Research - Album Sleeves: Research into minimalistic album covers

Storm Thorgerson

Storm Thorgerson was an English graphic designer born in Middlesex, known for his work on rock album sleeves. Perhaps most well-known for his close work with prog-rock band Pink Floyd and their album sleeves. Thorgerson founded the art design group 'Hipgnosis' and continued to work with Pink Floyd under this label; though the group dissolved in 1983, Thorgerson continued to work on album sleevs and music videos until his death in 2013.

• Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon

This iconic cover was designed by art design group Hipgnosis, with Storm Thorgerson as creative director. Record label, EMI, were initially skeptical with Storm's previous album sleeve designs (Atom Heart Mother and Obscured by Clouds) because of Storm's decision to go against the traditional design conventions of the album name, band name and a picture of the band being at the forefront of the sleeve. However, since Thorgerson was directly employed by the band, he was able to disregard such criticisms. Pink Floyd keyboardist Richard Wright instructed Thorgerson to design a sleeve that was 'neat and clean'. The contemporary sleeve design was said to be inspired by three primary factors: the band's vivid stage lighting and effects, the album's lyrics and Wright's request for a clean design. This album sleeve is heavily regarded as one of the greatest and recognizable of all time, due to its striking and memorable nature. I think this album cover is effective because of the simplistic, conceptual design. I believe the juxtaposition of the bright colors against the black background would appeal to the audience as it becomes a very striking, memorable. I envision my digipak cover to have a similar simplicity, whilst still remaining an abstract piece of graphic design. The contemporary nature of the album cover is appealing and inspiring to me because I would like the audience to see the cover as a separate expression of art to the music itself.

• Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures

Another iconic cover, Unknown Pleasures was designed by artist Peter Saville. The design of the cover itself is based on the first radio pulsar discovered; the exact same picture can be seen in a Cambridge encyclopedia, with the colors reversed. Again, I feel like I take inspiration from this album sleeve because of its minimalistic tone. Furthermore, the direct contrast of the colors is very striking to the audience. I particularly like the solid black coloring to add to the minimalistic tone of the cover. I plan to take inspiration from this cover through the use of few colors and a striking symbol, dead center in the cover.

• The Beatles - The White Album

Perhaps the most minimalistic album cover ever, The White Album, designed by Richard Hamilton and Paul McCartney, is a white sleeve with the band name embossed upon the cover with the serial number below. In stark contrast to how vivid Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was, The White Album's plain white sleeve is still recognized as one of the greatest album sleeve ever. Similar to Unknown Pleasures, I plan to draw inspiration from this cover through the use of minimalistic covers, thus creating a simple conceptual design.

• The xx - Coexist

Though not critically acclaimed for its design like the previous covers, The xx's Coexist has a very minimalistic, conceptual design that includes the big X that is symbolic of the band. For inspiration, I plan to take ideas from the large symbol in the middle of the cover that is iconic for the band. No band name, but an icon that lets the consumer know who the band is.

Research - Pinterest

https://uk.pinterest.com/luketiplady/album-covers/
https://uk.pinterest.com/luketiplady/minimalistic-album-covers/

I have created these two Pinterest boards to help with me research into album covers, particularly minimalistic covers. The minimalistic board allows me to draw inspiration from some conceptual designs. Covers I have already taken inspiration from range from The Beatles' 'White Album' to Pink Floyd's 'The Wall'.

Research - Very Early Album Cover Mock-up

This is a very early mock-up of the front album artwork I have in mind for my media project. This early version was created on Photoshop. For this I used the 'All For One' cover artwork, the half-lemon was also taken from the same artwork. The 'The Stone Roses' text was taken directly from the 'Elephant Stone' cover artwork. The placeholder album name 'Thirty Two' was created manually. I did this mock-up because I would like my idea illustrated onto my blog, rather than saving it in my mind for the real cover. Being on my blog, I feel as if this gives me a solid starting point to draw much inspiration from. Here I have articulated my interest in a minimalistic, conceptual cover art. I chose this particular font mainly to directly relate to the band's early years; I feel as if this adds credibility to the nostalgic aura surrounding this project, overall making it look authentic and true to The Stone Roses. The lemon was placed in the direct center of the sleeve, contrasting with the white canvas, as it is the most easily recognizable symbol of The Stone Roses that my target audience will be able to identify. The background however was chosen because of my minimalistic influences of sleeves such as The White Album. I feel as if this allows for the cover to be perceived as not only the sleeve, but a piece of conceptual art. I feel as if links to the fashion, for nostalgic purposes, because of the iconic lemon logo atop a plain background somewhat signifying the carefree 'baggy' generation.

Research - Campaign Pitch Video

Luke's pitch from Chris Earl on Vimeo.

Research - Campaign Pitch

Research - Branding

Genre

The genre I have chose for my project is a mix of Indie, Alternative and Britpop. I chose these genres because I feel as if I am familiar with the audience and the music's effect on them. In addition to this I believe that each genre has a specific style and 'look' that is related to it and these genres are the ones I am most well acquainted with.

The artist I have chose is The Stone Roses as I feel as if I can draw much influence from the late 80s/early 90s indie scene. The Stone Roses, born from the post-punk Manchester scene, essentially codified the Britpop genre in Manchester. Additionally, the 'baggy-generation' was thus created from the music of The Stone Roses with the help of other Manchester Indie bands such as Happy Mondays and Inspiral Carpets, thus making a sub-genre; 'Madchester'. The Stone Roses' music is very much inspired by 60s psychedelic indie music with the influence of punk. The term 'baggy' essentially derived from the sounds of indie, psychedelic, funk and house music. But not only was it the sound, but the appearance of these bands. The clothes and styles consisted of baggy clothes, mop hairdos and, generally, a lazy look. Furthermore, the entire Manchester 'rave' scene was formed with hits such as Fools Gold and Step On.
The Stone Roses' image was based on the art of Jackson Pollock; John Squire in particular drew influence from his work. In addition to playing lead guitar, John Squire took his free time to produce his own artworks. Squire incorporated his artwork in the band's sleeve design; he designed the cover for both of The Stone Roses' studio albums, their singles and the Turns Into Stone compilation album. I plan to have my project drawing influence from Jackson Pollock's work in particular, basing my band's style direction around his work and creating an overall 'art pop' look. The style and direction of my branding will be significantly different to that of the current indie scene; in the 90s the indie scene was popularized with bands wearing baggy clothing and being involved in the rave scene.

 









 An example of the style of clothing in the 90s.

















The Stone Roses, a band was seen to have a heavy influence on the popularization of the baggy scene.

 Current example of Indie trends


















 The Magic Gang, a current indie band, also giving an example of the current indie style.

The Stone Roses' logo is a bright, striking lemon that is used on their debut album cover and various promotional advertisements. However, I have chose not to draw any inspiration from this logo because I am trying to avoid copying from The Stone Roses too much as I believe this is their most recognizable symbol. I feel like if I were to use this for inspiration I would be risking my own artistic integrity. At this point I am unsure of my design for a logo, if at all. I would prefer my image/branding to be based a specific typography/or imagery used on the cover, as oppose to a striking logo.

 

 

 

 



 

 

Research - The Approach

For my A2 Media project I plan to create a music video, digipak and an advertisement for The Stone Roses. My idea for this project is that The Stone Roses have approached me, as a media professional, to create a music video for their single and to launch a branding campaign. I chose the music video task because I feel as if I am incredibly interested in music and the industry itself. The film trailer task however would require a plethora of good actors and would also be similar to last year's media task.

This project is planned to be an anniversary project of sorts for The Stone Roses, giving the branding for the band a very nostalgic aura. In light of this, I have given myself a wide target audience. There will be the older generation of fans who grew up with The Stone Roses' music, and there will be the fans who are listening to their music for the first time, like myself. A majority of this audience is ranging in the late teens-early twenties, whilst the older group can range from anywhere from 30-upwards. Furthermore, the project will act as a branding campaign for a completely new 'The Stone Roses' album, in which I will lead design.

For the music video, I will draw inspiration from the 'indie-Madchester' genre in particular. The Stone Roses' previous few music videos will provide a unique perspective into their music video style. Additionally, I would like to take inspiration and draw parallels with Jackson Pollock's artwork. John Squire, the guitarist, took a lot of inspiration from Jackson Pollock throughout his years in The Stone Roses. This included album artwork, promotional material and even the band's instruments.

For the digipak, I have come up with a few ideas regarding the front cover. For this I will draw inspiration from some minimalistic, conceptual album covers such as Unknown Pleasures, Dark Side of The Moon and The Beatles (The White Album). My initial idea is a half lemon atop a white canvas with no band name or album name. To have this work I must create two covers of the album the sleeve; the vanilla cover, and a cover in which the record company will assign stickers to be placed on the cover which can be peeled off if the audience wishes.

Research - The Beatles - Revolution Music Video Analysis

The music video is very similar to that of 'One Love' in the fact that it is purely a performance video. Similar to other Beatles' music videos, with the exception of Eleanor Rigby, it holds no form of narrative.The decision to make this video performance based could be due to the subject matter of the video, relating to the context of the Vietnam War and The Beatles' stance on violence. Furthermore, this could call back to the Beatles' touring years during the years 1962 through 1966 and their lack of performance since that date, allowing for a potential sense of nostalgia. There is a wide variation of shots for this music video with various long to medium shots of the whole band to intense close-ups of each individual member, particularly John Lennon, to match the intensity of the tempo. This stray away from the Beatles' usual style of music shows a raw, gritty style, particularly enhanced by the overdriven fuzz effect on Lennon's guitar. This theme is evident in other Beatles song 'Helter Skelter' from the same album, 'The White Album'. The genre for the song is Hard Rock and comes in at 45 rpm, uncommon for a majority of The Beatles' hits. This could be seen to adhere to the hard rock genre because of its heavy focus on the band and music itself, rather than a narrative to go with it. A number of close-ups are used in the video, one particular close-up seen at 2:39 sees Lennon expressing his political belief about the Chinese dictator Chairman Mao, this was a close-up specifically requested by John Lennon thus showing the artists value for the lyrics and their meaning. The band members are seen to be wearing their normal clothes, showing the lack of emphasis on mise-en-scene and more on the music. This is similarly evident on the lack of setting. The editing to the video is very quick, obviously used to match the fast paced tempo of the music. For inspiration, I would take the wide variety of shots and use of close-ups into account, rather than the performance based nature of the video itself.

Revolution was released as B-Side to 'Hey Jude' and later added to The White Album in 1968.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGLGzRXY5Bw