DVB102 Assessment 2: Record Cover Project
Jackson Chang // n10432191
For this assessment, we're tasked with creating a vinyl album cover and poster promoting said album for a band or artist. The process for this will first involve producing three iterations of the album cover, then selecting one of them for the finalised version. A poster will be made afterwards to promote and complement the album cover. This will be recorded and compiled in a process video where we will explain our design decisions, reasonings and reflection.
Artist: Mega NRG Man
Album: Seventies
I decided to choose the artist Mega NRG Man and his album 'Seventies'. He's an artist I listen to frequently since his music falls under the niche genre of Eurobeat, which is composed of high-energy and fast-paced music that I enjoy listening to.
Initial Planning
Mind Map
For the planning, I started with a mind map to show various word associations with the album.
Keywords when listening to the album include but not limited to:
- Fun
- Fast
- Passion
- Movement
- Time
- Sensual
- Love
- Fire
Thumbnail Sketches
I have also created 12 thumbnail sketches of what the album cover could look like. I have based these off my mind map, so there's a strong emphasis on lines and angles to convey speed, movement and other keywords.
Research
Unfortunately there's not much information available on the artist Mega NRG Man, so my research will be mostly focused on his music and the genre it resides in: Eurobeat.
Eurobeat is a genre of music that's generally defined by high tempos which makes for intense and fast paced music. It is very unique as Eurobeat music is generally produced in Italy, but only released in Japan. Another distinguishing characteristic of Eurobeat is that its lyrics typically have recurring themes of love, speed, cars, Japan and Eurobeat itself.
Its popularity has increased in recent times to worldwide audiences thanks to the anime adaptation of Shuichi Shigeno's Initial D which heavily features Eurobeat tracks; this was how I personally discovered the genre myself.
Target Audience: Japanese, Car Enthusiasts
After researching the genre of his music, the target audience of Mega NRG Man's album 'Seventies' would be Japanese audiences and car enthusiasts. Since Eurobeat music is released exclusively in Japan, it would be primarily targeted towards them. It would also, however, target car enthusiasts who enjoy listening to music that relate to their hobbies and interests. As such, these two groups are the target demographic for this album cover and poster.
Iteration 1
For the first iteration of the album cover, I wanted it to convey a 70's vibe to match the album's title 'Seventies' and give it an old school and retro mood. So first, I tried finding some toy cars in my house that can imitate this mood. Fortunately, I was able to find a run-down, old purple car that suits the theme of this album cover. Using the infinity wall I made for Assessment 1, I took various images of the car in different positions to see which one would look best for a record cover as seen below.
Afterwards, I went to Photoshop to select one of the images and used the pen tool to crop out the car from the background. Before starting the cover itself, I made sure that the dimensions in Photoshop were 31.43cm square, which is the size for a record cover.
I started creating the background of the image by experimenting with different colours for it, but eventually decided to use light orange-yellow for the colour. But I also wanted the album cover to have a sense of movement from the car's direction, so I added over the background a 'floor' below the car that follows its direction. For its colour, I decided to use a purple to white gradient for it as it gives contrast to the yellow background. However, the car still looked very unnatural since there's no shadow below it, so I added that in for more realism.
For the text of the cover (title and artist names), I decided to use the sans-serif font Bebas Neue since it matches the clean and smooth aesthetic of the album. But it still felt lacking, so I decided to change the 'Mega NRG Man' text so that it has a white outline and uses a gradient for its colour. Then, I thought I'd incorporate the vertical lines idea from the thumbnail sketches here to make the background more lively. I used red for the colour since it contrasts nicely with the yellow and purple to white gradient background.
Before using submitting this as the first iteration, I thought I should try inverting the colours on the 'Seventies' text to give it more interaction with the background. This contrast looked quite nice, so I left this as the first iteration of the album cover.
Iteration 2
For the second iteration, I went for a more modern and clean aesthetic, but still retaining some retro aspects into it from the first iteration. Like before, I find a toy car to take various images of in my infinity wall to use for the album cover. However, this time I used a hot wheels car that has a very unique design in the yellow flame that surrounds the car. Since the colours of the car match the retro aesthetic, I figured I could try to use that yellow flame to my advantage to convey movement.
I selected one of the images above that would be best suited for the album cover, and took it to Photoshop where I used the pen tool to crop out the car from the background. Before starting the cover itself, I made sure that the dimensions in Photoshop were 31.43cm square, which is the size for a record cover.
To differentiate from the first iteration, I decided to use a blue to red gradient for the background, then used a creamy yellow border on the edge of the cover which gives the record cover a more dignified and modern look while retaining some retro vibe with the colour selection.
I wanted to create a car light trails effect to give the car more movement, so I added some red rectangles and rotated them so that it looks like its coming from the car. However, like the first iteration, the car still looked very unusual since there was no shadow, so I added that below the car. I wanted the car to stand out more from the background though, so I also added a blue glow effect surrounding the car to give it an 'aura' effect.
The sans-serif font Haettenschweiler was used for both the 'Seventies' and 'Mega NRG Man' text for consistency as they suited the tone of the album cover. I felt that using a flat colour for the text looked a little too bland, so I changed them to gradients and gave them outlines to further distinguish them. I then decided to add a wave-like texture over the gradient background to make it more interesting and emphasise the idea of movement in this album cover. A shadow outline effect was added to the 'Seventies' text to further protrude it from the textured background.
I decided that this would be suitable for the second iteration of the album cover since the textured background makes it unique enough from the first iteration despite being similar in execution.
Iteration 3
The third iteration I decided was going to be much different from the other two iterations. First off, I wanted this iteration to focus on the sensual and intimate aspect of the album, so I wasn't going to use any cars for this iteration. While this wouldn't be suited towards the target audience of car enthusiasts, I wanted to experiment with a different theme of the album to create a distinct outcome. The monochromatic red colour scheme I used here gives the album that mood of love, passion and fire; all of which are keywords for the album.
After establishing the red background, I used the brush tool to draw the outlines of a female's facial features. I figured that using simple lines would be effective enough to define a woman's face since it only illustrates the important details: her lips, nose and hair.
For her hair, I wanted to give it a very wavy look, so I made the lines inconsistent to one another to give it more variety and life. However, using black as the colour for the lines was quite boring, so I tried experimenting with various gradients for the lines as they allowed for more colours to be incorporated, which suits the wavy lines of the woman's hair. Eventually, I thought a purple to yellow to orange gradient looked the best as it suits the monochromatic colour scheme of this album cover.
For the 'Seventies' text, I decided to use a script-based font called Edo SZ which looks very hand-made as it uses a brush-like effect. The 'Mega NRG Man' text also uses a script-based font called Calligraphy to complement the 'Seventies' text. For the 'Seventies' text, I have the letters going down rather than right since it perfectly takes up enough room on the empty left side, but it also looks very unique especially compared to the other iterations. I have the artist's name located on the bottom right as there's enough space there for it, and it also helps balance the composition as the white text there helps balance the white 'Seventies' text.
However, the area around the 'Seventies' text is still bland compared to the wavy hair lines to the right of the composition, so I decided to experiment with various red backdrops with the different brushes in Photoshop. One of the brushes I found creates a texture it looks like a lipstick mark, so I tried seeing if that would work. I also tried using a brush tool to create a strong diagonal backdrop behind the 'Seventies' text to give it a crisp look. Eventually, I settled with using a round backdrop that's similar to the diagonal variation, but is slightly more brush-like as the backdrop isn't completely filled in with dark red, which adds variation to it.
I decided that this would suffice well as the third iteration as it's already distinctive from the other two iterations with its concept, colour scheme and font type.
Selecting One Iteration
Out of all three iterations, I think the third iteration is the best one to develop further for the album cover. I believe the third iteration is better than the other two because it's very bold and distinct as it shoves a woman's face onto the viewer to give them the feeling of passion and intimacy which encapsulate this album better than the other two iterations.
Developing Album Cover
I continued to develop the third iteration by changing various things such as the hair lines and colour scheme. This includes creating the back of the album cover where I made it similar to the front cover by reflecting the wavy hair lines.
The feedback that I received from my tutor for the above album cover was to first change the bottom right text in the front cover with a sans-serif font to contrast the script-based font. They also suggested to further develop the line art for the album cover by changing the width of the lines and use the same fonts across both the front and back of the cover for consistency. Also regarding the line art of the wavy hair, my tutor suggested that instead of reflecting the same line art across to the back cover, have the hair from the front come across to the back to make it wrap around to make the album cover more continuous and connected across the front and back. These changes can be seen below along with the mock-up and will be used for the final album cover. The mock-up was provided by GraphicBurger as listed in the reference list.
Album Poster
I started the album poster after I finished the album cover first as the poster will be visually similar to the album cover to keep the overall mood and atmosphere consistent. To begin, I created an A2 document (420 x 594 mm) in Photoshop as that is the required size for the album poster.
Then I used the same line art and brush from the front album cover and placed it in the middle of the poster to ensure that the poster is consistent with the album cover with its aesthetic. However, there was a lot of empty space above and below the original album art, so I decided to use that area to put in the album and artist names. I naturally needed a backdrop to those text otherwise they would look out of place, so I decided to use the same brush stroke as I did for the album cover on the top and bottom part of the posters. Many brush stroke variations were experimented as seen below, and eventually I decided it was appropriate to put in the list of songs on the poster since it's suppose to promote the album anyway.
However as a result, the 'Seventies' and 'Mega NRG Man' text wasn't as apparent as it should be due to the additional text, so I added drop shadows to both text to make them stand out more in the poster as they're the title and artist of the album being promoted. Additionally, I felt there was a lot of empty space in the poster due to the additional text, so I experimented with the artist name placement until I thought of putting an additional line of text that read 'Out Now On Vinyl!' which suits the promotional purpose of the poster while balancing the overall composition.
Eventually with the final design, I moved the list of songs around on the right so that it was integrated with the hairlines better and made better use of the space. I also added an additional orange glow to the 'Seventies' and 'Mega NRG Man' text to make them further stand out from the brush backdrop behind them.
The final album poster can be seen below along with mock-ups that show how the posters would look in the real world. The mock-ups were provided by GraphicBurger and Mockuptree as listed in the reference list.
Record Centre Label
For the record centre label, I have used the same art for the front album cover like I did for the poster design for consistency. As seen below, I mainly experimented with the text placement of the album name and artist name.
Eventually however, I liked the use of arching the text as it makes good use of the circle shape of the centre label, and thus so I decided to use that for the final record centre label design. The vinyl record mock-up was provided by GraphicBurger as listed in the reference list, which is the same mock-up was used for the album cover. Hence, the vinyl record can be seen alongside the album cover as well to demonstrate how it looks together.
Process Video
Reference List
Amazon. (2020). The Dark Side Of The Moon - Experience Version. Retrieved from https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Side-Moon-Experience-Version/dp/B004ZNAGNE
Eurobeat-Prime. (n.d.). Eurobeat History. Retrieved from https://www.eurobeat-prime.com/history.php
Eurobeat-Prime. (n.d.). Mega NRG Man. Retrieved from https://www.eurobeat-prime.com/artists.php?artist=27
GraphicBurger. (2014). Vinyl Record PSD MockUp. Retrieved from https://graphicburger.com/vinyl-record-psd-mockup/
GraphicBurger. (2016). Bus Stop Billboard MockUp. Retrieved from https://graphicburger.com/bus-stop-billboard-mockup/
Mega NRG Man – Seventies. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.discogs.com/Mega-NRG-Man-Seventies/release/964510
Mockuptree. (2020). Indoor Banner Stand Mockup. Retrieved from https://mockuptree.com/free/indoor-banner-stand-mockup
TV Tropes. (n.d.). Eurobeat. Retrieved from https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Eurobeat
