Furiouser &
Spuriouser
Project Overview
This album cover is made for Jason Noble's Furiouser and Spuriouser. It is a contemporary musical composition that only uses the voices of its performers for dialogue and sound. The story inside retells Alice in Wonderland through the modern, digital age. The characters are no longer fantastical, instead they are the anonymous people online. Instead of Alice, it’s Allysse and she gets caught up in the black hole that is the internet. Knowing this, the resulting album cover must be uniquely representative of the story and the methods through which it is told.
Progress Work #1
Project Three: Album Cover
Deliverables:
Program, Poster, Textile, Sticker Series,
Lanyard & Exterior Banners
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Details:
Since the musical notation and the sounds produced for each chapter are far from traditional, the goal of this album cover is to mimic this non-traditional music through illustrations. It is the transfer and reflection of one art from to another art form; music and sound to illustration and visuals. For me, I chose to emulate the sounds I heard while listening to the entire composition. It made more sense to choose abstraction rather than have distinct visuals. I achieve this through the layering of colors, shapes and textures and employing the effects found in drawing and illustration software. Listening through the different chapters, it often made me feel a guttural sense of dread. As well, I heard high pitch quips and constant low notes, and the different overlapping voices over the performers. These layered sounds are largely what inspired the overall look of the covers. I feel that the guttural sense of dread is best represented by the dark, wavy textures that envelop the whole piece.
Project Three Reflection
Making this album cover was a new way of design. The visual composition relies on a more artistic approach. Much of the techniques I used were very familiar to me since I learned them from my experience in digital art. The greatest challenge I found while making this cover was the translation process from a feeling to a visual. I often wondered how I would best illustrate the feelings that I felt and the sounds that I heard in a non-literal way. I started by drawing lines as I listened to the piece. This allowed me to get a sense of movement for more refined sketches. I also made drafts that were more literal (featuring phones and people or hands), and I found that these did not suit the intentions I had. As well, I needed to ensure that the resulting cover was uniquely representative of the composition. I achieved this through continuous listening of sounds and also the addition and also through the addition of words and phrases that were meaningful to me. Overall, I loved the opportunity of making an abstracted piece and I hope that my efforts truly encapsulate the feeling of hearing the composition.