design practice: SECRET 7" - JESSIE WARE

I aim to have this brief done and sent off within 48 hours as I want to practice something a bit more conceptual and just 'do it', I feel it's an opportunity for me to just have a go and try a style a little different than usual and not just try and win, although that's obviously a goal too

Brief:

Secret 7’’ are inviting creatives from around the globe to take inspiration from Jessie Ware's track, Still Love Me and design an original 7 inch vinyl sleeve.

Between 30-50 winners will be selected. One copy of each design will be produced and exhibited in East London for over a week in April.

The project culminates on Record Store Day when the 700 one-of-a-kind vinyl will be available to purchase, with all of the profits going to the charity Art Against Knives.

None of the buyers will know who created the sleeve, or even which song it's for, until they are holding it in their hands - the secret lies within.

Secret 7"s choice:

30-50 designs will be selected by and printed on a Secret 7’’ vinyl sleeve which will be exhibited and sold at the gallery. Each winner will also receive:

An A3 print on which will be their design and a certificate of their involvement in the project
Exposure for their artwork both online and in the exhibition space at the UK’s largest independent creative agency, Mother
One design will be picked by Clash magazineand featured in their June edition

About Jessie Ware

In 2012 Jessie Ware notched up a year of success that most new artists could only dream of. Her debut album ‘Devotion’ picked up a top 5 chart position in the UK, a tonne of critical acclaim and a nomination for the coveted Mercury Music Prize. www.jessieware.com

Requirements:

84mm x 184mm with a 3mm bleed, so in total 190mm x 190mm

Must be produced in CMYK, 300dpi and either Tiff, JPEG or EPS file formats

Peoples Choice

One highest voted artist will receive the incentive as offered to the 30-50 winners selected by Secret 7''.

DEADLINE

Due: Submit by: February 18, 2013 10am PST

Vote: February 19, 2013 10am PST - February 26, 2013 10am PST

Winners contacted by: March 12, 2013

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When researching into the song, imagery etc on my DC blog here

Concept 1:

Taking the concept of playing games with a girls heart and breaking a heart literally I aimed to reference classic videogames such as pong and tetris here to literally visualise this, this is a step away from my usual design style for me and trying to be simple and eye-catching, I also thought It'd be another opportunity to experiment with '16 bit retro videogame style imagery'

This is a change from me because it's literal but not so literal, how do video games link to a pop song? They don't, but do they have to?

Development:

I created a square grid which I can live pain to create what will hopefully end up looking like old school 'retro' video game graphics we associate with video games

Trying to move the bouncing block so it's in a position where you can imagine the pong ball has just left the block towards the heart again

Jessie Ware uses a lot of monotone in her imagery especially for the album which lists Still Love Me so I tried to reference the existing imagery through the colour palette which is predominantly black and white.

Adding a score to make it more obvious it's a game but I feel it kind of dumbs it down a little and makes it less conceptual and more rigid

Old school nokia phone screen colour palette?!

I tried to use a similar colour scheme to Peter Saville's True Faith sleeve here:

Adding a touch of colour through the border?

This is my favourite moving forward I feel the colour suit Jessie Ware's colour palette and it's a probably a break from the norm in terms of concept and visual style.

Hopefully looking at it and then seeing the record inside is called "Still Love Me" makes sense and create a story in your head without me explaining it. If it fails to do this and needs an explanation, then it's not very successful...

Adding textures to it to add a bit more levels to the artwork instead of just flat colour, I think I prefer it more with the texture, it makes it look less 'digital' and a bit more worn down which I feel suits the tone of the song more in a subtle way.