Major Project Update

Since my last blog post regarding my Major Project, I have begun developing some rough illustrations and playing around with ideas for album covers. I currently have three different ideas, some with accompanying animations. When I am brainstorming illustration ideas, I am also taking into account how I may be able to make them move when it comes to animating them eventually. So I feel that it is important to quickly test this as I go.

The first idea I had didn't particularly correlate with any specific song or lyric, but I didn't feel as though it had to be so specific. I decided on illustrating a person falling through clouds, which I think portrays the idea of feeling alone and lost, yet free, which to me fits Louie's lyrics a fair amount.

Although it doesn't look overly rough or like a thumbnail sketch, to me it is. I often think about colours as textures and how they will compliment each other as I go, so I like to test them out as I'm sketching. I always go back after and make changes and tidy things up, and I plan on doing so on all of the following designs.

This is the first design I have produced. I do not know which song this will accompany as of yet, as Louie has decided her would like to release some of his songs as singles, as well as having a full album at the end. This means I will be using more designs as final products. I plan on doing this by having psychical mock up vinyls, where I will construct the sleeve myself using my designs, and also I will be lasercutting some coloured acrylic plastic circles to mimic the vinyl. I want this to be presented professionally and I feel like this will help my vision come across more clearly.

I like the concept for this design, and Louie has said he would like to use it for his song 'Spade.' I am still on the fence about this design and I think this is due to the colour pallet being to bright compared to what I was originally imagining in my head and my research. I will be adjusting this when I illustrate the final outcome.

To accompany this, I tested out some animation to see how it might work. I wanted to use a skill I learnt last year on After Effects where you can layer objects and make them move at different speeds to make the overall thing look more three dimensional. I am really please with the outcome and hope to replicate this effect in the finished design. Here is the test:

After this design, I came up with another which also maintains the same visual style and focuses around the theme of mental health, which is recurring in Louie's music. I had the idea of looking inside someone's head, which I paired with one of Louie's lyrics about depression being like a toxic gas that creeps in. I thought it would be effective if I illustrated this metaphor he had created, and so here is the next design I came up with:

I like the concept for this design, but it definitely needs a lot of work stylistically. I would change the colours and definitely add more texture. I do however really like the lettering I have done for his name as I think it fits his aesthetic well.

I also tested out some animation with this one, and I really wanted to focus on the 'toxic gas' creeping in. I also wanted to test out some animation using textures, just to add a bit grit to the composition.

The final design I have done so far is intended to be used for Louie's song 'Secrets' which focuses mainly around the idea of sneaking out at night as a teenager. I took this idea and thought about mimicking some sort of neon light to suggest night time in an urban setting, as well as the idea of being alone. This is the illustration I ended up with:

I do like this idea, but I really think it would be better if I played around with the perspective a bit more. For this I've taken inspiration from Golden Wolf's work with Converse, where they created a few illustrations and animations to promote Converse's new range. I really love the perspective in these and would really like to try and take inspiration from it when re-designing this composition.

I would also like to create an animation for this and I was thinking of perhaps making some sort of looping walk cycle, however I'm not overly sure yet.

My next steps for this project is to come up with a few more designs and also adjust the ones I have so far so that I'm happy with them. I also want to get some animating done and begin thinking about designing merchandise for Louie also.