Front Designs - Album Cover

Following the design process and feedback from many people, I decided to use Photoshop in order to further develop a psychedelic front cover for the Weird Sky project. Notably, the key images used are an eye - the photographs being taken by me - however the sky uses a number of layers.

The First

In this first design, I decided to saturate the images a lot more - hoping the vibrancy would make the design eye-catching and conform to psychedelic convention. The colour of the sky remained blue as to clearly show it was a sky, in fact I ensured some of the ground was also visible so that the horizon would again reinforce that it is a sky.  The continued use of the sky as a focus point is in order to relate back to the title of the project (Weird Sky), the colour perhaps also reflecting the title too as the high saturation lends itself to being 'weird', especially since the images are fairly mundane originally. Furthermore, the eye being edited into the sky helps to make the album appear more abstract and again 'weird' - to conform with conventions of the genre. I suppose that in some respect, the orange and blue in the design contrast enough to compliment one another and help draw focus to the eye. In terms of if I like this design, I feel that the eye's inclusion felt too jarring and didn't blend well into the image, so I decided to change this in later designs. However, while I standby the inclusion of blue to keep it looking like a sky, I feel that such a choice would be unique enough to be the final choice; Jack decided that perhaps the incorporation of different colours might help with the final decision so I underwent some more design ideas.


The Second

This second design, features a more pastel or soft colour palette. This choice came about by looking at a Tame Impala album cover (the one for Innerspeaker). Tame Impala's album still includes text in the corners but, as previously decided, I will not be pursuing this design idea for the text. A notable difference between this and the first is the eye being turned around; by turning the eye, the pupil feels more central and therefore has more focus drawn to it in relation to the rest of the album. However the white of the eye is still larger than the left, the lack of symmetry being an issue as there seems to be a lot of focus placed on symmetry through kaleidoscopic imagery and even the Tame Impala album I looked at - which featured a repeated image creating a perspective illusion of sorts. I decided to continue experimenting with colours as this palette seemed interesting but the pastel choice needed to change - likely making the cover more vibrant, like in the first design. Additionally, the eye could perhaps be better centered in some way. Below is the Tame Impala album in question:

The Third

As a follow on from the previous design, this clearly features the use of the same colours (purple, green, orange and so on). In this, I think the colours blend together very well and it is still clearly a sky; there are a number of colours that blend in this design which certainly works on its own but the music video was a little more selective in using a handful of vibrant primary colours in the edits - maybe something I should consider. As a result, I decided to again try reducing the number of colours involved in the palette. In terms of  the imagery, the sky remains untouched but the eye was duplicated and overlaid over each layer to create a more symmetrical eye. The focus on symmetry here adheres to convention as previously noted but also makes the central image rather uncanny as it is close enough to a real eye but is clearly different slightly; due to this, it becomes unsettling and furthers the abstract design which I think was a great idea and will definitely continue into other designs.

The Fourth

I've struggled to decide on a palette and here I've been more selective and returned to the blue and orange, simply opting to make the blue less saturated but I don't think it works. The issue with this design is that it doesn't pop out enough, suggesting I perhaps need to look into a more vibrant choice of colours. I think the eye still works but could need some more fading. Overall I liked all of the designs up to this point but the fifth is what Jack and I decided on, therefore making it the front design that went on to receive more work - such as the inclusion of text and the 'leaky eye'. A screenshot of the conversation being included below:

The Fifth

For this design, I was rather frustrated with my inability to decide on a colour palette and just went a bit crazy with the design. I included a lot of additional layers of sky that I did not blend properly, leading to the long prominent cut lines and pixelation. The pixelation also comes as a result of the severe saturation and colour manipulation the design underwent in Photoshop. I made sure to blend the eye more but keep the white more or less visible. In the end, Jack decided he liked this one more and so I went further with this design idea; the colour palette actually relates to the video very well as seen through the use of vibrant green and hot pink, plus these are the colours I highlighted as complimentary in my post about palettes - being inspired by artist Jack B Coulter who has synaesthesia. 

The Sixth

Jack decided on the colour palette and basic design, however I decided to pursue a more pixelated design. With the fifth design, I included some long lines to cut and splice different tones of saturation and came up with a design that intentionally accentuated the distorted digital appearance that was apparent in the fifth design. I suppose the distortion comes as a way of reflecting the content of the album and the genre as it distorts one's perspective and - as seen in the music video I produced - clearly links to the digital effects at the end. The intentional use of these lines just reinforces how Jack, as an artist, is not too focused on looking 'good' or professional and sleek; the design is vibrant and fun and conforms much to the psychedelic conventions with appearing abstract in its imagery and colour choice. I suppose the colours also act as a homage to the Pop Art movement that influenced much of the work in the psychedelic genre too. In some ways I think that the colour choice does downplay the fact that it is a sky, however, more dedicated fans might be aware of the real image used and it could act as a means of building a connection through surveillance of information - as noted through Uses and Gratification theory.