INSPIRATION: Album Artwork

WHAT TO THINK ABOUT:

Album artwork should complement the music. It should visually reflect the style of music produced by this artist/band.

For this project, You should be making COMPOSITE design -- that is, a design composed from combining multiple images and layers. There are some fantastic pictures out there on the web, but I'm not looking for you to simply drag and drop a really cool photograph into the document -- that doesn't really showcase your design skills! So each of your documents should be created from multiple images/layers/techniques. You will be using various Photoshop techniques to create a single cohesive design 

Remember what we discussed in class about your designs having meaning. Search for ways to connect your design to the title of the album or the feeling of the music.

Listen to a little bit of this music....
After hearing a bit of it, does the cover for this album make sense?

INSTRUCTIONS: Album Artwork Research

STEP 1: Album Artwork Research

You will be using PINTEREST to collect album artwork images that inspire you. Pinterest is not just for recipes and crafts. It's a fantastic resource that many professional designers use to find inspirational images (better than google) for a task.

1. Quickly set up a Pinterest account using your google apps account.
    
2. Search for Album Artwork that inspires you. Don't look for albums from a specific artist. Start with a simple search terms like:
   
   • Album Art
   • Album Artwork
   • Album Design 
   • Music Artwork
   • Record Art
     
3. Maybe you will change your search after looking for a bit to something more specific, like:
   • Album Artwork Colorful
   • Album Artwork Bands
   • Album Art
   • Music Art
   • Album Art Pattern
     
4. Create a board on Pinterest to "pin" them to. 
   
5. When you "pin" something, write what you like about that design in the text box provided. When you see something that inspires you, ask yourself, "What do I like about this?" Is it the color? Textures? Layout? Imagery? Blending? Text? Even if you only like a single thing about a design, that's ok! Grab it as inspiration. 
   
6. You must have at least 20 designs for inspiration.

INTERESTING: Reflections

TWO ads from Louis Vuitton from the same ad campaign. BOTH have reflection mistakes

INTERESTING: Photoshopped - Missing and Extra Parts

While it seems that this photographer got the "perfect" shot of a fight at the game, he actually pieced together several photos. Hoewever, he failed to properly photoshop the lower half of the body of the man in black. When you piece together other images to make a picture, double check to make sure you didn't overlook an obvious mistake.















YOU DECIDE:
Are these next four images classic cases of missing legs or are these just instances of awkward photography?

INSTRUCTIONS: Drawing A Cartoon from a Gesture

STEP ONE: Create 3 cartoon drawing sketches that originate from a gesture drawing.

Creating cartoons with emotion isn't just about adding a facial expression. If I ask you to draw a "sad robot", some people might assume I want a figure of a robot with a sad face, such as the one below:

Emotion really comes from all parts of the character. You have to think about body positioning and posture -- and that comes from gesturing. Start with any full-body photograph of a person or animal. Try looking for something specific -- happy person, scared person, etc. Or if you have something in mind, include that in your search (person walking, handstand, etc.) and create your gesture.

Then determine what you would like to turn your gesture into. It could be a person, animal, robot, creature, alien -- anything you want. Think about what could be exaggerated about your cartoon. If you are turning your gesture into something specific, look for photographs to help inspire you.

 

Make sure you are looking at PHOTOGRAPHS of the actual human/animal/create, not computer illustrations or someone's drawing. That's their interpretation of the cartoon. Be original and create your own interpretation. The results will be much more interesting:

If you have trouble drawing things, start with basic shapes --  circles, rectangles, squares, ovals, triangles, etc. and see where the shapes take you. Think about not having your character stand straight and facing you with its arms by its sides (like a "gingerbread man" stance.) Do you want to exaggerate any part of your character? Do you want to give your character any props/objects/friends?

STEP TWO: Final Drawing

When you have finished at least three cartoons from gestures, pick your favorite/best sketch and redraw it on a clean piece of computer paper. Don't worry about a background -- we will create those later.

Requirements for your final drawing:

• A full-body character 
• LOTS of details (does your character have fur, clothes, texture, etc.)
• On a piece of white computer paper
• Large (try to fill up as much of the paper as you can without going off the page
• Do not copy any existing cartoon. Make your own original character.

INSTRUCTIONS: Mashup

Today, you will be creating a mashup of two photographs by Martin Schoeller.  

Martin Schoeller (German, b. 1968) is an award-winning portrait photographer renowned for extreme- close up portraits. He is a former assistant to Annie Leibovitz. His work has appeared in Rolling Stone, National Geographic, TIME, GQ, Esquire, Entertainment Weekly, and The New York Times Magazine, among other publications.

GOALS:

• I will be looking for how well you blended your facial features.
• I will be looking for your choice of brush for other parts of the image.
• I expect all body parts to be on new layers.
• You should have some features from BOTH people included in the final image.
• I expect this to look like a realistic person. That means that I am not looking for added body parts (like a third eye). Also, if you have some feature that looks unnatural (like a big patch of blurry, blobby, muddy skin), FIX IT. Delete that layer and try again. 
• This should be a 50/50 mix. Pick 3 facial features PLUS the hair or the clothing.

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Open a new document that is 2100px by 1200px
2. Select two photos from the folder provided on Google Classroom
3. Drag both photos into your new document
4. Resize them so the faces are approximately the same size
5. Choose one as your "base"
6. Using the clone tool, copy body parts from your other picture onto new individual layers. So, before you go to copy a body part, you will need to make a new layer. You will need to make sure you are sampling from the "current layer and below" (look for this option in your options palette at the top of your PhotoPea screen)
7. Use your eraser tool with a soft brush and a reduced opacity to blend the edges of your body parts onto your "base" picture. 
8. Use your eraser tool with a hard-edged brush and full 100% opacity to cut around objects -- such as hair -- to give those parts a clean edge. 
9. Create and use "Fix" layers when necessary.

INSTRUCTIONS: Understanding Balance

Download and Open the new document provided in Google Classroom. There will be a new document for each part of this assignment. In the end, you will have THREE completed documents.

Download and Open the "Images" file that was provided in Google Classroom.

You will be Movie Posters using the random objects from the "Images" file. Each "Movie Poster" should have a title and images.
1.) Create a layout that illustrates SYMMETRICAL Balance
2.) Create a layout that illustrates ASYMMETRICAL Balance
3.) Create a layout that illustrates RADIAL Balance

Select objects from the images file and drag them into your blank, white document. You will be creating the layouts from various objects of your choice. After you have completed each layout, save the document and TITLE it with the principle of design you are showing. You may resize or rotate any image to create your designs.

TIP: Use COMMAND+Click while on the Move Tool to select the layer that is directly under the mouse.

INSTRUCTIONS: Take a ScreenShot of Your Stuff

Get Your Research To ME!!!

To take a screen shot, hit COMMAND+SHIFT+4. Your cursor will turn into a "target" and you can draw a box around what you want to be in the picture. The image will save to your desktop.

PEOPLE WHO USED PINTEREST:
Open up your pinterest board and take a screen shot of your inspiration images (COMMAND+SHIFT+4)


PEOPLE WHO DRAGGED IMAGES TO THEIR DESKTOP:

1. Put all the images in a folder
2. Open the folder select all of the photos.
3. Hit the spacebar
4. Click on the grid icon shown in the following picture:
5. THEN take your screenshot (COMMAND+SHIFT+4)

MAKE SURE YOU LABEL YOUR SCREEN SHOT and then upload it to Google Classroom

INSTRUCTIONS: Album Artwork

THIS ASSIGNMENT IS ABOUT HOW YOU INTERPRET SOMETHING.

You will be interpreting an album title or an artist's sound and translating that into a visual form. What connections can you make to the album title? The music?

STEP ONE: Collect Inspiration Using Pinterest
See previous post on Google Classroom. You must have at least 25 designs for inspiration. Once you have at least 25 examples, Look at them all - what common things do you see? What similarities are in your designs? Patterns? Colors? Shapes? Composition? THIS IS YOUR STYLE. Use the common things you see in your inspiration to lead you into this design.

 
STEP TWO: Get Inspired and Determine Title

• Watch the video on google classroom on STEFAN SAGMEISTER
• Use the sheet (print yourself or take from the front of the classroom), write down your pinterest trends.
• Then, listen to the music. 20 minutes of solid, uninterrupted music by this artist/band. Don’t watch a video while listening. Turn your phone over and put DO NOT DISTURB mode on or your phone’s equivalent. Have only the paper and a pen/pencil in front of you. Write down any references/objects/things you think of when listening to the songs. Also write down any adjectives/feelings/moods that come to mind. THIS IS YOUR ARTIST'S STYLE.
• Determine the title of your album while you listen -- you could use a song title or part of a lyric.

STEP THREE: Collect Images
Using your completed worksheet as a reference, collect images that might make sense to include. Make sure you are finding appropriately sized images (see document size below). Find people, textures, patterns, etc to possibly incorporate into your design.

STEP FOUR: Start Your Album Artwork
Document Size: 5x5 inches at 300ppi. Here are the things you need to do when designing this album:
Create a Safe Zone. Pull in guides from your rulers and drop them .25 of an inch from each edge. Go To View>Rulers if you can't see your rulers. This creates a safe zone. A safe zone should contain your text. Your design does not have to be contained within your safe zone.

Create a Composite Design. You should be using at least 7 elements. Here are some of many things we have worked on in class that you could experiment with:

• Multiple layers and images
• Blending Modes
• Balance - Symmetrical, Asymmetrical or Radial
• Cropping or blending image layers with the appropriate brush choice
• Textures
• Clone Stamp Tool
• Painting Layers
• Different Brush Options -- Open your brushes palette!
• Vector Shapes (like, circles, rectangles, etc.)
• Vector Objects - make things with the pen tool! For instance, instead of adding a photograph of a flower to your design, try making a flower with the pen tool. Or try making a vector background.
• Opacity
• Add a text layer and incorporate it as part of the design (like, a big number 3 or something relevant to your artist/band.) 
• Layer Masks

Design with Meaning. You should be connecting your visual to the title of the album and the music.

Add Text. You should include your Artist/Band's name and the title of the album. Remember that your text/font choice should also reflect the artist or band. More info about font choice will come later.

Use Design Ideas. You need to use AT LEAST TWO of the design ideas from your worksheet.

Explore Options. Make a few designs to compare and contrast. You can easily duplicate an entire document by going to Image>Duplicate.

 Here is the example from class:

 

INTERESTING: The Power of Photoshop

CLICK on these gifs to show before and after photos for commercial advertisements.