Managed to submit the last of my designs a whole 2 hours before the cut-off time, which is an improvement for me. Granted, the last couple of sleeve designs lacked development as i was running out of time, and also ideas. Art school proved to be the hardest to come up with anything that wasn't too obvious. Dream 3 also could've done with bit more time spent on the concept - this was another one where i just went with the first few things that came to mind and i played about with in photoshop a lot until i made something similar to what i had in mind. I'm sure the judging panel are bound to see a lot of dreamy backdrops and people floating through air for this one, so i haven't made anything groundbreaking on that front.
No real illustration work involved in it, as is the case with the majority of the final designs, annoyingly. I mean, they all started life as a rough compositional sketch, but most of the design the happened digitally, which i something i'd stated at the outset that i want to try and avoid. Old habits crept back in and digital assistance was brought in. Originally i had planned to make them all have the same sort of look as the CHVRCHES artwork, i.e: largely hand illustrated, then scanned, rendered and composed digitally - but truth is, i couldn't really come up with any another hand drawings that fitted into the remaining song titles. I've ended up going the complete opposite direction, with most the them looking minimal and digital, with flashes of analogue here and there - not to say I'm not not happy with some of the final results, it's just a bit frustrating that i couldn't stick to my guns and felt the need to mix up the production styles. I'd like to think that the designs weren't too cliched or obvious, but i guess with this brief it's so stupidly open that you could literally draw/paint anything and say "Yeah, that's imagine, by John Lennon, look.."and no-one can say any less.
FINAL SUBMITTED DESIGNS
Thinking about it now, that's an aspect of this whole brief that has made me think to myself that i wish i'd considered doing a different individual big brief, from D&AD or YCN. At least the competition briefs from those sites are judged by industry bods, and winners are based on how well the work looks and answers a certain brief - as opposed to weather the judges have heard of you, and are more bothered about getting bums on seats at their exhibition by luring punters in with 'famous' artists, some of who, produce a very questionable quality of work (imo). But it was my decision in the end, i thought an open brief would allow me to experiment a more with different techniques, but i've sort of gone back into my comfort zone, that'll get the work done by the deadline but i won't be able to look back at and feel massively satisfied with them all. Looking at the 7 sleeve designs altogether, they could've been done by 7 different people as they all vary quite a lot. Being versatile is something that i appreciate is a plus point when it comes to gaining work in the outside world, but so is having a recognisable 'voice' that can be associated with you.
Need to weigh it up, do i want be recognisable or more employable? Jack of all trades or Master of one. But i guess having a recognisable style would also lead to more commission opportunities. I don't know what i want anymore?!
One thing is clear upon completion of this task, unless 2017 has a bunch of songs that i actually like and have always wanted to make artwork for, then Secret 7 will off the list of things to do with my life next year.
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