Album artwork: Opinions

As music is such a varied thing and people have different tastes and thoughts I have decided to ask a few people what their favorite album artwork is and why. Hopefully this will open my eyes to different varieties of music and their artwork and not just my own. 

Amy- The Hives- Tarred and Feathered 

'I like this album artwork as it looks like a newspaper, it is different and catches my attention when my iPod is on suffle even tho not much colour is used' 

I have previously never seen or hear of this band, I think you an sometimes judge the music by the artwork. I like the newspaper effect its unique, I also like the range of typography used. 

Ellie- Miley Cyrus- Bangerz

'I love the colours and layers, like a collage effect, I like the lights how it's not just a plain name like most album it's original yet it's still pretty minimalistic and not too in your face I like it.'

Personally I don't like this album artwork as I don't like the gradient background, I think it makes it look cheap and like a powerpoint presentation. However I do like the way Miley stands out and how she has been cut out the background. 

Jordan- Crystal Castles- |||

'Crystal castles III album cover because it's monochrome but the meaning behind it is interesting coz it's a photographer Samuel Armand's and it's a woman holding her son after being tear gassed, it's suppose to show feminism a in Yemen woman are saw as being inferior to men aha' 

I find this album artwork strange, but I like how it has a meaning behind it that only the fans probably know. I like the white outline around the silhouette it gives it more definition. 

Tom- Kaiser Chiefs- Create your own album artwork 

I asked my friend Tom what his favorite album artwork is and he showed me the Kaiser Chiefs where you make your own album art work and choose the tracks of the Kaiser Chiefs. I like this idea as it makes it unique and more personal, also people share them on Facebook and other social networkings which then gets the band talked about, Youtubed and googled, people want to find out more. I think this is a great idea and will make the band bigger. 

Here is a link where is talks about it in more detail

http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2011/june/kaiser-chiefs-wieden-kennedy-london

Bethan- A different kind of fix by Bombay Bicycle Club

'It kind of looks like its all the thoughts in his head he's trying to express through his songs, deep. I like the colours they are chilled like the songs when i saw them at leeds fest the stage set had the artwork on and it looked sick.' 

I totally agree with this, and I love how there are two siloutes looking at each other this symoblises love and looks like they have a weird connection. 

Record Design Research

To gain some inspiration for this brief I headed down to jumbo records and urban outfitters to look at their record sleeves. I found some interesting ones, I took pictures of the ones I liked the look of.

 

This reminds me of the dada art movement, where people collect things and paste them down to create a collage, this could be a good approach to the brief. 

The black keys album artwork uses black and white and no colour, I like their use of photography and type, using two different fonts make the black keys stand out more. 

This is the front and back of a record sleeve for 'fort romeau' I've never heard of them I just liked their cover and the types because it is so minimal. The oil swirls are quite abstract and they stand out when all the records are on the shelf. 

I took a picture of these two as I loved the cartoony illustrations on them. I like how they just seem like doodles, I like the second one better as it is a repeated pattern and I like the colours used they complement each other well. 

Leeds Print Festival

 This weekend I went to Leeds print festival opening night and the print talks on the sunday. It was nice to gain an in sight into the print peoples lives and the things they have done. The most interesting speaker I found was Mr. Bingo an illustrator from London, that has done various projects, but the one I found most interesting was the hate mail project he did, as more of a personal project. 

It started as a bit of a joke, one night he was drunk in his studio and sent a tweet saying that the first person to reply he would send them an abbusive postcard, he got about 50 replies in the first minute and Johnothan Hopkins got the first one, people seemed to love the hate mail and the abusiveness of the post cards, it became really popular on social networks such as Instagram and Twitter. To this day he has sent over 700 post cards to random strangers that message him saying he wants one. It has become so popular penguin have published it into a book with all his designs. I find it interesting how people like these abusive messages on the back of postcards, its such a unique idea. 

End of Module Evaluation

 Brief 1- Frame

This was my favorite brief of the whole module as I felt you had a bit more freedom to do your own thing and I enjoyed researching into different brands. I found that different brands had their own identities, and you cant just design one design to fit all brands as it has to fit into the shop and the look/ feel of the brand, I found this from looking at the comparison of brands such as Ikea and Urban Outfitters. Design wise I enjoyed looking into photography and based my project on different types of photographers; I enjoyed experimenting with photography to come up with something different and eye-catching. If I had more time on this brief I would of added hand drawn type onto my designs for Urban Outfitters as I feel it would have been more fitting, also I feel as if I should of considered my idea more when working with this brief and asked myself, why?

 Brief 2- Research

This brief was interesting as I was given the word ‘way marking’ to work with. I really enjoyed this brief, as previously I didn’t even know what this word meant. The research was difficult but challenging in a good way. I feel as if I should of looked at more books rather than having most of my researched based online. I enjoyed gathering peoples opinions and asking questions as some of the responses surprised me. My favorite part of the brief was photographing signs on different journeys that I took; different journeys use hundreds of different signs for different purposes.

Brief 3- Page Layout

I found this brief the most challenging, as it was a new program and a new skill that I need to develop. I didn’t realize how hard it is to design a decent looking page layout and that so much goes on behind them. I particularly looked into grid systems as I felt this was fitting for the structure of signs. Using InDesign was good, learning the basics but being able to do so much with them. With this brief if I had more time I think I should have been more creative with it and maybe add illustrations and not just used photography and made sure that I had enough information to spread across the five page spreads.

Brief 4- Communicate

For this brief the problem I found is that people that can’t drive don’t particularly know the signs that well on the road, however it is essential for everyone to know the road signs. To begin this brief I looked into the Highway Code as a starting point. I then remembered how difficult I found learning my theory test as I can’t learn from reading books. I looked into the different types of learning and what you can do to help different learners learn. I focused mainly on the kinesthetic learner, the people who have to do something to learn. I wanted to make a little leaflet that turned into a poster for help with revision for learner drivers. The poster involves having to actually draw out the signs as a way of learning. I had a few problems on InDesign and illustrator but I have now learnt from them. I would of liked to have had more time on this particular brief as I feel I could of extended it further and made an app to go with the leaflet, also I could of maybe tried screen printing the poster on a larger scale.

Brief 4: If I had more time

 

 

If I had more time on brief 4 I would create an app, here I have downloaded a couple of free theory apps to see what they look like. They are both of the same format just asking the same questions and they aren't very interactive. If i was to create an app I would make it more interactive and maybe a bit like pictionary where the user has to draw the symbols that are instructed.  

Here are some really quick sketches of what I would have on the app, I would have a title page and then a contents where the user could select what part of the highway code they would like to revise and then there would be different shapes on the page and the user would have to draw the symbol on the app using there finger. If they got a certain amount right they could download a new poster on the section they have just revised for their wall. I think this would be a good fun interactive app, and if I was doing my theory again I would definitely use it and I think I would learn from it. 

Brief 4: Crit

Here is the design that I took to the crit, I knew that I needed to improve the inside, as I don't really like it. But the main thing I wanted to get feedback on is the concept as a whole and the poster idea, whether people would find this useful, and could people actually do it? Above is in image of a test print I did that I got my flat mate to fill in, she found it particularly difficult, I found this interesting as she can already drive. From the crit people really loved the idea! I think from the crit I am just going to focus on people learning to drive as I think that people who cant drive wouldn't really want the poster on their wall. The poster was only designed as a temporary thing to put up while learning to drive. 

Brief 4: Highway codes

The highway code is usually quite dull but here I have found a kids version that is heavily illustrated, and not too much body copy to try and keep it interesting for the younger audience. I need to keep my leaflet bright, informative yet not bore the audience. 

For the full pfd: http://talesoftheroad.direct.gov.uk/pdf/tales_of_the_road.pdf

Brief 3&4: Page Layout Research

Here are a few magazine layouts I have seen that I think are inspiring by there clean and fresh design, I have found all of these designs off tumblr. 

They all have the main focus on image which I like, I feel as if the images that I have taken for this brief are pretty strong so I think image will be  a big part of both briefs. Also what I was looking at was the colours used. I don't think too many colours need to be used. My favourite design of these is the top one, I like how the pages have been left white so the eye focused more on the image and the bold use of typography. The flamingo magazine has a very retro feel, and the penguin page layout is interesting, I like how the image is spread across both pages and the yellow is used to contrast with the penguins. The magazine layout below that looks like a tumblr blog which i quite like, again using more image than type. 

Brief 4: Other ideas & Existing information

I want something to be interactive and I have found there is a lot of apps already on the market also there is a lot of books. When I took my theory over a year ago i found it difficult to learn from a book from just reading, as I need to do something for the information to go in. 

Here are some leaflet designs I have found off designspration, I find them interesting and I love the colours used, however for this brief as I need something quite factual I feel as if I need to keep thing simple. 

I noticed this while at work, it is the kids menu which is in an A3 form and a leaflet style with information on the inside and outside. It works well as a menu for kids, as inside it is interactive and with it you get a sheet of stickers for the inside activity part. I will design mine on A3 format divided into 4. 

The main focus is going to be the the highway code as the whole thing is going to be focused for new drivers or people that cant drive. 

Existing highway code books 

What immediately caught my eye with this design is the yellow background I feel as it is a suitable colour for the highway code as it is alerting and in your face just like signs themselves. 

Here are the designs on the books that I learnt my theory from, I found them dull and uninspiring, I don't like the design on the front, I feel as if it is too blue and there is too much going on, so much information crammed on the front. 

Here are some images of a vintage highway code that I like, they look like screen prints, I love the detail in the illustrations and it looks engaging. A normal persons age range to learn to drive is 17-18, I think these designs would suit the target audience, however I feel as if I would have enough  time in this project to draw all the illustrations and learn how to screen print as the project is only a week long. Again yellow is a strong colour used as it is bold, I will defiantly be using yellow within my design. 

Fonts 

I don't want to go for the obvious font of transport (the font used on signs) I want to go for something a bit different that will stand out a bit more and be more decretive 

Possible font choices 

A hand wittien font would make it more decretive 

 Transport font used on all signs in the United Kingdom 

Intro font, one with a simple inline could look quite decretive and bold on a yellow background.