INSPIRATION
Other than my imagination and visualisation – which I can explain but it’s not quite the same as being able to reference it / showing actual visuals – I looked at Tycho.
The visual experience of his music gave me a very good idea and inspiration on how I can express movement and mood through pattern movement and colour.
Ansel recommended to look at these visuals. Originally I browsed through his website and looked at the merchandise sold there. I found some interesting colour and pattern examples.
Further researching I found that his music videos are very interesting and just like his perch heavily focuses on colour, movement and pattern.
I came across Horizon and the music video for it. Nothing else but colour combinations and patterns changing according to the beat and mood of the song. This visual representation was my biggest inspiration and starting point for my digital experiments.
TRIAL 1
These were my initial experiments in photoshop. I quite liked the direction my visuals took, however I wanted to conduct further experiments. These visuals are suitable for digital/web content but for interior signage and painting on walls would be a little too much and too difficult. I wanted to experiment with simplicity. I always tend to create something busy at first, then take what I like from the initial experiments and designs and strip it all back until I feel it looks good visually and conveys the correct message.
TRIAL 2
Initial pattern experiment I have done in Illustrator. I didn’t particularly like these. They felt like digital mosaics and tile designs. Though this experiment didn’t go to waste, they helped me realise that these are too ‘busy’ and I need to think a little more simple. Simple and minimal pattern conveying a very very clear message while representing mood and movement.
Once again I was working in Illustrator. This time however, I referred back to Tycho’s visuals. I was expressing movement and mood through gradient, texture and minimal geometric shapes. The experiments really started to come together.
I began to combine photoshop with the shapes and textures I created in Illustrator. Photoshop liquify tool allowed me to modify and ‘mix’ the colours in a way that they create a marble like effect. These experiments essentially led me to produce the cover for the project.
The Cover
The original cover was very structured. Ansel said it would be great and he wants to see the ‘colours bursting in every direction, expressing movement. Different sounds, different colours and different movements.’ So I tried to visualise the explosion of ‘the colourful sounds’
Using the previously created illustrator shapes I began further experimenting with photoshop and ‘liquified colours’
As well as experimenting with the movement and liquify effect I tried to play around with opacity and transparency blend effects. I sound that overlay setting applied to the liquified colours and a reduced opacity made the image a lot more pleasant and easy on the eyes, yet remaining exciting, like a colourful explosion.
Then I began experimenting with added shapes, various colours, settings and opacity.
Further experimenting I began to apply blend settings to the main circle shape with textures created in Illustrator. I came to the conclusion that all the patterns and colours together are a bit too much. So I did my usual process of creating something busy and over the top and beginning to strip it back and only keeping the really good elements.
Thats how I ended up with this image. Which became the final background for the cover.
Finally I added the signature slogan of my project and the HMV logo that was provided in the project pack.
Further Experiments
Unfortunately the file that contained majority of my experiments got lost. I placed majority of pattern experiments on the dartboard but not the pages. I saved the file, not realising it saved as a pdf, so all the experiments that weren’t on pages got lost. However I managed to recover a few.
I was experimenting with various geometric shapes and gradient
Instagram / Social media campaign experiments
Using the previously created shapes and gradient, I combined the two which led to creating the background for the social media campaign
I used the shapes created in Illustrator and transferred them to photoshop to be able to easily edit, modify and add the logo, slogan and album covers.
I applied the same work method with regards to the social media campaign as I did with the cover. However this time round I placed geometric shapes (that I also used for the interior) that would match the feel and mood of the colour. For example the sound of orange to me is quite bouncy and bubbly. It’s happy, positive and active, yet smooth and an easy listen. Therefore I added and worked mainly with circles.
The sound of pink is a little more elegant with a clearer, important message wrapped in a pretty pink outfit that makes it easy to listen to and view without having a headache, but gets its message across in a pleasant and delicate way. Therefore I used some circular shapes but I added a straight line, almost like a pink ribbon as the colours ‘stands for meaningful things’ and represents versatility and variety.
These images of the social media campaign are essentially the final ones. Unfortunately I lost some files due to my MacBook throwing a strop and I was unable to recover them. But in essence the process of my experiments were the same as the cover.
Experiment with blend options, opacity, different layout, positioning and size of shapes. Sometimes creating something ‘a little too busy’ which I then stripped back, only keeping elements that are relevant and communicate effectively.