This is the creative activity we had in response to the action and interaction session. For this task we needed to pick a song or poem and make an image that encapsulates what the text means to us. We had to pick a word that summaries this and create it in our own lettering. This then had to be combined with an image to create a poster/ static layout. Our second task was to breakdown the song/ poem into small passages and create a sequential piece.
The song I chose was ‘Bloody Valentine’ by Machine Gun Kelly. This song is from his 2020 pop punk album titled ‘Tickets to my Downfall’. It’s on of my favourite songs that means a lot of me so I wanted to create some pieces that demonstrate this.
Ideas: below are my ideas for the imagery, typography and overall style/ aesthetic. I also wrote down possible words/ phrases I could use these include the song and album title and my favourite lyrics from the song.
Bloody Valentine:
‘Tickets to my Downfall’ album cover:
Creating visual assets: after I brainstormed all my ideas I began to create visual assets in a variety of ways as I wanted to make mixed media outcomes.
These are scans I took from the interior of the vinyl. I wanted to use these are background for some of the posters. I love the collage style with photos and messy text and images over the top. I did some slight editing to these scans, adding some more texture to them and giving them an older, more vintage look.
Below are some examples of typefaces that I took inspiration from. They are from the album cover and a selection of fonts with a similar aesthetic that I found on Pinterest. They all have a rough, sketchy and hand drawn look which I really like. This style compliments the scrapbook, collage look that I’m aiming for.
These are a selection of sketches and typography that I made. These are all hand drawn with a black marker and then scanned. I went for a sketchy, loose style with lots of rough lines. I created a few variations of the alphabet then took these and wrote out the song title, album name, and my favourite lyrics.
These are some scans that I made of me and my girlfriend. I chose to work with scans rather than photos because I like the gritty texture that it produces. I think that it aligns more with the aesthetic of the other elements that I’ve made for the posters. I also made some scans of lip and finger prints. I got my girlfriend involved with this because it compliments the themes explored in the song so would help enhance the meaning of my posters.
Posters:
1- I went for a simple composition with the focus being on my typography which is centred and in a stand out colour, pink. It’s surrounded by a range of my sketches and some prints which I inverted to make white. The background is black which a grunge imported texture. The inspiration for this poster was a love note than you would draw and give to someone, with a darker emo influence, hence the hand drawn style of the sketches and typography.
2- This poster is similar to the first but with the introduction of a scanned picture of 2 people creating a heart shape. The typography is slightly less dominant in this one, there’s more of a balance between all the elements. This and the first poster make a nice pair as the maintain the same visual language.
3- This poster has a similar aesthetic but I started to include the album artwork. I used one of the scans and edited it heavily to completely change the colours and tone. Then I layered this with a few different lyrics and sketches all in pink. The final detail is a red kiss print, I wanted this to be a stand out element on this poster. I wanted this piece to look like a scrapbook/ journal where someone is fiddling and writing their ideas and thoughts.
4- For this went I went more towards the scrapbook idea. The background is the album artwork but is desaturated and has a vintage look. The sketches and details are black so aren’t immediately eye catching. I wanted the pink writing, lip print and scan to be the bits that draw the viewers attention. My favourite part of this piece is the incorporation of the scans as photos stuck into the scrapbook. This really enhances this idea and has a warm, hand made feeling.
5- This is my favourite of all the posters. I like the coloured album art in the background. I desaturated it a bit so that it’s not overpowering but still shows the pink and green that are important to the song/ album aesthetic. It has a nice balance between the typography, sketches and scans. The sketches and type are all in white except the red lip prints which are eye catching but not too distracting from the other bits. This one really feels like a scrap book page that someone would make for someone they love. I think it encapsulates the meaning of the song and has the aesthetic of the album but with my own imagery and stylistic twist.
Videos: after creating a series of posters I made some sequential pieces. The idea behind these was that the scrapbook inspired pages remain static and the typography would change. I created the animations on Procreate. The 3 below are different versions of this:
Video with audio: I took one of the videos and added the instrumental to ‘Bloody Valentine’ to it. This just helps round off the concept and makes it more engaging. I chose the instrumental rather than the lyrics as I don’t want it look like a lyric video. Also I didn’t use all the lyrics so it would be distracting to read a different lyric to what is being said.
Reflection: I had lots of fun working on this task as I got to centre it around a song that I’m really passionate about. I enjoyed creating my own visual assets and typography in a rough, sketchy style. I’m very happy with the static and sequential outcomes that I created. I made a range of posters and videos that explored different ideas and aesthetics but all link back to the themes, concepts and meaning of the song. I’d like to incorporate some of theses ideas into my own project work such as the hand drawn sketches/typography and use of scanning.
Samuel Green Illustration 