Secret 7

Live Brief;
We were given a brief to create a vinyl cover for Secret 7, without using the names of the artist or the title of the song. The artists and songs we had to choose from were;
Public Enemy - Harder than you think.
Nas - The Don
Elton John - Bennie and the Jets
Jessie Ware - Still Love Me
HAIM - Better Off
Laura Marling - The Beast
Nick Drake - Rider on the wheel

After listening to all of the songs, I narrowed it down to either doing the cover for Public Enemy or Elton John, I then just pulled the name out of a hat, as I liked both of the songs. I pulled out Public Enemy's Harder than you think. Initially I started to look at the lyrics of the song, to try and understand it more, which lead me to draw some thumbnails of some ideas I had. 

Thumbnails

Thumbnails

When listening to the song I thought that it sounds epic which is probably why it was chosen for the Olympic Anthem. What first came to mind when listening was triangles exploding and shattering, therefore this was one of the ideas I went with. Looking into the previous albums Public Enemy have used I found that they use limited colours, mainly camouflage, black, white and red. This is something that I want to keep consistent, so that when people see it they will think of Public Enemy.

Also researching into Public Enemy themselves I found that they wear clocks around their necks, this is something which is quite iconic to them, therefore this would also be a constant to fans of Public Enemy and would be relevant to the album cover.

After drawing some thumbnails I decided that I would start to do some mock ups digitally, as although it is good to get ideas down, I wanted to get started on some of them, and adapt them on the computer.

The first mock up which I did was a fist, as when I listened to the song it made me think of power and strength, and this the are promoting black power, therefore I thought that this would be relevant. I produced this illustration on illustrator, using simple colours and making the fist as minimal as I could without losing the effective of it being a hand. I think that this sends a very strong message to people who would listen to Public Enemy, I think that they would relate this cover to the song.

I decided to go with my initial idea when producing these, I thought about what I felt like and what I imagined the first time I heard the song. Looking at the three triangle covers I think that the black background, with white and red squares is the most effective, it has the biggest impact and contrast with the colours. Although it doesn't look how I imagined it, I wanted it to seem epic, like nothing else, but it is just a simple geometric design.

The clock is an iconic symbol for Public Enemy as they often wear them round their necks, this is something that people will relate to Public Enemy. Although this clock is very plain and simple, where as the clocks which Public enemy usually wear are full of bling, and have geometric patterns on the inside. Therefore I need to change the way it looks so that it is more relevant and appealing to the eye.

I started by drawing simple triangles in the background of the clock to give it more detail. This is a better and more appealing clock, although just a clock on its own doesn't look very exciting and doesn't remind me of the song itself. Although the clock does show a lot about the Public Enemy, it doesn't mean that it necessarily says a lot about the song itself, and as this brief is designing for that song, I don't think that a clock on its own would cause enough impact.

Although the clock on its own doesn't seem like a relevant cover for the song, when applying it as a ring on the finger of a fist, it has a lot more impact. This allows the image to have more bling but also show power, and relate to Public Enemy. This is a good way to show all the elements of what the album cover should be.

The plain clock on its own doesn't have a very large impact, although the dark background does have a contrast with the clock, which makes it stand out, it also makes people that what its for and why its there, this is a good thing, as they will remember it more. The gold clock also works quite well on the white background, this is because there is a large contrast too.

Croping out the edges of the triangles makes the design look better and more powerful, although not as powerful or relevant as the first.

I have looked at all of the lyrics for this song, and wanted to do something which was relevant for the song itself, therefore when it says about the two turntables I thought about illustrating turntables, this is so that it can link to the song more. When doing this I want to use camouflage colours, nothing too bright as I  want it to be consistent with their other album covers.

The illustration for this cover is good, although it mentions two turn tables not just one, so I will experiment with putting two turntables on one album cover. In these images I started to experiment with size, so that I could see if it looked more aesthetically please when it is larger or smaller.

Experimenting with using two turntables rather than just the one, to make it more relevant, doesn't work very well as I drew them on a certain angle and this doesn't look like it should have two turntables in the same image. Although it says two in the song I think having just the one is still as relevant to the album. Having lots of options to chose from will allow me to ask the questions I want to know to my crit so that I can do some last minute improvements if I needed to. I also wanted to find out which album cover my peers preferred.

Final designs to take into the crit;

After the Crit;
After the crit I decided that I would be entering the fist with the gold clock ring on it, this is becasue it is the most powerful, it is the design I like the best, also everyone in my group agreed and said that they thought that I should use that one for my design.

Proof of Submission;