DVB102: Record Cover

DYB102: Record Cover Project

GLIMPSE OF US by JOJI

Adalie Hoang | n10785779

INTRODUCTION

In Assessment 2 of DVB102, I was asked to design an album cover and promotional poster for an album or single of my liking, my choice was 'Glimpse of Us' by musician/singer Joji.

To come up with the most satisfying work, the task asked me to have at least 3 ideas for this cover album. In addition, I will present my creative process with a video, this video will be made by me in documentary form, from which will describe the process and explain in detail my final idea. With the Behance project, I will briefly talk about my iterations and the research I did to get such results.

ARTIST AND SONG

Joji is a musician with three main genres, including R&B, lo-fi and trip hop. Most of Joji's compositions are sad, rather tragic songs about love and life, the single I chose, 'Glimpse of Us' is also one of the songs with a similar theme. This song was released as a lead single for the new album (unreleased) of Joji.

RESEARCH

Glimpse of Us is a pop music song, which is popular music. Pop music is music with a gentle, slow tempo with deep lyrics, easily evoking sad feelings in the listener's heart.
As mentioned above, 'Glimpse of Us' has a theme of a sad love song, specifically here is a song about a guy who has a new love but still lingers on his ex.

Because the material that makes up the pop songs are all light things and the song 'Glimpse of Us' is very gentle and deep, so I had a general idea for the cover which is 'minimal, dreary'.

Pop music has a target audience of mainly young people, aged 16-30 years old, so even though the cover is simple, it still has to have details that make a visual impression on viewers. and must have 'trendy' materials.

MOODBOARD

I created a moodboard to base my ideas on. Moodboard is made up of feelings like depression, brokenness, loneliness, lost and nostalgia. These are images that match my feelings when I listen to this song.

BRAINSTORMING

I combined listening to the song and watching a video of it on Youtube to get some inspiration from it. Unfortunately, the 'Glimpse of Us' video is nothing like the usual music videos I've seen, you should check it out if you get a chance to see what a mess it is. If I had one word to describe this video, I would choose the word 'depression' because the video is a film of the chaotic lives of people I feel like 'at the bottom of society' and I think that's the author's feeling when 'losing the girl he loves'- a mess, nothing but depression. I have noticed that the image of a man sitting alone holding his head is repeated a lot in the video, in addition, broken furniture also appears with a frequency of repetition. From those images, I incorporated further analysis in terms of 'text' to come up with keywords for ideas.

KEYWORDS

First, I analyzed and dug into the name of this single. I analyzed the two words 'Glimpse' and 'Us' to be able to link things related to them. From the words I analyzed, I relied on them for ideas. From the name of the single, I came up with key words like: tears, leaving hands, past and present, broken, glasses, these are all words that I applied throughout the creative process.

Then, I analysed the lyrics, highlighting words or phrases that I felt special and visually appealing in the song to create some visualisations in my head.

And finally, I came up with the idea of implementation. I choose drawing and photography as my two main work methods. I give the options and specific things I need to draw and photograph for each idea. However, these are only initial ideas and will be changed a lot as I work on them.

REFERENCE MATERIAL

First, I consulted covers of Joji's old albums and singles. I can summarize the style that Joji uses for his cover albums very simply, just one photo, one central subject. The authentic cover of the single 'Glimpse of Us' is just an image of a crocodile's eye (as you can see from the above image), I think this is representative of 'Glimpse' but in my cover album I want it to include both 'Glimpse' ' and 'Us'. I quite like the style of mixing red and black for the album because red reminds me of 'love' and black reminds me of 'separation', which is quite consistent with the content of Joji's compositions.

I have referenced some of the other albums. Specifically, albums of singers and musicians whose music style is almost the same as Joji's. After watching Joji's videos and old works, I realized his style is quite 'weird' and a bit 'rebellious', so I look to names like 'flora cash' or 'Imagine Dragon'. From these works, I got a few more ideas for myself, such as creating a color overlay for the album, using one-lined drawing or a way to add more emphasis to the eyes (which I focused on).

THREE ITERATIONS / SKETCHES

I'm not good at drawing, so my concept sketches don't look very good. I had 3 ideas at first. My first idea is about reminiscence. At first, I had the idea that a person in his head, filled with jumbled thoughts, was turning his gaze to a couple, implying that it was his past. My second idea is about separation. I chose the image of two separate hands to represent separation, brokenness. And the third idea, I want to use the analogy because in the lyrics there is a mention of the guy who has a new lover but still lingers about the old one, only considering the new one as a replacement. With that in mind, I wanted the images of the two girls to be placed side by side, as a reflection and exchange.

Tool: Procreate

For the first idea, I based on an old cover by Joji, using a simple image of a man's face when viewed sideways. I don't let my gaze go to the past, I let him think about his past love. I used the image of a happy-looking couple with the implication that he still remembers the good old days. I filled the image with squiggly textures representing the chaos in his mind. I let the man slightly bow his head because that is the usual posture of a person who is sad, regretful and disappointed. The starry sky is the background of this photo with the meaning that he is lost in the universe, in the middle of life without his girl.

Tool: Procreate

For the second idea, this is my random idea, not in the sketch. I wanted to focus on the 'Glimpse' part and to express the pain in my son's heart, I let him cry. The look in his eyes felt like he was looking up, carrying the idea that he was looking at his past and the person he loved. I created the mirror image below just because I thought the keyword I originally created was 'mirror', so I thought it would be possible to create a mirror image. I didn't focus on the eyes, I just drew it in the simplest way, sketching the shape of the eyes. This is meant to emphasise the pain he is carrying, viewers will focus more on the flow of tears.

Tool: Procreate

For the third idea, I used a simple, one-stroke drawing from start to finish (but I tweaked it a bit to make it less cluttered). This is an idea based on key words like 'eye', 'past', 'mirror'. I have designed 2 versions of it, one is a man-woman couple, the other is two women, can use them front and back of this cover. With the image of man and woman, it can be seen that the man is not looking at the girl but looking behind, I think this can convey the meaning that 'he does not love her', 'he is finding something at his back'. With the image of two girls, as mentioned in the sketch, I took the idea that two girls from his past and present are facing each other, creating a comparison between the present and the future. For this image, I have made the eyes the most detailed in the photo, from which the word 'Glimpse' is emphasised.

DRAFT DESIGN

Draft 1

Tools: Procreate +Photography (Canon EOS 5D Mark IV)

I switched ideas with photography. Based on keywords, I took pictures of eyes and hands moving away from each other. I created a background that looks like a 'wave' to give the viewer a feeling of 'memory surges like waves'. But I find it still too monotonous and unremarkable, not leaving an impression on viewers.

Draft 2

Tools: Procreate +Photography (Canon EOS 5D Mark IV)

I added the detail of the 'red thread of fate' but now it has turned white with the implication that 'fate is over', and at the same time, this also makes the cover more prominent and has more interconnected. Since I like the idea of tears because they represent pain, I included it in the photo. Although there is a link and the picture looks more detailed and eye-catching, I still feel something is missing.

FINAL RECORD DESIGN

Tools: Procreate +Photography (Canon EOS 5D Mark IV) +Adobe Photoshop

After making the drafts, I remembered the keyword 'broken' so I used Photoshop to create cracks on the arm. I also created a 'broken glass' effect with an image representing 'glimpse'. All these effects to prove that this love is broken, destiny is over, everything is just cracks. I am satisfied with the end result because it has enough emphasis but still retains the simplicity that I was aiming for from the beginning.

With the vinyl, I only used the background of the album cover. I was thinking to put the eye image in the middle but when I tried it, it didn't fit and it looked pretty creepy. Using a background like this also makes the vinyl look simple but still beautiful and in sync with the cover. Moreover, I love the texture in the background and it also has a visual appeal to the viewer.

For the poster, I used a simpler image of the back of the cover. From there, it is possible to make viewers more focused on the information, but not so that it loses the attraction when looking at the poster. In addition, I find this image also very prominent and easy to attract viewers.

DESIGN PRINCIPLES

LINE

Lines can lead the eye, outline a shape, create a division, and express emotion. Different weight, character and direction of line can convey different emotions (Mydee, n.d). I used a rather soft, thin line, as this is a sad pop song about love.

COLOUR

I chose sr to use three main colors: red, black and white. The first reason for this choice is the cover of Joji's previous album 'Nectar', it also has the same color and I feel this is Joji's signature color. Next, here are three basic, highly representative colors. Black and white create a sense of end, emptiness and sadness, while red reminds us of love but at the same time it also represents pain. And finally, these three colors come together to give me a sense of visual harmony.

TYPOGRAPHY

I use two fonts including 'COPPERPLATE' and 'ZAPTINO', one is very sturdy, bold and the other is smooth and wavy. I wanted to create that contrast because in my design photography looks very hard while the hand-drawn lines are very soft. For that reason, using two fonts will make this design more harmonious.

CONTINUATION

To create more coherence in the design, I let the string be the bridge between the two images. This has helped the two images have similar features and have more visual appeal.

MOCKUPS