Thursday, 11 December 2014

CD Cover -


Task -
Create a Record Cover using a random word and image. Try to think about the typeface and elements included that will reflect the name given or the image itself.

For my Record cover, the word I was given through the use of this process:


Research –
My research was based on gathering together resources, surrounding the words, quotes or images themselves. I used Google & Bing search engines to look for a range of different images but finally decided just to use an Iranian theme either based on the flag (top down going green, white to red.) or the name.

Influence – My influences were based on the type of images I love to see myself. I am someone who prefers images that are engaging visually or visually stimulating in a simpler sense. By this I mean that I enjoy looking at photos of huge landscapes or city lines that have a lot of colour and personality. I love to have a lot of different intricate elements, rather than a few simpler but bigger elements. If indeed the picture is based around a few big objects I prefer for this to be in such a way that the image is relatable in some way to each element. So in doing this Influenced my record covers in this way by adding a lot of colours and

Rationale – So for my initial design, I decided to go with the link between the name I was given, in this case ‘NUKABAD’ meaning the capital of the Nukabad district in Iran. I then Google searched images under the name ‘Iranian border’ to find a checkpoint style picture of the border, since it is a country on the edge of Iran. I came up with this first image, highlighting the zone signs and directions of a highway post in Iran. I used the colour red for the main text to contrast against the dark background, which I made this way to again bring importance to the billboard and the Arabic writing. Nukabad also being the edge, is how I came up with the name for the album “End of the line”. Then adding the logo which was a heart with wings (Clipart picture from Microsoft Word) I made the band logo with the initials NB in the middle to represent the band.


 This was the first initial draft. I prefer to draft my ideas in this way, to gain constructive criticism from others in place of self evaluating sketch designs.
The second design is depicted above. As i said, i prefer to move through my designs with creative flow as i can be more efficient by constant tinkering in one long session. In this second design i change the colour theme to a simple white and green. Still maintaining the green and white of the flag. However this time loosing the red which i felt was too overpowering. I moved the image up and lightened the image so that the whole pitcture could be absorbed the way i enjoyed my posters. I moved the name of the band and the album name down including the logo so that each element could be consumed at once and the text could be read seperately to the image which i feel is far more satisfying to the brain and the eye. Releasing the gradient overlay on the logo it allowed me to bring back the subtle red white and green incorporation in the them again.

I added didn't feel that this designed needed to be improved as i enjoyed the visual combination of each element in comparison to eachother, i felt that in this design the whole piece got to have it's say. The typography worked well with the conscious spacing of the imaging and added aesthetic elements (Flatline & Album of the year emblem).

I created one more design just to see how the colours would work together in my favourite colour. Taking more prominence this time for the band name and logo but also enlarging the album name so that it would be instantly acknowledged by the receiver.

 A slight critique of this design, while it may have been my favourite colour background, it actually darkened the whole cover completely and i felt that this took away from the professional quality of the CD cover. I would say however that in giving an aesthetic change to the cover after finishing, highlighted how easy it is to be lost without a proper direction in terms of what exactly i am trying to achieve, however it is also, in a similar, more difficult to test the boundaries of design  when i follow a tight structure. I think this task would be hard to do creatively for someone other than myself because i would not have as much freedom to do as i pleased with the design.

I created a second design that i am also very pleased with and managed to use all of the same techniques to create an effective and well rounded design.


Specialized Techniques -  Smart Object (Edit Content), Vector Masking, Clipping Mask, Rulers, Multiple layers of one image (Sign).

 
 Resources - http://www.killyourstereo.com/album-of-the-year-poll-2014 - Album of the year sticker
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass%E2%80%93energy_equivalence – E=mc2 is Einstein’s famous calculation for energy equivalence
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nukabad - The capital of the Nukabad district, Iran
http://teamdesertaxi.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/into-iran-2.jpg - Picture of man at Iranian border/highway-checkpoint-billboard

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