Back Designs - Album Cover

Following the design process for the back cover earlier on my blog, I decided to use Photoshop in order to further develop a psychedelic back cover for the Weird Sky project. Notably, the key images used are Jack (the artist) and a brick wall - the photographs being taken by me.

The First

Within this design, I tried to layer Jack's image and make the under layer a lot more saturated, hoping the desynced look would prove to be quite an interesting choice - alluding to the that same distortion seen within the front cover and throughout the video, as to symbolise drug use to adhere to conventions of the genre. I later include this layering technique in the final product, however the other designs in this post showcase my experimentation without it. Another point to raise is that I included the use of the liquify tool from Photoshop, adopting the same technique and design idea from my experimentation with Henrietta Harris' work. The colour palette used is a mix between green and pink and blue however I was unsure as to how I would proceed with the blue, the reason I included it was in order to make Jack have a very 'cool' and calm image as an artist - nonetheless I eventually come to the decision to reduce its use on the wall.

The Second

In this second design, I made a few changes to the first as I realigned the images of Jack as to make him stand out more, the issue is that his image is blended on both layers making it difficult to see him, especially due to the use of the liquify tool. On the topic of the colour used, I made the overall colours more saturated as to make them eye catching like the front cover and continued the colour palette of green and pink from the front. However, with the green ooze on the left (which was to contain the track list), I considered changing to pink and making the background green; I'd essentially invert the colour choices as to keep with the palette on the front but by flipping the background to be more green, I'd perhaps create some dissonance between the front and back that would appear quite artistic. But it doesn't look as good as I'd hoped...

The Third

As stated above, my third idea proved to look rather amateur and was not my final choice for the back cover. I flipped the text box and coloured it hot pink, then I liquified the image of Jack further and added a filter for the brick wall in the background to blend it better and make the image of Jack stand out. Overall, this design is an eyesore and the colours clash far too much, there is little change in colour or tone in this back cover. Jack doesn't stand out very clearly and the back is far too different from the front to create any sense of cohesion in the product had this been my choice for the back. In the end, I decided to use ideas from the first and second designs more in my final product than this third design.