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Friday, 14 February 2014
Responsive: Secret 7 Competition 2014
As part of my Responsive Module, I have to take part in Competitions and Live Briefs. I did this one for Secret 7 last year, a charity design competition which has an annual competition to design a sleeve of an 7" album cover, and decided to take part again this year.
Secret 7 Website
There were 7 songs which I could have chosen to work from, which were:
Age of Reason by Black Sabbath
Grounds For Divorce by Elbow
Strange Creatures by Jake Bugg
Team by Lorde
Karmacoma by Massive Attack
Virginia Plain by Roxy Music
Get It On by T-Rex
I listened to all of the songs that were an option to see what they were like and which one I felt I could connect to doing.
Chosen Song
The song that I chose out of the selection of 7 was to do 'Grounds for Divorce' by Elbow as it was very emotive and I felt that it tackled some sensitive issues which would make it quite interesting to interpret.
The first thing I did was print off a copy of the lyrics themselves and read through them in more detail, annotating them as I went along. This way I would be able to get to the route of the story within the song and see what it was discussing. The main thing that come to me was the theme of alcoholism within the song and the utter hopelessness within the song. The lack of direction the narrator feels and the repetitive behaviour cycle that he gets into was what stuck out the most for me. What was also interesting was the object named within the song; compass, cigarette case, cocktail, horse and roses which like metaphors for the life that he can't escape from.
Design Sheet
In order to get some ideas down, I drew up a range of different album covers that I could produce based on the themes that came up within my annotations. The main design I felt which would be the most successful was a design of a compass with a range of needles which all point in different directions. The idea of a cycle and lack of direction made me focus mainly on the round object of a compass and the many needles adds to the confusion that the narrator feels whilst under the influence of the addiction and how it has affected all aspects of his life.
Compass Visual Development
I went onto producing a digital version of a compass and played around with the needles themselves in regards to size, shape and amount. This allowed me to create a detailed and authentic visual of a compass. The array of needles are done by just having a line so that they look thin like they would do in real life, giving the compass an authenticity. The trouble with the current design. however, is that it is quite empty and the rest for the image looks very plain so I wanted to give the design more to play with.
Inclusion of the Palms
I went onto develop the image by including some palms of human hands that the compass is being held within. This has instantly lifted the image and given it more flow and points of interest to focus on. The idea of having the hands holding the compass as if they are trying to be guided by it, gives the compass a context and showing where the narrator is going, nowhere.
Background Development
The next thing I need to do was develop a background which the hands and compass could be on. I made a light grey path which I thought could be used as a pavement and was surrounded by dark grey to highlight the road that they are currently walking on and the constant habit that they find themselves in.
Background Development
I developed the Background by making the hands and compass bigger so that they are more in proportion with the background itself. I positioned the compass further up the hands so that it didn't appear as thought it was resting unnaturally on the wrists. I narrowed the pathway and brought the top of it down. I quite like this effect because it looked like the shadow of an open door with the narrator being stood in the doorframe which I felt emphasised the need for direction but, at the same time, the sudden stop and placement of the path seemed very odd so I changed this back.
Compass Placement
I changed the placement of the compass so that it was higher in the palms and more centralised within the image itself as well as moving the hands more to the left as the chain of the compass made the whole image look slightly lop-sided.
Arrow Development
I changed the arrows that I had so that they were not in black outline and had been in colour like everything else on the image. I went onto playing with the visual of the arrows but I felt that it had more impact when the arrows were empty as the extra space looks more like a starburst.
Final Piece:
Final Design
I felt that this image overall is very successful in communicating the themes that I want to bring across about the message of the song. The fact that it is very open to many interpretations means that the audience can make their own take on it. If I was to change it, I would perhaps change the placement of the compass so it was slightly more to the right of the hands but thats just because there is more flesh on show so, to me, it appears slightly off-center when it isn't really that bad.
Secret 7 Proposal
I superimposed the front cover of the vinyl onto a mock up so that you could clearly see the vinyl cover in its contextualised state. This gives a much clearer and professional aesthetic.
Design Board for Secret 7
I produced a design board so it was clear to see what I had produced and how it would be used on real life.
Submitting:
Rules of Competition
The rules of the competition state that the file must be 300dpi, CMYk and must be 182mm x 182mm with a 3mm bleed. The file must be saved and uploaded as a TIFF, JPEG or PDF.
Adhering to Competition Rules
I made a new document that was CMYK, 300dpi and was 182mm x 182mm in size with a 3mm bleed all the way around.
Bleed Line
I resized the image so that the sides of the image reached the edges of the bleed so that the image wouldn't have any white edges.
Save as a TIFF File
I saved the image by exporting it and changing the format to a TIFF file then making it the highest quality so that it is of thew correct dpi.
Submitting Submission
From that, I went onto the website and uploaded the image alongside my name and email address.
What I liked about doing this brief was that it was something away from the larger main briefs that I am currently doing at the moment. I gave myself a short timeframe to do it in so that it was a quick turnover for a brief which made me work in a different way to what I usually would. I need to be a bit faster when it comes to producing briefs so it showed to myself that I could do it. Compared to what I produced last year, I am much happier with the visual of the design and I think that I could actually have a chance of winning.
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