Day Project - Redesigning Music Cover Art

As I have mentioned in my previous posts, Spotify has been and is currently my favourite pastime throughout lockdown. Organising my playlists, adding new songs and finding new artists is something which I have found very enjoyable for the past year or so. The cover art of songs is extremely important for growing an audience, particularly for smaller artists who are eager to reach their music out to a larger audience, which explains why I am so passionate about this and occasionally find it frustrating when a cover design does not match the quality of the song. I decided what I would do for a day project is to redesign a cover design for one of my favourite songs, which I personally believe the design does not represent the song as best as it could (no disrespect towards this designer). So, for this day project, I am planning on making a more fitting design which matches the context of the song more and has much more personality and atmosphere to it.

The cover art which I have decided to redesign is Soak It Up by MJ Cole x Kojey Radical. The song itself has been one of my favourite songs since late 2019, however one aspect which has always slightly frustrated me is the artwork. I think that the background design with the swirls is an interesting design, however I do not think it matches well with the context of the song. I think that the design when compared to the song and the lyrics is too basic and that the cover art for this particular song should feel more meaningful and evoke more emotion in the audience. I do understand why the designer has made this choice as I have noticed upon researching that MJ Cole is a DJ and a lot of his work has a very similar style to this, however I do still think that there is a loss of potential here. The very basic type used on the cover is also something I would personally not choose. I would either choose a more interesting font or no font at all as I believe if the design has enough substance and looks interesting enough, then it may not need text and I also think the majority of cover designs which I have seen have little to no text on them.

To start my research, I decided to look on YouTube to see if the song had a music video, and I was extremely surprised with what I found, as it was one of the most beautiful music videos I think I have ever watched, which made me further upset with the design of the cover art. Before I started choosing what sections stood out to me, I watched once or twice so I made sure I didn't miss anything which stood out to me and could potentially inspire me. One aspect which I loved about the design is the incorporation of dance and how much emotion is being evoked from him. Furthermore, the way that the family are sat around his staring either at him or at a blank wall as if they are in deep thought shows that there is a hidden atmosphere in the video which the viewer is unaware of. Makes me think - what has happened or what did this person do to leave their whole family in a state of disappointment and emptiness? The contrast of the intense dance routine to the blank facial expressions and no movement is very powerful.

Above are the six screenshots which I took from the music video which I felt were the most powerful and which had the most potential for me using and developing in my own work. I chose a range of frames, from the intense dance routine, to the empty facial expressions and posture to the family, as they are both equally as powerful when it comes to evoking emotion, however they are both two different types. The viewpoint of the family makes me feel sorry for the family as it is clear to see that they are all going through something as a whole from their facial expressions and that they are all with each other, with some physically leaning on each other, as if they are all hurting but trying to pick up others around them and making them feel better, even if they feel like they are not feeling strong in the moment themselves. For this reason, I decided it would be best for me to choose the bottom left image as they way the one lady is leaning her head on the other lady, who is also resting her head on the girls head is very powerful, and shows how they are supporting each other through this despite how low they are also feeling and having a strong family bond.

After looking at these screenshots, it became very obvious to me that I would like to experiment with them and see what I could make out of them. As this is a personal project, I have decided to return to my comfort area of digital illustration, as even though I have previously said that I would like to step out of my comfort zone, I think at this stage of my course it is also important to find a balance. So for my own work I will stick to my own comfort zone and keep to digital illustration as that is what currently brings me the most joy and excitement in design and is also what I think has the strongest results, then for my coursework, I will try new experiments and other areas of design which I am not yet comfortable with to then try and further my understand and skill in design.

Due to this style being something which I have loved experimenting with throughout the years, there was not many important development processes to show here, and I believe it would be more interesting for this post if I just showed you the final design and described my thoughts and actions which took place throughout. The design on the left looks like the typical style I would usually aim to achieve with the bold outlines, separating the different shapes created in the design which was created from separating the different shadows and tones in the initial image. Even though the first design does work well, there is something about the second design which looks much more interesting and artistic. It looks as if it has been handmade with different shapes and placing them all together as if it was a collage, and making a digital design look handmade is something which I have struggled with achieving before whenever I have tried, so this is most definitely my favourite approach out of the two.

It would be interesting to create more artwork like this and trying to make a page out of it on social media like Instagram to get my work out there. I could make different designs which I can post and hopefully build a following. Creating an Instagram page like this is something I have always wanted to do however I have shied away from it as I did not know what style to use and I feel like it is quite an intimidating process to start.

Even though I stated that I preferred the no outline approach over this, I still thought it was important to experiment with this style to at least see what other potential outcomes I could create and use, and maybe some of the designs may look better with more interesting colour combinations, which is actually exactly what happened. I think the designs which have been edited look better than the original design, particularly the top left design. The contrast in colour with the orange and blue works significantly well and the vibrancy is very powerful. Even though the design itself looks very interesting, I do have to question whether or not it is fitting for the content of the song, as that is also what I questioned with the original cover design. I think something more subtle would be better as vibrant and bold colours make the design look somewhat happy and give off a positive atmosphere, which like stated previously, is not what is currently happening with the family situation, so I think the options which are more fitting for the content of the song and the overall atmosphere which is being created in the music video would be the grayscale design and the brown design.

Moving onto the designs which I felt most confident about which are the designs with no outline, I feel like these designs as a whole are much more interesting and artistic. The outline designs are still good, however I don't think they have as much of a unique style compared to these. The design which I felt was the most interesting was the purple, orange and yellow design, however as I mentioned in the previous paragraph, I think it is important that the atmosphere of the design is more authentic and real to match the atmosphere of the music video. Due to this, I think the most fitting images are the two brown designs and the original. The two brown designs stand out to me, particularly the inverted design. Even though I do not think it is as effective as the original brown design, it is very interesting to see what the colours look like when swapped over and what other potential designs can be created.

Another two designs which I also think worked quite well surprisingly was the green and blue design. I think even though they are also quite vibrant and bold, the tone of the colour helps the same atmosphere as the original remain, which is quite interesting as I didn't think that would be possible prior to this. This is most probably because green and blue are much more subtle and cold colours, particularly when compared to the bright and bold combination of purple, orange and yellow.

These are the final two designs which I thought were the most effective. In terms on what is more appropriate for the cover of Soak It Up by MJ Cole x Kojey Radical, I would choose the design to the left as it is much more authentic and real, and keeps as much attention as possible on the content of the image, which is two family members leaning on each other for support through a difficult time. Keeping this authentic and real is important because it helps evoke more emotion in the viewer, which I think is extremely important for this song and the lyrics which are in it.

In terms of what edited design looked the most interesting, I would say the purple, orange and yellow design which is showed above. The vibrant and bold colours give off a very happy and positive atmosphere, which even though it is not fitting for the song, I think as a piece individually is very effective and maybe if it was instead paired with an image which also matched the same atmosphere of being positive and happy, it would work better. This is important to note because in the future, I could use this colour palette again and put it into more of a good use.