Objective
Using formal and informal typography, design a gatefold album sleeve for the 1999 release of "The Fragile" by Nine Inch Nails. The target demographic are between late 20 - 60 year olds. My intention of the design was to reflect the music genre ( grunge/punk/rock), hence the use of yellow as the main colour. Not only was this a good contrast between the black but also through my research stage I discovered that quite a few of the 90’s album covers around the grunge genre scene used a fair bit of that washed out yellow colour.
Analysis
For my hero image I focused on the theme of “Fragile”, “Destruction” and “Chaos”. These were the main themes I chose because I believe it reflects the overall sound and attention of the album. I took inspiration from what Trent Razor mentioned how he “wanted this album to sound like there was something inherently flawed in the situation, like someone struggling to put the pieces together.” From this I thought about collage and ripping paper and putting it back together, which is what I did with “The Fragile” text. Next I thought about the “peeling off layers and arriving at a naked ugly end” and the word “destruction”, so I glued a pile of paper together and then just started scratching and destroying the paper with a knife. What you end up with is a messy and chaotic artwork that characterises the state of destruction. This created a really interesting texture effect, which I thought worked really well with the overall theme as well as creating a sense of movement and tension, which is how I felt when I listened to the music. Overall I believe my hero image mirrored the ideas of anger and despair, which I believe reflects upon some of the lyrics.
I chose to experiment with paper as opposed to other things because not only was paper quite easy to work with, but it was also something that could be very fragile and easily torn and manipulated when it’s just one sheet of paper. However when all stacked together it’s strong enough to prevent bullets from passing through. My choice of using paper also has a deeper meaning of how when we all stand together as a united group, we are much stronger than when we stand alone. We become less fragile and more indestructible, and that’s what music can do. It brings people together with a common shared interest.
I wanted this album to shout and draw attention to those punk lovers, hence the high contrast of yellow and black as well as the raw and damaged cover that screamed PUNK! Or the “If you like hard-core and grunge music, come get me now!” My target audience age group was between the young adults and the mid 40-50’s individuals.
