster, including surreal, such as the laces turning into arms of  the basketball players, who are an example of stylised illustrations, and hyperealisms, like the player at the bottom of the page (which could be Michael Jordan, who was an active player around the 80s). Other aspects of the poster, include the circles on the bottom left hand side, which could be the print from the shoes, and could be a link to basketball, and the aspects of the 1980s, such as the Rubik's Cube and a Space Invader character. The bulldog on the top could possibly be a team mascot, and the peace sign could symbolise good sportsmanship among the players.
I like this poster, because it's shows the extent of Billie Jean's talent to draw surrealism and hyperealism, which makes him seem like a rather versatile drawer. And that is a rare talent to have. Also, he fills up the space really well, and I can sort of relate to it, as it's probably what I'd end up doing if I got bored in a lesson.

AS-A2 PROJECT

This is a presentation of 5 different pieces by different designers, which I found inspirational.