Front Vinyl Cover Mock up
Back Vinyl Cover Mock up
Vinyl Sticker Mock Up
Reflection Notes:
For the circle sticker for the vinyl, I used existing imagery, as upon researching other vinyls, most of them stuck with the same front image or background colours, in order to make the vinyl cohesive and almost like one unit. So, I really just ended up playing around with this, also drawing more squiggle shapes to compliment the shape of the sticker.
Poster Mock Up
Reflection: I wanted to create a mock up of Clairo's poster on a graffiti/ urban background. With her music being quite indie and alternative, this sort of mock up is not only realistic, but typical of her work. I can imagine it being plastered in cities after her album release.
Poster Mock up Bus Stop
Reflection: I also decided to create a mock up for a bus stop, as I noticed recently that several artists are using this as a key marketing technique, especially for albums. I think the simplicity of the poster and design makes it captivating, especially for on-foot and vehicle traffic.
Poster Mock up Shopping Centre
Reflection: Finally, I also placed the poster in a shopping centre digital screen, as this is another key placement for album advertising. It is the ideal place, as people can then go visit the shops to physically buy the album, or specifically in this case- the vinyl record.
Front Cover Design
Reflection:
The final design I went with was the flower bandaid image, which after consideration and analysis, I felt evoked more of the feelings of the album. I read in articles that compared to Clairo’s previous work which was perhaps more childish and youthful, this album was about coming of age and growth, which I think the flowers tied into perfectly, with the sketching aspect retaining some of that youthful essence.
The image was inspired by the work of photographer, Brooke Didonato, particularly her in bloom series, which on not only displayed flowers in rather unusual or mundane locations, but conveyed an almost sombre, yet hopeful and content mood.
The shooting process was interesting, mainly consisted of me in my bathroom taking a number of different angles and shots, experimenting with lighting etc. Although I had inspiration images and moods, I ended up straying a bit off path, adding my own approach and creativity to the mix. My final image I chose had the perfect mix of warm lighting, shadowing on the face and blurring of the background.
Although the picture itself was intriguing and evoked a lot of meaning itself, the bandaid a symbol for past pain and trauma, the flowers a symbol for how all pain leads to growth, I wanted to add more to the cover, and also push myself to explore mixed media, to not only push myself, but add more dimension to the piece and also tribute back to Clairo’s previous playful albums. So that’s where the sketches came in, I decided to incorporate illustration by drawing designs with a pen, scanning them into Illustrator and converting into shapes and a png file to place over the image. This idea was heavily inspired and influenced by the work of Emma Regolini, an Australian based digital artist who uses clean lines to enhance imagery and portraits, her images appearing in Harper’s Bazaar, Elle etc. This was a new technique I hadn’t used before, it ended up giving the image a really nice finish and effect and although some of the detail got lost in Illustrator, I was overall quite happy with the result.
From the draft to the final image, I ended up adding a lot more detail into these drawings, mainly on the flowers. I was conflicted whether to go realistic or more in depth with the drawings, but I did want to keep that youthful, playful essence about it.
In regards to other small changes I made to the vinyl cover, I added a grainy/noise effect to almost give it a film photo vibe, and ended up darkening the saturation so it would be more cohesive with the back cover. The film photo effect was something I noted when listening to the album during the design process, especially when joting down ideas and I feel evoked the timelessness mood and almost 90s feelings some of the songs resonate with.
Back Cover Design
Reflection Notes:
I was really happy with the final result for the back cover. I pushed myself to try new skills and removed the soap dispenser from the original image. It was a tricky process, but after adding a grain effect, as well as strategically placing the logo, I was happy with how it turned out. At one point, I was struggling because my front and back cover didn't look cohesive enough, or like they belonged together. In order to fix this, I actually ended up photoshopping the same tiles as the park bathroom into the front cover. By also adding in similar finishes, such as the same effect of pen writing and the grain/noise effect, they began to look as one unit. I also included a barcode that I generated and copyright text to give it an authentic feeling.
I was questioning whether I should put the 'Clairo' logo on the front or back cover. Typically, the logo is on the front, however when experimenting with it, it tended to look too busy and distracted from the album title, especially as they were in a similar sketch type. On the back cover, the Clairo logo looked more in place. Also worth mentioning, I designed the Clairo logo myself. Clairo has a huge number of different logos or typefaces, and doesn't have an overarching one, so this made it fun when designing and also allowed me to create one which suited my design.
Full Poster Design
