Category: Visual Messaging and Communication

I took all the ideas from my reference images and the roughs I made and began to create the packaging. I chose to design 2 alternate front covers rather than a pull out/ poster, a back cover and a design for the cd/vinyl.

This is the first album cover design. For this piece I used a combination of Illustrator and Procreate. I decided to do a low, central vantage point, making the hotel appear large and ominous. I’m happy with the way that I was able to incorporate the album title into the design using a gothic inspired gate. I added a cloudy design over and around the hotel to add depth and create an eery atmosphere. The colour scheme is fairly simple with just pinks, purples and blacks. These colours reflect the dark yet rich sound of the album.

This is the second front cover design made with Photoshop and Procreate. I used a similar colour scheme as the first one but there’s more purple and black and I chose to limit the pink to the light. This cover is more atmospheric, with more cloudy texturing obscuring the top and bottom of the hotel. I particularly like the neon glow effects I was able to achieve on the lightening, windows and Hotel Diablo sign. The hotel is a more simple design with the only details being the pink light.

For the back I chose to do the key design, I used Procreate for this. I like the texture and shadow I created on the key and tag. The key links well to the overall theme of a hotel. I continued with a similar colour scheme so it fits well as a complete packaging design. I used the key tag to show to track list which is essential for album packaging. Also the imagery suggests that the key will unlock those rooms, creating the idea of the album being a metaphorical hotel.

The cd/vinyl has a rusted keyhole design with a similar texture as the key. I added a sign at the top that says ‘welcome to Hotel Diablo’, I wanted to include this to link it to the theme and suggest that this is the doorway to the album and metaphorical hotel. I made this using Photoshop and Procreate.

The back of the cd/vinyl with the same texture as the front.

I then took my final designs and used Photoshop to put them together as a way of displaying them as a whole piece of packaging.

I really enjoyed this brief about creating a piece of music packaging. I was happy to create something about one of my favourite albums. I was able to draw lots of inspiration from the music, lyrics and other sources to create the packaging. Overall I’m happy with the final outcomes as they successfully incorporate my visual references and ideas while also reflecting the music on the album. Each part of the packaging works cohesively as a piece of packaging.

In this brief we have to design packaging for a cd or vinyl for an album or song of our choosing. The packing needs to include a front and back cover as well as a design for the cd/vinyl and could include an extra item such as a poster or pullout. I chose to make the packaging for an album called Hotel Diablo by Machine Gun Kelly. This is one of my favourite albums and I could see lots of ideas for imagery to represent the music through the pancaking for a vinyl.

Throughout the album MGK refers to a hotel but it’s never visualised in any of the actual packaging for the album. It’s more of a metaphorical hotel which represents his emotions. I wanted to represent this hotel visually as the key theme of the packaging.

I found some reference images of different hotels and buildings to use for inspiration. I wanted to use a comic book style for the hotel. I took specific inspiration from haunted house scenes, comic book hotels and Disney’s Tower of Terror.

In hotels there is often fancy detailing like these below which I wanted to include as a border for the front and back cover.

For a pullout/ poster I wanted to create a devil skull character with a key hole in its head to continue to theme of the hotel.

I wanted to use a key hole design on the vinyl/cd.

Here is my mind-map with initial ideas for each part of the packaging.

I then created roughs for each part. For the front cover I created a few different ideas for how to represent the hotel. The music in the album is quite dark in tone but also has an energy to it with the rich production. For me the best colours to represent the album are dark purples and pink so this is the colour scheme I’m gonna go with. The back cover will be a blue print of the hotel containing the track list to the album. Both these will have a decorative border around them. For the vinyl in want to add a key hole design with similar patterns to the borders to continue to hotel theme. For the pullout booklet I want to make a 2 sided design. The front with have the devil skull with the key hole and the back will have small images to represent each of the songs. I thought I could have these displayed in a windows like the hotel on the cover.

These are initial ideas for images to represent each song.

I combined my 3 roughs to make this composition. I particularly like the way the album title is incorporated into the design by using a gothic style gate.

Another idea I had for the back of the vinyl packaging was to use an image of an old fashioned key with a tag attached which has the track list on it.

This weeks brief was to develop upon our ideas from the last 2 weeks of working on the text ‘sell your house and buy gold’ and create a more finalised image. Over the last 2 weeks I worked on figure drawings and making a physical structure which I then photographed. I wanted to combine my 2 favourite figure drawings, which I think best represented the text, with the different colours and intensities of light that I explored in week 2.

This was my favourite image from the figure drawing. I think the pose clearly conveys the emotions and atmosphere so I chose to use this hunched over, sitting down pose. In week 2 I explored using intense lighting from different angles. I also looked at changing the colour by adding a red filter. I tested shining a hard red light from above and below the figure.

I preferred this composition with the light above as I think it helped further the themes of isolation and loneliness more.

I wanted to incorporate the hands from this image into my piece as I think the help to represent the text.

After deciding on the overall elements I wanted to include, I began to work on each part in more detail. I decided that I will use a black background to create an ominous and scary atmosphere.

This sitting down hunched over pose is what I decided to use. Using the white pencil I only wanted to add in highlights to create to figure without adding too much detail, especially on the face. I think a minimal figure reflects the theme of the text such as loneliness.

Hands are something that I’ve struggled with before I wanted to include them to try help me improve. I tested out a few different positions, I wanted them all to be reaching out to give the impression that they’re trying to reach the figure. This is a way of representing the theme of shadows that are mentioned in the text.

After working on the figure and hands separately I began to work on the composition. Scale is important for this as I wanted to figure to be small in comparison to the hands which appear to be reaching out tho grab him.

I then decided I wanted the paper to be a long, thin shape to mimic a tunnel or alleyway and make it look as though the walls and hands are closing in on the figure.

Here is my final image for this brief. I used white pencil on black paper. The light source is above the hands so they are much more detailed that the figure which is much more subtle. I wanted the figure to be less detailed to create the ominous atmosphere felt in the text. As mentioned above I tested different lighting but I think they actually take away from the piece so this is my favourite.

This was a continuation of last weeks work on the story ‘sell your house and buy gold’. We moved on from using figure drawing to represent the emotions and atmosphere of the character in the text to exploring the space depicted in the text. We were split into groups of 4 and made a model using a range of materials which we then photographed using different lighting and angles. In the text the space is depicted as dark, gloomy and very atmospheric as well as with the looming sense of danger and fear. We tried to capture all of this through our model.

Our model was a representation of the house that was depicted. We made 3 sides of the house to allow for an open side to make it easier to photograph. Also we distorted the shape of house and the windows to add the the eerie feel. We cut the windows out and used different materials to cover them such as a thin fabric to look like a curtain, a thin red plastic and a material with lots of holes on it. On one we added a cross over the window to try make some interesting shadows. We added a range of geometric shapes to represent the objects in a house and create a sense of chaos. Around the top of the model we put wires and a fabric to look like spider webs. All of this paired with the messy red and black paint create the scary, dangerous atmosphere that we understood from the text.

After completing our model we then photographed it, experimenting with different ways of lighting it. We used a range of larger and smaller lights and hard and soft lighting to see how it interacted with the model. After experimenting we found that the smaller, more concentrated lights worked better as the were able to light only 1 part and add to the eerie dangerous atmosphere. We were able to get some interesting photos from different angles. The windows really helped when photographing as we could get some interesting angles of the model.

I am happy with the model we made and think we got some good photos in response to ‘sell your house and buy gold’. However, if we were to redo this I would suggest a few changes which I think would help improve the outcome. I think I would add more windows and cut outs as they worked as good vantage points and creates some nice shadows. Also I think I would reduce the amount of black paint used or at least be more strategic about its placement to allow for more bold and obvious shadows.

In this session we began to respond to a text that we read called ‘sell your house and buy gold’. We did this through figure drawing where we had a live model. The text presented many prevalent themes such as fear, dystopia, paranoia, shadows, and disaster. I used these themes to try and shape my work in order for it to better represent the ideas, emotions and atmosphere of the text. Through these sketches I experimented with tone, shape and media.

I enjoyed this workshop as I like figure drawing and am confident with the media I used. I will continue to develop my response to the ‘sell your house and buy gold’ brief.

This task was an extension of what we did last week with the observational drawings of our partners sentimental objects. I expanded on the ideas I already had and experimented with new styles and techniques. I also began to consider more about how I could reflect Jianyn’s personality and the things we discussed through my sketches.

Here is my final image for this brief. I took ideas from all three roughs but mostly the first one as it was my favourite. I chose to use a simple colour palette, limiting it to purple, blue and yellow as these are my partners favourite. Each of the three elements is limited to 1 colour. I used water colour to add a subtle backdrop colour and coloured pencils to add in the details and tones.I think this piece is successful in portraying my partners personality through her sentimental objects. I’m happy with the vibrant colours I used and think it creates a fun and playful atmosphere.

For this task we had to pair up with something who is very different to ourselves, whether that be in race, age, gender or any other difference. Then we had to show our partner 3 objects of ours that have sentimental value to us and discuss why they are significant to us. We also asked each other a series of other questions to help get to know each other better. My partner for this was Jiayun so I responded to our discussion with some sketches of her sentimental objects. I used different sketching styles and focuses to fully explore the objects.

All my sketches where done through observation, this greatly helped me capture to true forms of the objects.

Next I experimented with looking at the whole subject and all its details. I attempted to sketch the object, in this case a watch, without looking at the page. These blind contour drawings helped me to focus on what I can see, not what thought I could see. I found this style of sketch challenging as I prefer a more controlled and refined style but it was good to experiment and helped me understand my subject.

Using all these different drawing techniques and styles I was able to study and really understand the subject and create accurate sketches from observation.