VECTOR CONVERSE PICTURE

This is my vector image of a pair of converse trainers. This involved making layers for each colour, and in each of those layers, using the Pen tool, I drew lines over the shapes. Not too long ago,  I did the same experiment but using a picture of Will Smith (which took me two attempts). So now, that I'm fairly good at it, I decided to take it forward. Maybe with another experiment, I could manipulate it in Photoshop...

AURORA SURFACE PATTERN

This is my Aurora surface pattern experiment from Photoshop, which involved making a a total of four layers, and in each layer, I had to make these squiggly lines using the the Brush tool with white paint which resulted in these vertical lines being made, and each time I made those lines, I used the 'Motion blur' technique, found under the 'Blur' option under the 'Filter' tab. After doing this, I filled my fourth layer with colours of my choice, which were yellow and green. On another layer, I placed the text 'Will Smith' on the bottom of the line.

I quite liked this design, as it's effective for a CD cover. It's also simplistic and eye-catching too, and the black background helps with this.

GRUNGE TEXTURE

This is my grunge texture experiment which I did in Photoshop. This involved choosing a suitable image and textures from the Internet, and overlaying them over each other to create this effect. I also used a lot effects, including the Overlay, the Filter, and adding a Layer Mask to allow me to reveal or conceal some parts of each texture so that they may be seen in the final image. I even chose a colour, which I thought appeared most frequently in the beach image, which was blue, so that was to be my base colour.

I did like this effect, as it allowed me to combine different textures to either be revealed or concealed. Revealing or concealing altogether would have messed up the image, and spoiled the effect that I was going for. I could potentially use this in my final piece, but it would be a bit of a risk to do it.

Here's a LINK!

PHOTOSHOOTS AND DEVELOPMENTS-part 1

These are the images that I will use in my later experiments using the techniques from the AS-A2 project and my Summer project. I intend to refine the experiments by developing them further. Examples of techniques include vector image and using colours suitable for my current project, the paper cutting technique where I could use different types of paper including tissue paper, hardboard, recycled cardboard which could be painted over, and drawing and mark-making. Other possibilities could be the stitching technique done on Photoshop,screen printing technique and the typography poster experiment.

There are many possibilities...

SEAMLESS REPEATING PATTERN

This is my experiment of a seamless repeating pattern,which involved taking a symbol or a little picture and repeating it, in Illustrator. I had done this in a previous project, and it proved to be quite difficult the first time and doing it again...it still takes time to get used to, so it was a bit difficult. Despite this, it's still an effective technique. A limitation of this experiment would be matching up the patterns correctly to get that repetitive effect. You would need to zoom in to see if you're matching up the shapes correctly. 

Despite its difficulty, I  could use this in my final CD design, as it would look professional, if I practise more.

LINK!

Here's another design.

DIGITAL BOKEH

This is my digital bokeh made once again in trusty Photoshop. This involved making a circle, and making this circle a new brush, and once again used the gradient for the background. I changed the gradient background into a more colourful one by going in to Gradient overlay, by right-clicking in Blending Options, which should take you to the Gradient Overlay, on the left hand side.

This is a good design, as it could be used in most CD covers of most genres, including pop, jazz maybe even hip hop, but changing the colours according to that genre. This is another background that I could potential use in my final CD cover, but changing the colours that I use.

Link!

COLOURFUL WALLPAPER

This is my colourful wallpaper, made in Photoshop. It involved using the Gradient tool by holding down the Shift key, and dragging the mouse all the way up to the page, to have a nice black and white gradient. Also, it involved making a new brush by going into a new document, and creating a brush by going to 'Define brush preset'. Using this new brush, I went back to my first document, and using the new brush, drew these squares all over the document. 

I thought this was a very easy experiment, because the instructions were simple, much more so than the personal wallpaper one, and the colours look great, especially for my CD cover. I could use this in my final, because it's suitable for the song I'm doing it for, but I could also use other colours too.

Here's a link to this helpful tutorial/

PERSONAL WALLPAPER

This is my personal wallpaper that I created using Photoshop. It involved filling the page with one colour of choice, and writing text, which I flipped over to reverse the text, and copied the text all over the page. It was a bit complicated at first because the person from the tutorial would miss out important instructions (and his version of Photoshop was in German, but he spoke English luckily). 

The limitation of this was that if a step was missed out it would, sometimes heavily impact on the rest of the process.

I did like this experiment, despite the difficulties because it looks rather like a sun effect, with the faint circle, and it looks quite professional, so I may use it for my final piece. 

Here's the link to the tutorial, if you want to try this out.

BOOKBINDING EXPERIMENTS

These are my a couple of experiments for bookbinding an inlay (booklet) that will be included in my final CD design. 

This one is an inlay with the pages stapled together. This was a very easy technique to start off with, and it's commonly used. But sometimes stapling in the wrong places can stop the reader from getting information, and re-stapling can ruin the book altogether (unless it's part of the design).

Another view of the stapled bookbinding.

This is a stitched version of the bookbinding. I used thread for this, and it involved poking three holes from inside on the spine of book. Is sewed properly, it could be really secure and hold the book together effectively. 

But it can be difficult to stop the stitching from getting tangled, and can look untidy in not done properly. If you look at the side, you can see that mine isn't very tidy. But if I perfect the technique, I could use it for my final.

CD PACKAGE EXPERIMENTS

These are a few experiments of CD packaging, and I used a range of materials such as recycled materials, postal materials like parcel paper and old letter envelopes. Also tried out some techniques including wrapping CDs in cloth, similar to using  Japanese wrapping cloth (Furoshiki) and Origami type packaging.
Some were harder than others. Personally, I thought that the origami type packaging was quite difficult, as I had to start again, because I messed up on the folding, but doing it again and going through the instructions helped me to make an even better one. Also coming up with different package ideas with the materials on the spot, I thought was quite tough too (especially as others around me were doing really well).
Whilst doing the wrapping of the CD, I found that it looks better if the cloth is close in size with the CD cover, so if I were to do it again, I'd make sure to take more care when choosing the size of cloth.
There may be some techniques that I could use in my final design, and one of them is the use of cardboard, as it can create an urban look that I would want for my Will Smith CD.

This is an origami type packaging using a recycled magazine page

This is my CD case wrapped in cloth. As I said before, it would've worked better if the cloth was around the same size as the CD.

This is another origami type packaging using graph paper. This was the one that I had to start over again with, and this image is my re-try.

This is my failed packaging using parcel paper (Amazon parcel paper). Out of all the ones I did, this was the worst, because I don't think it would have pulled off the job so well. And it's NOT aesthetically pleasing at all.

PACKAGING MOODBOARD

ONE: Bright colour patterns TWO: Converse geometric patterns THREE: Carton like packaging FOUR: Swirly bright colours FIVE: Live traced and coloured logo SIX:My 3D logo for Will Smith SEVEN: Rectangular CD packaging EIGHT: CD DVD packaging NINE: Summertime lyrics

SHINY WORDMARK LOGO

This is a shiny logo in the form of a word mark type (a typographic logo). This involved creating a rectangle and an eclipse shape, and layering the eclipse on top of the rectangle. The rectangle should be a darker colour than the rectangle, and I adjusted the gradient to my liking. For the glory effect, I clicked on 'Drop Shadow' under the 'Stylize' option in the 'Effect' tab, and adjusted the settings. Then I typed the name of the artist, and used the Clipping Mask technique under the 'Objects' tab, resulting in this! Once again, I used a reflection, and this time, I simply copied the word, and reflected it using the 'Reflect' option under the 'Transform' option in the 'Objects' tab.

I did like this effect, however I don't see myself using it in my final cover. To improve it, I would get rid of the slightly noticeable black outline of the circle to make it match with the rest of the glow.

3D LOGO

This is a 3D alternative to my logo. This involved choosing a shape, and typing a letter in that shape. Also, clicking the 'Pathfinder' option under the Windows tab, and making the letter and the shape blend together. For the main 3D effect, I clicked on the 3D option under the 'Effects' tab, and adjusted the 3D to my liking. On the shape itself, I right-clicked on each part to click 'Ungroup'. This would allow me to fill in different colours for the different parts of the logo, otherwise all the parts would be just one colour, which is what I didn't want. I also added another circle and filled it with green, which was to be sent to the back of the shape, to allow the letter to be seen more clearly. Underneath the main logo, there is a smaller circle which is meant to be the shadow. Then i just typed the name of the artist beside the main logo.

This one was quite a challenge to do, but I came out on top in the end! I really do like this effect, as it not only allows me to use multiple colours, but it's very effective too.

LETTER BOX LOGO

This is a letterbox logo. This involved duplicating the boxes to make them the same size, and aligning them to make sure that they are the same distance apart. I made sure to change the colour with each box, as I would reflect the rap culture of the early 90s (though I can't say the same for the text). For the reflection, I duplicated the letters, by holding the 'Alt' button and clicking each letter. Then I clicked on the 'Reflect tool' (or press 'O'), and I rotated them to be upside down. To add the gradient effect, I clicked on the 'Type' tab then 'Create outlines', then adjusted the gradient to my liking.

I like this version because it allows me to use different colours, and possibly different fonts with each letter, which would emphasis the likeness of Will Smith's typical album artwork, and I could potentially use it for my final CD cover (or back) design.

SHAPES AND SWOOSHES

These are a few patterns that I created in Illustrator. It involved using a tool known as 'Divide Objects Below' under the 'Paths' option in the 'Objects' tab for the pattern at the top. For the smaller shapes, I used the 'Pathfinder' option under the 'Windows' tab. For the slightly cut out circular oval shape, I used the 'Shape Builder tool' in the Toolbox section at the side, and cut out the parts of the circle I didn't want by highlighting it with the mouse, select the Shape Builder tool, and then got rid of the parts inside the circle. 

I thought that this was quite a challenge, especially the oval shape technique, but I eventually got it after going over the steps in the tutorial that I may have missed. But in general, I quite like the look of it and could potentially use it in my final design of my CD cover.

LIVE TRACE AND COLOURING

This is my logo which has been cleaned up (painstakingly) using the Brush tool on Photoshop. Next, I opened up my cleaned up logo in Illustrator and I used the 'Live trace' option to adjust the depth of the outline, which I wanted to fairly deep. Using the Live Bucket tool, I clicked on each letter individually and filled them with colour, resulting in this!

I really liked this as it reflects the culture and designs of that time back in the early 1990s. I guess I could modify it more, by letting it have a shiny design, which I plan to do later on.

LOGO TYPES

This is a worksheet about different logo types.  They describe the different types of logos including: Emblem- a logo which includes the company name within an object or shape, Lettermark a typographic logo that spells out the initial company or brand name, Abstract a symbol that represents the company in a random way, Wordmark, another typographic logo which spells out the company or brand name, Brandmark Symbol a symbol which represents the company in a bold or simple manner, and Combination Mark a logo which combines a woodmark and a symbol.

MY CHOSEN ALBUM

This is worksheet about my chosen album, which is 'Homebase' by Will Smith, which includes the song 'Summertime'. I also went on to describe other things such as the type of people who I think would listen to his type of music- hip hop, as well as the date, and the label it was distributed by. Brainstorming these things would help me later in my designs of the CD cover and packaging, so it's quite beneficial.

MASKING FLUID EXPERIMENT- fail

These are my expriments that I did, which involved using watercolour paint and masking fluid. using my stencil of Will Smith and DJ Jazzy Jeff, from my stencil experiment, I wanted to have a similar outcome, but use the masking fluid to cover up the parts that I didn't want to have painted over. So I tried this out, but it failed- miserably. I think what caused me to fail,was not waiting long enough for the masking fluid to dry, and    tried removing it too soon, and also damaged the page I was doing it on. (To have an idea of what I was trying to achieve, look back at my stencil experiment).

These were attempts at making Will Smith's face.

Which again, failed miserably.

INSPIRING PICTURES

These are the images that I took for my sketch for a potential CD cover. These were inspired from the lyrics of 'Summertime' by Will Smith, including a pen and pad for writing the lyrics of his song, as well as two people dressed in summer clothes  to set the mood. I also included a pair of trainers (Converses) as trainers were mentioned in the song, so I thought it would be good to include them in my sketch. 

Wasn't particularly keen on this though, as a sketch wouldn't emphasise the culture of that time.

FOODSTUFF ILLUSTRATION

This is an illustration that i created using various foodstuffs and household products including: ketchup tooth paste, hand wash and olives, and I think mayonnaise. The task require me to use anything, to go crazy, but I think I went a bit too far. 

The illustration is of a female. I chose to draw a female because they are quite frequent in Will Smith's videos and lyrics, especially the young and attractive ones!

VECTOR IMAGE RE-TRY

This is my re-try of the vector image of Will Smith using a different image. I think this is MUCH MUCH better than my first try, as I applied the lines much better than the first, and the colour combinations match very well. I was so happy with it, that I made a few more with different colour combinations.

Here's another with a different colour combination.

And another.

And another...

DIGITAL SCREEN PRINTING

This is my digital screen print, which was inspired by the poster below of an event happening at Kings College. It involved using a human body with an animal's head. In my case, I used Will's Smith's body and the head of a Spaniel. Here's how I achieved it.

I really liked this image because it's effective and quite an avant-garde style which is commonly used, especially in CD cover art. 

This is my inspirational image.

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.