Before this brief had been formally set, we were given a slight heads up about it last term, and then encouraged to head to the secret 7 website and get our heads around the competition and the songs. After first inspecting the list I knew there were only two options in front of me as there were only two songs that I actually liked- Grounds for Divorce by Elbow (which I knew a fair bit about already) and Strange Creatures by Jake Bugg. So when the brief was finally set I decided to forget the others completely and focus on making my choice between the two as well as generating initial image ideas.
So to get a good dump of inspiration I went to the internet; first I listened to the songs, then watched the video for grounds for divorce (strange creatures didn't have one) and finally printed out copies of the lyrics.
Video (where applicable) and Songs:
Grounds For Divorce
Strange Creatures
Lyrics:
Grounds For Divorce:
Mondays is for drinking to the seldom seen kid
I've been working on a cocktail called "Grounds For Divorce", whoa
Polishing a compass that I hold in my sleep, whoa
Doubt comes in on sticks, but then he kicks like a horse, whoa
There's a Chinese cigarette case and the rest you can keep
And the rest you can keep
And the rest you can keep
There's a hole in my neighbourhood
Down which of late I cannot help but fall
There's a hole in my neighbourhood
Down which of late I cannot help but fall
Mondays is for drinking to the seldom seen kid
(Ooh, ooh)
There's this whispering of jokers doing "Flesh by the Pound"
To a chorus of supposes from the little town whores
There'll be twisted karaoke at the Aniseed Lounge
And I'd bring you further roses but it does you no good
And it does me no good
And it does you no good
There's a hole in my neighborhood
Down which of late I cannot help but fall
There's a hole in my neighborhood
Down which of late I cannot help but fall
There's a hole in my neighborhood
Down which of late I cannot help but fall
Someday we'll be drinking with the seldom seen kid
(Ooh, ooh)
Strange Creatures:
Oh, it?s a cold world
But it?s haunting me
Oh, a little ghost of a girl
She came to me
She?s been haunting me
Strange creatures
Oh, yeah, you and I both
Strange creatures
Deep down you and I both
This man knows it all
Don?t have a clue about me
I?m in a nightmare
Not a thing can set me free
If only we could see
That we?re strange creatures
Oh, yeah, you and and I both
Strange creatures
Deep down you and I both
Oooh
Strange creatures
Oh, yeah, you and I both
Strange creatures
Deep down you and I both
Strange creatures
Deep down you and I both
After highlighting key words and phrases, scribbling down some initial thoughts and taking note of any colour schemes that made themselves present (especially in the Elbow video, dark reds, greens etc) I took this info and began to make lists, listing out all my initial ideas for both songs and any possible themes/image ideas I could run with.
So now it was time to scrap Bugg and focus on the Grounds for Divorce, for which 30 thumbnail designs were required. (I did freak a bit at the thought of this- I won't lie, no one can come up with 30 ideas- and certainly not 30 good ones) I was thankful for my list and continually referred back to it for more ideas.
Now came the difficult bit, narrowing these ideas down. First line of attack- ask the artistic boyfriend, I always ask his opinion on all my work and ideas, it's always useful to have someone consistently around whose opinion you trust. However, due to his lack of Graphic Design training I always feel it necessary to get a secondary opinion from my classmates. So a small group of us (about 5) held a mini-crit to help each other make our decisions. We each took it in turn to explain our ideas, our interpretations of the songs and why we had done what we had done. It proved very useful, and helped me select my final five with a lot less pressure and a lot more confidence in them.
I then drew these sketches up into a 'neater' format, listed the meaning and any initial medium choices I had and then presented them ready for interim crit.
Interim Crit
The key information I was looking for from my class mates was a definitive decision on which was the strongest design out of my five 'cleaner' sketches. Although at the same time I wanted to be certain that to an audience member, my designs would manage in some way to link to the song.
Although the feedback I had was useful I didn't feel it was conclusive enough to make a decision. There was no clearly defined 'favourite' and personally I couldn't figure out which one was weakest and so I spoke to Simon and asked his opinion in order to make the choice easier. Despite there still being no clear 'strong' design I was able to, with his help, narrow down the five to two which proved a lot more practical to produce in the time scale provided.
Design Development
Producing digital versions of both designs was simple enough task, but just a time consuming labour of love one. The hole design required outlining the original image with the blob brush tool, this was very time consuming but the only way I could achieve the scribbled look that I wanted, the pen tool just didn't produce the same effect.
The second patterned design was a lot easier to produce, the pen tool was effective for this design as it gave the clean and vectorised look that i was after. I outlined the images already produced and added colour to them. The only concern came with colour choice and that was a simple one to over come. A white or black background? Black every time, it looks moodier.
Choosing a colour scheme for the hole design wasn't as simple as that, after producing the basic outline I copied the image time and time again trying out different backgrounds and different colour schemes. I made my final choice based off of peer opinion I would ask each student which one they preferred, the one that won overall was the orange design on the scribbled background so this is the design I ended up going with.
Final Designs
For the first design I chose to produce an illustrative piece depicting the line 'there's a hole in my neighbourhood' as well as representing the relationship in turmoil that the song speaks of.
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| Submitting the design to Secret 7" |
For the second design I chose to go with a patterned look with images depicting specific lines from the song (moral compass, chinese cigarette case, ? and the drink) as the pattern progresses each of the items progress too, the moral compass turns from north to south depicting a relationship going sour, the drink ends up spilt.
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| Submitting design to Secret 7" |
So how did it go?
I kind of enjoyed this project, however I do feel I relied on my illustrative instinct and produced designs that could be classed more as illustration than graphic design. It was nice to do a bit of drawing again but on reflection I feel that I may have chosen some obvious design ideas. The hole design is definitely my favourite one and as far as illustration goes it was really nice to draw something I was that satisfied with in a style I have been trying to get right for a long time.
I had been very pleased with both designs and I also thought this would be a brief I would be amazing at, however, when comparing the final products to the other designs produced for this brief I feel it just paled away and shrunk into the background. I had started this brief very confident but now I'm not so sure… I'm not sure what I'm strong at anymore. Other people's concepts and ideas just blew mine out of the water and this has left me feeling very shaky in my self confidence.
It'll take time before I understand where my strong point is.
I didn't end up being selected for the final exhibition which was a little saddening and I do feel this is because of my rather obvious design ideas.
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