Talenthouse: HAIM - Better Off

I recently entered the Secret 7" competition run by Talenthouse, I submitted an entry for Jessie Ware which is an earlier blog post and also submitted an entry for HAIM.

This is a pretty quick-fire brief which took no more than a day and having a concept and visualising it, it's a nice break from long drawn-out briefs which can become a bit of a mess in your head after a while


BRIEF: Design Artwork for HAIM

Secret 7’’ are inviting creatives from around the globe to take inspiration from HAIM's track, Better Off 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"

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

Deadline

Submit by: February 18, 2013 10am PSTVote: February 19, 2013 10am PST - February 26, 2013 10am PSTWinners contacted by: March 12, 2013

Guidelines

Participants may submit artwork or a photograph
• Entries must not include text relating to the host artist nor song title
• Create the front of the 7’’ sleeve - only this will be visible in the gallery
Dimensions should be 184mm x 184mm with a 3mm bleed, so in total 190mm x 190mm. The bleed will not show on the front of the sleeve so please don't design anything in this area that you want to be visible
• Original submission files must be produced in CMYK, 300dpi and either Tiff, JPEG or EPS file formats
• Participants must retain their original work should they be chosen as a winner
• Submissions must be original (meaning not using third party pre-existing copyright materials)
Participants must include a description about their submission
Participants must be aged 13 or over to enter
Participants must join using an active email address so if chosen they can be easily contacted
• The winning submissions may be modified to accommodate production requirements
• Inappropriate or harmful submissions will be removed
• No purchase necessary

HAIM - BETTER OFF

"I never wanna see you again with the beating of my heart witness

I say no, no, no, no, I'm done I'm done

I never wanna see you again with the beating of my heart witness
I say no, no, no, no, I'm done I'm done

I wanna get back to
I wanna get back to everything I had
Before you came around, you fucked me up,
What am I do to now
But in my mind I keep seeing you, seeing me,
And how good we used to be, used to be, used to be, used to be, used to be
I keep seeing it, seeing me
And how good we used to be, used to be, used to be, used to be, used to be

And now I'm finding I cannot deal with this
Going crazy wanna go leave you want in
Say you wanna work this out boy
Don't need to beg 'cause you'll never get it again

'Cause I'm better off this time this time
No not baby not this time around
Oh I'm better off this time, this time, not this time
'Cause I found out yeah, I found out now

Forgiveness is that all you want from me
I wont fall, into the arms of the one who to know me
Its getting to dark for me to see

So I keep flashing back to when we met
We were better then, better then, better then, better then
I held you I didn't have to share it then
Better then better then better then better the
Now my mind is taking me back to this
Too much time to think about what it is
What made us fall apart
Well don't need to beg 'Cause you'll never get it again

'Cause I'm better off this time, this time
No no no not this time around
Oh I'm better off this time, this time
'Cause I found out you yeah I found out now

I'm better off this time this time
No baby not this time around
Oh I'm better off this time, this time, this time
'Cause I found out you I found out now

Oh you know I'm better off this time, better off this time
Oh you know I'm better off this time, better off this time
Oh you know I'm better off this time, 'Cause I found out, I found out now

Oh you know I'm better off this time, better off this time
Oh you know I'm better off this time, better off this time
Oh you know I'm better off this time, 'Cause I found out, I found out now"

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You can see and hear the song is about signalling the end of a relationship, finding out the truth, pain and realisation etc. So this is the concept I wanted to convey through a more conceptual way. 

I've been researching into more abstract and conceptual album sleeves as I came to the realisation that anything can become an album cover, if you make it so in your head - if that makes sense. For example Pink Floyd's Dark Side of The Moon album sleeve doesn't literally show a moon or the dark side of it, it's more abstract and you make a correlation and story in your head - this is the beauty of it. You can see visual examples I was inspired by here 

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Finished Artwork

The concept is really simple which I chose, a relationship ending, or signalling the end of something through subtle abstraction. I chose to use flowers from a red rose as symbolism of live. The flowers falling with the vertical distortion symbolise this - for me anyway but I think different people could take it a different way. I think in a way album artwork can be literally anything.