Evaluation - Kai Holton

What was the assignment brief?

My brief was to create a range of album covers using real life photography in which i will then create a theme for an album cover.

What topic have you chosen and why?

I had chosen to do album covers because it’s a very broad subject and I can go with any style and design because there isn’t a fixed subject to it like in some of the work I have been given like harry potter when I had to mix animals and make it magical themed but with album covers I’m able to change it up and so I will and I did by creating 5 unique styles of album covers.

What research did I do?

I did a bunch of research so I know I got the right target audience and also creating things people would like to see on an album cover. I started by creating a survey on survey monkey which I got peers to ask 9 questions about my work ranging between questions like: What are the best looking album covers you like? Or to things like if I was to make my own album cover what would the style be like? So I can get the right audience and reviews back.

I also looked at a range of albums and the ones I liked I would then take as inspiration and take key elements out of these and use these in my pieces. I even did a plan on PowerPoint where I looked a range of styles and ideas like creating and image with shapes or having a whole band in the image. Also other styles like pop art or abstract and bold patterns and much more but these are just example all of my ideas are on my main blog.

Then I went to the library and looked at books for inspiration and creative ideas the book I used was called “Blast To Freeze British Art In The 20^th Century”. Which I looked at a range of graphic designs and even looked at posters and pieces for inspiration in which I came across a few which caught my eye.

Then I went to the music shop near the college called “Rough Trade” which is a record shop with Cd's and records and music gear and I took pictures of album covers which I liked and could use as inspiration and take elements that I like about them and use it in mine.

                The research which helped me a lot was the survey monkey because it gave me an insight of what people wanted to see and what I should create and with that I created 5 unique designs because I have a balance between 5 styles people wanted to see.

Secondary research i did was look at a range of albums on google and the ones i liked i referenced them i'm my blog i mentioned what i like about them.

More secondary research i did was i looked at a range of Graphic Artist and looked at there work and discussed what i liked about them and how i could use some of those elements in my own work. I liked one of Rus Khassanov's work and used this element in my stream album with the liquid look on the face but i only used this for the models body and left the background without that liquid look.

I think my secondary research was better for ideas on what to do but the primary was by far the best because that gave me and insight on what to do and where to go with my work and gave me an insight what people want to see.

The artists i looked at was: 

Juri Zaech, Minga Firm, Maria Grønlund, Rus Khassanov, Nicole Martinez

What have I made?

I have chosen the colours of the first one because while stumbling across the effects tool i came across an effect which made the model i was using have almost washing up liquid effect which i liked and adds a streamline effect.

The second one i wanted to use the effect of a bold colour and a grey scale  so i used colours like red and black to stand out on a with area.

The next one is the English mod style album this i was going to use the British colours for the background but i thought instead i will use the hue and saturation tool and change it up because i looked online and seen a lot of albums use those colours or use black and white but i used a grey type colour but kept the lines all the same and not having them adjust to the hue and saturation where some lines will be darker e.g. when black and white red will be darker than blue just like below.

So with my work I made it all one colour but still you can recognize the British flag and also a bit of British slang with the "HAVE IT LAD".

Next was the space theme which took me the longest and i used over 60 layers trying to make it as good as possible but if i had more time i still would have improved it with more background detail even extra planets or more space features.

I wanted a piece with more graphical features as well because the others above just consist a lot of photography but instead with this i decided to create an alien head look and use an egg shape for this and also have a scaly look on the persons face to make it look more unique and abstract looking.

with the background i wanted it to change as it goes across the page just like in real life where the sky isn't just one shade of blue off to the side it can be lighter and darker depending where the sun is so with this i decided to do it behind the planet i have made in the corner of the cover.

I also looked at  different types of typography and decided it would be best to put the album name in the head going along the curve of the head and make it a dark and bold text to make it stand out which was my intention of this to make it eye catching and stand out.

Next was my illusion album where i wanted to create a bright and colourful surreal design and so i colored in the eyes of the actor and then decided to have a pattern in the background which would give an illusion style and theme to this.

I also gave his hoodie and hair a colourful green and purple/pink look because they really stand out together. 

How did i get the images i used in my albums?

I used my phone to get my photography images main reason i didn't use a proper camera is because i would of had to wait about 2 weeks because i got banned from using it because i was late for my other camera booking so instead of waiting 2 weeks when i could have already started i decided to use my phone which didn't have that much of a different effect on my images.

What tools have i used?

To create all of these images all i had to use to create this was use Photoshop.

I have developed a few new skills such as:

Wrap text and how i can influence the curve and design of anything from text to shapes to pictures..

My time management, how did it go?

I had to edit some stuff on things such as problems an also other things that needed to be finished.

Was i happy with my Albums?

Yes overall i was happy tho with some of them i wish i had more time to make them more detailed and also i would have liked to make more albums because i enjoyed making albums.

What would i change?

Use a proper camera to take the shots with and also do more on my blog and name all the layers on my Photoshop peices to make it more organized.

Problems i faced?

Problems i faced was getting distracted by others around me and my phone and obviously getting banned from using the camera.

Final Major Project Album Covers

Proposal

I am going to be making a bunch of album covers using the same person to show that I can use the same person but adept it to different topics and designs. The reason I have chosen this is because album covers can use a range of designs and styles from surreal, realistic and mysterious and I like how broad the choices are and not fixed to one style like in the previous assignments.

I will be creating my work on Photoshop but once I have took the images I wanted of the actor with the camera I am able to hire out from college. I can then put it onto Photoshop and begin to create a unique album cover with one of the styles I have chosen from my PowerPoint research.

  I want my work to look unique and in some cases depending on my designs I will have them colourful and really stand out and my own inspiration but collaborated with a bunch of other inspirations.

I would want my covers to be like this bold and colourful it will be hard becasue i am using real photos but im sure i will be able to manage and i could create them by editing the levels and curves to create and colourful look as a shortcut and then use the hue/saturation tool to edit the colours.

I will be looking at other album covers that are currently selling inside shops near me and also even a few posters that are design and graphics related so I have a broad amount of research and not just sticking to one subject because graphics can be a whole lot more.

The audience I will focus on and a easy way to get this info on audience is for me to create a survey on survey monkey and get feedback off others in my class and around wherever.

I will also go to my library and look at a bunch of books and the design layout of them for inspiration

I will present my piece with musical notes that I can cut out and have them dangling around my pieces because after all it’s a musical them and my designs will be presented in album layout so the square looking design that is the most common of all even on CD cases its square.

Student Name: Chosen Theme: Title of Work:
Week / Date	In Class Activity	Independent Study
W/C April 18th 2016
W/C April 25th 2016	·         Proposal Review with Tutor  taking shots of the actor and adding additional research ALOT of research  and adding test shots and talking about my images	Friday the 29th is a Interview day and students are not in.
W/C May 2nd 2016	taking test shots and also doing some album covers  got banned from using the camera so ive used my phone instead to get around this	Monday the 2nd of May is a Bank holiday.
W/C May 9th    2016	going to be evaluating my pieces that i have created and why i have done them  edit added more stuff to evaluate on such as a couple more albums
W/C May 16st  2016	finishing everything off edit still have my evaluation and bit of my blog to finish
W/C May  23th   2016	Work Experience Week All students will be working on this all week!	Tuesday the 24th of May is an Interview day and students are not in.
Half Term
W/C June 6th 2016	Presentation Deadline Edit i just finished my evaluation
W/C June  15th 2016	Deadline week-Check all work and hand in project	Deadline: Group A: Thursday 16th June 2015 Group B: Thursday 16th June 2015.

Artists

Juri Zaech

http://www.juri-zaech.com/wordpress/?page_id=25

I’m a Swiss Art Director, currently living in Paris, France. While I work in advertising I like to do little side projects. This is what you’re looking at. Thanks for visiting.

Juri Zaech
Typography and Art Direction – Paris, France

i like the uniqueness of this and how good it was how it creates a name doing this while keeping the bike image

http://www.juri-zaech.com/wordpress/?p=16





http://www.juri-zaech.com/wordpress/?p=269

Minga Firm

For all of these i used the settings of:

ISO: 372

APERTURE: 2.0

EXPOSURE TIME 1/50

FOCAL LENGTH: 2.872 MM

i wanted Nathan to do a pose in which i would then use in a album cover

ISO 

ISO 372

APETURE 2.0

EXPOSURE TIME 1/50

ISO 269

APETURE 2.0

EXPOSURE TIME 1/50

ISO 294

APERTURE 2.0

EXPOSURE TIME 1/50

ISO 294

APERTURE 2.0

EXPOSURE TIME 1/50

ISO 406

APERTURE 2.0

EXPOSURE TIME 1/50

ISO 219

APETURE 2.0

EXPOSURE TIME 1/50

ISO 230

APERTURE 2.0

EXPOSURE TIME 1/50

ISO 219

APETURE 2.0

EXPOSURE TIME 1/50

ISO 212

APETURE 2.0

EXPOSURE TIME 1/50

ISO 219

APERTURE 2.0

EXPOSURE TIME 1/50

i like the pop arty look to this it gives a old school look and that the band is possible older generation

https://www.behance.net/gallery/315883/The-Music-Series001
i like the trainer and the relevant colours like the last one where the image seems to be the center of attention which also has text there so your attentionj is grabbed at the text

Maria Grønlund

https://www.behance.net/mariagroenlund

i like the look of this and the vibrant and bold colours and creating a liquid like art work which looks moving

i like how the spikes colour varies as it flows over the hedgehogs base and creates a vibrant piece

Rus Khassanov

i like how the colours are blending and mixing like washing up liquid like and also looks like there are small mountains inside with the V shapes which looks like a mountain range

i like how this has a splash like oil effect on it and has the basic features of the face still identifiable so i like this feature but also having the background and even an overlay of a splash and keeping the hoodie its original state

Nicole Martinez

http://arterdesignist.com/portfolio/portraits-of-women/

i like how i just outlines the figure and the few curves which make up the hair with not a lot of detail but also making it obvious what it is very simply tho 

once again with very few detail but outlining the main features to create the image in its simplest form

Books that i looked at

i like how the flowers show a whole range of colours and really grab your attention because thats what colours do when they are that bright and vibrant and i think this albums music will be very calm and very anti- agressive and swearing is none.

i liked this one because its creative and also reminds me of a kids doodle book with lots of random drawings and colours which a kid would use so i think this gives the album a broad and open selection of music maybe because of the random drawings

i like the simpleness of this cover because it has a bright background and to grab attention to something now all you would have to do it use a darker and more bold colour to make whatever stand out and in this case its the nuclear logo which stands out and the bold black text which is also simply spaced out and in block capitals.

i like this because of the unique and randomness but also the demon like eyes that are lit up. it also has a vintage feel because of the style of the wallpaper.

Creating my piece

Dimensions of my album cover is going to be 31.43cm both length and width creating the original record album cover template

i started of with a layout of 31.43cm which is the usual 

 to create this i used my models face for a close up and then changed the image to black and white under the image bar on Photoshop

Then for the wavy lines i used the wavy line in the custom shape selection you have when going through the different shapes.

Also if you use the paint bucket tool you are then able to change the colour of these shapes individually.

The music notes was also from the custom shapes area in which all i had to do is rotate and enlarge the chosen design.

to create this all i did was erase the background using the eraser tool and then after that i put a blank layer for the background and changed it into this square illusion using the blending options available to create it with the pattern tool.

then to make the model into the green and pink colour i used the hue/saturation tool under image in Photoshop and then used the sliders to create this effect and colour.

to create the box all i did was overlay the rounded square shape in Photoshop and change the colors to my preference.

HOW DID I CREATE THIS?

i made this by using a circle but not fixing its areas so instead i was able to make an egg looking shape which i used as the head and then i used the lightning bolts as the cracks in the egghead shape. I then erased around the lightning bolts to create the hollow look to bring the background through. then i used a range of blending tools to create the effect 

firstly i used blending tools 

i wanted to go with my research so i decided to make 6 album covers so i can try and hit every style that was suggested in my survey to im going to create all styles on my survey but different types of shots for the main cover

people choose quite a balanced between photographic and a mix of both so i have decided i am going to make no graphic ones but going to take and image and edit the filter of it on Photoshop creating a graphic look but keeping the image that i took on my camera the same form and shape but lets realistic.