Album Cover Design

Created over time for friend and musician Michael Webster. He has a very specific style, throughout his look and his Bob Dylan sound. As he is in awe of Courtney Barnett's album/ EP covers, the style he tasked me of replicating is simple, yet slightly quirky in some way. 

E.P Cover I created a few months back for the track Internal Monologue. The etched, glitched heart is emphasising the broken hearted sombre tone. The use of a human heart rather than a childish 'fantasy' heart adds a human emotive quality, alongside suggesting a subtle gory tone as the heart is being pulled apart, emphasising torment.

 The most recent brief, Jan 2016, for new track 'Ground Zero'. Despite being digitally rendered the loose illustrative style is simple and almost hand drawn. These qualities represent Michaels sound, alongside his ethical stance. The use of a retro TV with pixilation is to suggest that time has stopped, people and technology have regressed and we have entered a new age called 'Ground Zero'. The mainly monotone approach emphasises this, colour is stripped until all that is left is the music and self inflicted destruction, further linking to the lyrics.

Here are a few examples of work in progress...

After further brain storms, Michael said he was inspired and really liked the look of Kanye West, Dark Twisted Fantasy. With this in mind, I thought of ways to incorporate this modern, heavy negative space approach, with his nostalgic sound. I felt combining both clinical white space and grainy lomography/film photographs would create a nice juxtaposition between the two worlds of inspiration, whilst adding an ambiguity for the viewer. After shifting through dozens of old family photo's, Michael and I agreed that it would be best without a human figure in the image to 1) avoid confusion and 2) perpetuate a further ambiguity.

Resolved outcome exploring both analogue photography and intense negative space. The black borer was added to intersect the white space and create a postmodern ascetic, despite not serving a real purpose (other than possibly framing the image?). However, I did feel that this is quite typical from the music industry at the minuet, and could easily represent a range of artists and different styles.

To make this more personal, incorporating hand rendered type to generate a childish/playful type will be added.

The artists own writing

Simple single row of type added, negative space still very prominent and composition quite generic and modernist. Definitely needs making slightly more quirky to reflect the tone of music and the artists individual self.

Adding further type - again in the artists hand writing. This time the two track titles as the EP cover will now cover both tracks.

Experimenting with a slightly postmodern approach to typesetting, offsetting and rotating the artists name to further break up the white space. The eye is now drawn to the type, due to its unconventional lay out- rather than focusing on the central mark of colour. 

Experimenting with a fully black and white album cover, not generally seen in the mainstream music scene. Again a slightly unconventional type arrangement, yet much more refined and contained compared to the previous composition. 

Final EP Cover for ground zero/ youth decay //

Final EP cover and type composition. Type all created through the artists hand writing, with a modern vs nostalgic twist communicated. Overall I am happy with this album cover, yet regret not investigating analogue photography sooner as it now screams the most obvious response to the brief. In the future I will try and keep a consistent style going throughout all EP's for Michael, creating a subtle narrative.