LIVE BRIEF: SECRET 7”
See attached brief, with additional outcomes below
|
| Background / Considerations |
You need people to see your work and the essence of graphic design is communication. There is no value producing work for it to be placed in a draw. Often the bet work or best ideas are the one that people have seen. You must get use to distributing your work at the any available opportunity.
Remember design is about doing.
This is an opportunity to visually and conceptually exploit every possible angle of your ideas. We are expecting a visual feast of ideas before you even consider resolving the problem.
|
For this weeks brief we were asked to design 5 variations of a record sleeve for the secret 7 competition. The brief involved researching into 1 of 7 songs by 7 artists posted to the secret seven website, creating 30 possible thumbnails, developing 5 and submitting one final design to the competition. The challenge was to create a sleeve that would reflect the song or the artist, without giving reference to the name of the artist or track title.
After listening to the seven songs on the website these including tracks by artists such as Jessie Ware, Laura Marling, Elton John, Nick Drake, Nas, Haim and public enemy, I decided it would be easiest to design for the song which I had most interest in. The song I chose to design for was 'Harder than you think' by Public enemy.
The first thing I decided to research into was who the audience of public enemy was and what there motives were. I found that Public enemy wrote politically charged music that spoke of the social struggles within the black community. This can also be evidenced through a couple of lyrics in the song ''Who pose as heros and take advantage of blacks'. It can also be evidenced in the idea circulating power, also heard in this song. Public enemy have been previously linked with the black power symbol, which reflects the intentions of their music.
This message can also be seen in their previous album art work.
After noticing this message in this piece of album artwork I decided to look back at their previous artwork for more inspiration and a look into how the band had been previously communicated.
I found that throughout the era of public enemy the group liked to perceive a sense of realism through their artwork, more often then not using photographs for imagery rather than illustration, although illustration has been used more towards the current of their music career, leading to very accurate pencil drawing on their latest album 'How you sell soul to soulless people who sold their soul, which houses the chosen song 'Harder than you think'. I also noticed that the previous artwork seems to follow an almost post modernist style, often cutting and pasting elements that often would not compliment each other thus also creating a collage effect. Due to the nature of the previous artwork, an idea could be to illustrate the band through simple communication in contrast to these previous very busy designs.
I then decided to look into the lyrics of the song and highlighted the parts I had found most interesting, that would give possible illustration ideas:
'What goes on?
Rollin stones of the rap game not braggin
Lips bigger than jagger , not saggin
Spell it backwards
Im a leave it at that..
That aint got nothin to do with rap
Check the facts expose those cats
Who pose as heros and take advantage of blacks
Your governments gangster so cut the crap
A war goin on so where you at?
Fight the power comes great responsiblity
F the police but whos stoppin you from killin me?
Disasters , fiascos over a loop by pe
If its an i instead of we
Believin tv
Spittin riches , bitches, and this new thing about snitches
Watch them asses move the masses switches
System dissed them but barely missed her
My soul intention to save my brothers and sisters
Get up
Hard...just like that
Get up
Hard...just like that
Get up
Hard...just like that
Get up
Hard...just like that
[verse 2]
Screamin gangsta 20 years later
Of course endorsed while consciousness faded
New generations believing them fables
Gangster boogie on two turntables
Show no love so its easy to hate it
Desecrated while the coroner waited
Any given sunday so where yall rate it?
Wit slavery, lynching , and them drugs infiltrated
Im like that doll chuckie , baby
Keep comin back to live love life like i'm crazy
Keep it movin risin to the top
Doug fresh clean livin you dont stop
Revolution means change
Dont look at me strange
So i cant repeat what other rappers be sayin
You dont stand for something
You fall for anything
Harder than you think
Its a beautiful thing
Get up
Hard...just like that
Get up
Hard...just like that
Get up
Hard...just like that
Get up
Hard...just like that
[verse 3]
So its time to leave you a preview
So you too can review what we do
20 years in this business
How you sell sell soul, g wiz
People bear witness
Thank you for lettin us be ourself
So dont mind me if i repeat myself
These simple lines be good for your health
To keep them crime rhymes on the shelf
Live life love like you just dont care
5000 leaders never scared
Bring the noise its the moment they fear
Get up still a beautiful idea
Get up
Throw yo hands in the air
Get up show no fear
Get up if yall really care
Pe 20 years
Now get up
Get up
Hard...just like that
Get up
Hard...just like that
Get up
Hard...just like that
Get up
Hard...just like that'
I found that the lyrics brought some interesting visuals to my mind however, these represented only the surface of the song, and so I looked to find a deeper meaning of what the song was about.
When searching for 'Harder than you think song meaning' the most information based I came across was a submission on the living in stereo blog.
'“Harder Than You Think” is the kind of epic statement that few have ever done better than Public Enemy, a blast of sound and lyric that links the chains of tradition into an unstoppably powerful force. The track also consciously asserts P.E.’s continuing, though changing, importance in the larger conversation: That “Harder Than You Think” opens with Flav’s reprise of his signature introduction to the group’s early single “Public Enemy #1” is only the most obvious moment of recall. The guitars which guide this spare beginning gives way to the deep swell of a full R&B horn section, whose triumphant herald provides perfect support for one of Chuck D’s most intense recent performances. Unlike many of his “conscious” contemporaries and followers, Chuck’s always understood that the most intellectually or politically aware lyrics will mean nothing if they’re not accompanied by an accordingly memorable backing track, and—while he hasn’t always succeeded in this regard—“Harder Than You Think” sounds like it can move mountains.
Despite Chuck’s thunderous, relentless flow, the song’s chorus contains nothing but the horns and Flavor Flav’s stabbing repetitions of “just like that,” a piecing combination that—if only temporarily—washes away every memory of Flav’s ignominious reality-TV career: The Greatest Hype Man In The World once again frees himself from the Tar Baby, and summons the spirits.The lyric itself is certainly of a piece with the glut of admonitions that P.E. and others have made a staple element of their recorded output, but it accomplishes something slightly different, and more valuable: Chuck’s verses primarily criticize rap and rappers for not being willing or able to grow up, instead staying bound to the styles and symbols that the genre’s been selling (and white folks have been buying) for two decades. While we could certainly debate the degree to which this accusation is simplistic, the arrested cultural development observed by Chuck D has been on the minds of plenty of folks, young and old, throughout the hip-hop nation in the past few years: Nas, whose debut album came out after Public Enemy’s great period was over, even declared hip-hop “dead” in his compelling 2006 single, but the older, wiser Chuck D isn’t willing to give up the ghost just yet. Instead, he argues that the strength which hip-hop always possessed, and must continue to exhibit, comes through mature recognition, a quality which (like PE, and hip-hop itself) remains “harder than you think,” the double meaning of which, Chuck points out, “is a beautiful thing.”
It is a truly remarkable recording, the best Public Enemy track since the golden era. It captures their musical scope and lyrical precision in a way that some have forgotten, and many more have sadly never experienced. (While I’m not gonna pretend that it’ll be a hit, I know that I can slip “Harder Than You Think” into the mix with Kanye West, Lil Wayne or the other true-funk soldiers who currently populate the charts much more easily than I could 99% of the current crop of “conscious” rap.) This is a work of immense proportions, in many ways a corollary to Johnny Cash’s stunning reading of “Hurt,” in which PE similarly confronts the weight of continuing, complicated struggle. Unlike Cash’s existential gravity, though, Chuck D, Flavor Flav and comrades tap into still-deep reservoirs of (Black) power to ready themselves, and their spiritual sons and daughters, for the coming fight. Many in hip-hop’s first generation try to stay young, and wind up looking older than they ever should have feared. Public Enemy, rather, is celebrating their maturity, and manages to sound younger than they have in years.'
The writer of the blog explains that Harder than you think is a song to remember, not only does the song reference Public Enemy's success, but documents why they are so successful. This is evidenced through the lyrics, Public enemy draw an obvious link to their whole career, taking lyrics from their first album public enemy #1 to open the song. They also explain how they have stayed true to hip hop and what the genre was meant to be rather than straying away on materialistic tangents alike to other artists. This is clear through the lyric ' Lips bigger than jagger , not saggin, spell it backwards, Im a leave it at that..That aint got nothin to do with rap' saggin, spelt backward details the word often used to describe the black race, which Public enemy argue is a fritherless use of the word and 'has nothing to do with wrap'. This also links back to the idea of black power, how they work to assert there culture in positive ways and talk about stronger social issues rather than materialistic culture.
With a definition of the song, the bands motives/audience and previous design concepts I began to look at other record sleeves from the hip hop/rap genre.
I found a great article on complex.com that details the 50 best hip hop album covers, I chose 8 which I found most inspiring, one of these being a past cover from Public enemy.
'Loosely modeled after James Brown's Revolution Of The Mind cover, photographer Glen E. Freidman placed a mean-mugging Flav and Chuck behind bars for their second album. It was a strong complement to the death row anthem "Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos," but also served as an even more fitting metaphor for the group's politics: Even in the face of imprisonment, they would not be silenced.'
I found that although the Public Enemy artwork had been successful due to its strong message and linking of image to song tracks, that I much preferred the use of illustration. I felt this was simple, yet would allow me to be creative and ambitious, I would however still try to reflect the strong messages of PE's music through these illustrations.
I also went onto creative review to look for inspiration and found a great article called 'Best record sleeve of the year (so far)'
'We've just clapped our eyes on some finished copies of the forthcoming Atoms For Peace album adorned with artwork by Stanley Donwood. They're pretty special...
Set for release on February 25, Amok is the debut album from Thom Yorke's Atoms For Peace band which features Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea on bass, Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich on guitar, keyboard and synth duty, and also Joey Waronker of Beck and R.E.M. on drums with instrumentalist Mauro Refosco on additional percussion.'
The collection compromises ' a CD version packaged in a gatefold card sleeve (£10, front cover above), and a double LP version in a wide spine sleeve which will also include the album on a CD (£20), and two special edition releases. First up is the limited edition CD packaged in a 12-panel, concertina folded, debossed and silver foil-blocked on reverse board edition (£12). Plus there's a limited edition double LP version (£30) which comes in a triple gatefold, debossed and silver foil blocked on reverse board package which comes with a lyric sheet and blind debossed and foiled inner sleeves plus the album on CD.
INSA's project saw him paint Donwood's Lost Angeles artwork on to the XL Records office in LA (four times) to create an eye-popping piece of 'gif-iti' in December.
This is some of my favourite record sleeve design I have seen, I love how the cover in fact tells a story, and how we are able to unlock'unfold the sleeve piece by piece to reveal more. I also find the style of illustration very inspiring, using only two colours black and white and then silver foil, the sleeve still conjures up a design that is highly fast paced and exciting yet, still simple.
No comments:
Post a Comment