designing cover for my media band's album

my media groups possible album cover my developing and construction on photoshop

This was our first cover design i designed. we thought it looked down to earth and creative. from looking at existing indie album covers we saw that many were nature themed, having wolves as they howl at the moon therefore also associate with music and are mysterious and cold, the girl playing on the guitar shows she is enjoying the wolf's howling and that she is really down to earth. However we then decided not to use her as the audience may be mislead by assuming she is the main artist or a band member, but she isn't, the image is abstract. 

So when we removed the girl we were left with this and added the band name and the album name. However this design we figured was too spacious because of the composition of the wolf in the corner, but we couldn't move the wolf because then the  lake and the moonlight would not be visible and the image would not look as strong. we looked at the compositions of existing indie covers images and nearly all of them had filled most of the frame and weren't too spacious.   

So we then thought of filling the cover more with another image. We weren't sure what other image to use that would go well with the wolf so we used an image of the band as many covers show the band members to promote them more obviously and so that the audience can identify that the album belongs to that band quicker and more easily. To still  show the background we outlined the band's bodies creating a sense of connect the dots with the stars in the sky. we then changed the band name and album name's font as the previous one was too thick, we wanted a more mature elegant font as the songs are meaningful and the music is quite emotional. 

We developed the design further making it more subtle and soft with the band image more blended into the sky mysteriously and delicately but also allowing the audience to see the band's features.

my media Band's digipak faces i designed

my media Band's digipak faces i designed

This is the cover

This is the back of the digipak with a list of song names which are in the album. We chose this photo which is also our own as it is calm and goes with the representation of the band and their music being down to earth as this is a photo of nature. The cool and warm sky has connotations of goodness which also goes well with the band and music as being down to earth and nature is associated with goodness.    

Band photo. From carried our research, many indie bands had an image of their band members together in their digipak. This helps the viewer interpret them as a band and see how they look and behave together and their relationship. Band photos usually show the members close together and relaxed showing they have a close strong relationship and  promoting them to the audience to gather fans who like their style. So we put in a photo of our band together in a laid back and confident pose. the photo has a sepia effect on it which creates a vintage feel. vintage hues are often used on group and friendship photos making them look aged as it shows they were together for a long time. The indie style also links with the vintage style slightly as Vintage clothes are often reused which helps the environment and goes against modern day mass consumerism of unnecessary new things therefore links with nature and goodness.    

Abstract creative typical indie image. We decided to use this as from carried out research we saw that the indie style linked with certain symbols and imagery of nature on image websites such as google and weheartit.com. in indie style clothing this symbol is also often used on the tshirts graphics and its used in indie jewellery and sometimes indie music videos. it was used in the music artist kesha's music video however her music comes under the genre of pop more, however the style of clothing and the style of her music videos are often slightly indie with the use of safari desserts, animals and feather clothing.   

Separate band member photos. We were inspired to photoshop them is this way with different coloured backgrounds similarly to the way indie rock band 'Blur' did theirs shown above on the left of this photo.  we thought this was quite quirky and suited the way we used coloured hues in our instrument shots in our music video which was inspired by indie band 'two door cinema club's' - something good can work' video which used different coloured walls in the background. from our audience research we found out that the vast majority of people who liked the indie style said their personalities were mostly creative, laid back and liked to have fun.

http://500px.com/susierainbow This is my photography blog where i have all my own photography. 500px is a good website to share your own photos, like, follow and favourite others and even buy others.

some more tips on being less wasteful and more money saving

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Often trendy clothes in stores nowadays are more funky, customised, grungey, "cool" looking, you can easily add these qualities to your own old clothes or second hand cheap clothes. Recently i've been seeing many studded clothes as the grungey look has been very fashionable lately. Have a search for some furniture in your home or in second hand furniture stores and see if you can find ones with studs stuck to them and simply peel the studs off and stick them onto a piece of clothing. If you want different kinds of accessories similar to studs on your clothes you could also use beads, pins and just bend the backs of them, safety pins, small squares of glass for example pull them off of mini disco balls, often mini disco balls are used for room decoration or to hang on christmas trees. You might also find spike studs on punky jewellery and then just sew them onto the clothes if the studs have holes in them. Normal pyramid studs can also be found on punky wrist bands or most commonly on punky belts. Pyramid studs are great for attaching to clothing as they can be pinned onto the clothing and the ends can be bent inwards therefore no need for sewing or gluing and they don't fall off easily and they can be taken off again and re used on something else again. 

If you want to create the perfect trendy summer shorts, here's how:

-get a pair of vintage Levi Strauss heigh waist denim shorts, these can be found in charity shops or special vintage stores such as ones in a great shopping area called Bricklane in london, or of course online however these shorts are very difficult to get the right size as they are heigh waist therefore the waist is smaller than the bottom and people have different body shapes so dont just go for your normal size, try a few different pairs on trust me it takes a while to find the perfect fit ones.

- then shatter the ends of the shorts with a pair of scissors by running the scissor's side along the edges of the shorts to create a thrilly shattered worn out effect.

- if you want them to look reallyyy summery then you can highlight the ends of them by dipping them in a bowl of bleach to bleach the denim to a whiter colour. If you want them to look more casual and everyday then don't do this.

- then if you want to add that trendy grunge look to them then attach some pyramid studs to the pocket areas of the shorts at the front and back or just at the back or just at the front depending on what you prefer.

- finally a nice casual black or brown belt with them will make them really stand out.

If you're wondering about how to style these shorts out here are some ideas:

- with a loose white casual tshirt/shirt slightly tucked into them but also hanging out, some cowboyish brown boots, a long loose casual necklace, various summery string bracelets and a brown or black fringe side bag.

- with a tight black crop top, slightly opaque black tights and black military boots or black thick flatforms or creepers.

    

Helping the environment

Betrayal by Mario Sanchez Nevado. This powerful image depicts what im going to be discussing in this entry. Mother nature vs mankind.

I tend to express my concerns, views, feelings and beliefs in my art work. I've always cared a lot about the environment and animals and especially recently i've been feeling quite anxious about how our world is changing. We hear all the time about global warming, economic crisis, pollution, new diseases, non renewable materials running out...yet our society does so little to help stop or atleast decrease all of these issues, one would rather carry on walking and getting on with the personal problems in their lives rather then work together to make the world a better, healthier and safer place for the future generations to live in. All these unneccisary technologies being produced and sold. Of course, dont get me wrong, new technologies and inventions are a way of stretching possibilities, trying to enhance our way of life and spur on new ideas and inventions so that mankind and society can carry on evolving to a more futuristic modern future, however beautiful animals who are just as important as humans as they too are living creatures and were created to live on earth, are in danger because of our lack of thought and action on what we do to the waste being created. I'm also a graphics student and although that subject associates a lot with use of materials, manufacturing, promotion and selling, in our lessons we focuss most of all on trying to design and manufacture products which are more environmentally friendly. To do this the key things to take into consideration are Reusing, Rethinking, Repairing, Recycling, Reducing and Refusing.  The next time you are thinking about buying something new for example a new trendy item of clothing, RETHINK, look at an image of that item you wish to have (which is probably pretty expensive since its on trend) and go through your wardrobe, there must be something you can find in there that could be REUSED and made into the trendy item of clothing by using some extra cheap materials bought at a materials store or in a charity shop and a sewing machine. this not only would save you money and be more sustainable therefore reducing the amount of waste, but it also gives you a more unique item of clothing that only you have rather than hundreds of other people on the street wearing the exact same trendy item of clothing from the same shop and brand.  I remember one time i really wanted a fashionable green parka coat with a fur lined hood but of course they were so expensive! so i found an old green long rain coat in my house and a disgusting old coat with a fur lined hood, i unattached the fur from that coat i didnt want and i attached it to the green raincoat with some thread and buttons i wripped off of an old shirt and sewed onto the coat so that i could attach the fur onto the coat with buttons and i made my very own parka coat.   

I'm also interested in the film and music industry. Here is a an indie music video me and my group created for media A2. The video narrates a boy and girl's problematic relationship as he calls her "silver tongued" which means he thinks she plays around with him, she doesn't speak the truth and tries to get her way. It was filmed in the well known area South Bank in London and took about one or two weeks to film. The editing was done on a software called final cut pro on a mac computer. This software is really good, much better than imovie, it has many transitions and effects to choose from, colours of the shots can adjusted, the audio can be seperated from the film or added onto the film and the film's tempo can be made faster or slower. I'm planning to one day use it to create a music video for my own songs as i have written many of my own lyrics and want to sing them.  

-My pencil drawing of famous Surrealist artist Salvador Dali.

I've always been interested and inspired by the art movement and style of Surrealism. I think if someone has a talent in art and a wide imagination, someone who dreams all the time, has the ability to create outstanding out of this world Surreal art pieces. I've never been satisfied with the way life is, not many people are. Although i enjoy creating Surreal paintings, i personally think creating Surreal photographs is far stronger as you can create an image which looks real however is bizarre and unfamiliar because of the montage of different images together creating an imaginary world; a constructed reality. Here is a Surreal photo montage i created,

I painted it for my AS final exam piece. I was exploring themes of entrapment and contemplation/dreams. I got the inspiration to cover the girl in this image in a liquid that bubbles are formed from, from looking at various artisits work who used the theme of entrapment and one artist i saw took photos of fashion models inside large glass bubbles floating in the sky or on water. The multi coloured glossy mirage like liquid of bubbles also creates connotations of dreams as dreams are often seen as blurry and beautiful like often shown in films. The liquid she is coverd in represents that she is trapped in her dreams as she looks down onto the ground as though in contemplation/day dream. The hands trying to free themselves from the ground represent how she wishes to free herself from every day mundane life through her dreams hence which is why they are also coverd in bubble liquid.