Final Project Evaluation

We have now finished our CD packaging project, which encompasses the thought processes, for example picking an (musical) artist, understanding the music and genre, find inspiring themes and artists to base work, looking at an artist's image, etc., and the creative work which was the album art, album cover, packaging, booklet, CD design and logo. I chose the musical group StarKid for the basis of this project as they have an interesting, new image and I enjoy their work, which means that every idea I came up with had to be linked to my understanding of their music and plays, meaning that first and foremost, my ideas were generated by my understanding of the band. For example, I imagine if their songs were a colour, it would be a rainbow, so you see a lot of rainbow-like colours in my work. They have dark undertones too, so I let that colour my work too. Secondly, I have a look at the packaging and art not only StarKid but other artists have used, so it is a whole range of ideas and people that have inspired me.

My creative journey spans all the way back to before summer, when we where first starting the project and coming up with an artistic understanding of music and its many genres. First, we started to draw familiar instruments and shapes we could relate to music in different mediums like pens, pencils, then moving on to ink, pastels and more. Then our work became more individual once we had picked our artist and started to think more about them as people. Over the holidays I did a number of experiments again this time including collage, mixed media, stencilling, stitching, water colours, in depth drawing, still life, photography and mixed typography, as well as developed vector designs from the previous term. Moving on to my Logo, I knew I wanted a clean logo, made on computer and well presented after we had finished the usual routine of mixed medium experiments for the logos. Using the helpful tutorials found on YouTube, I created a number of looks mostly inspired by two of my initial logos, one of which was a Combination mark and the other an emblem, both containing a rocket-ship, which was referenced in two of StarKid's musicals along with the planet Mars.

Using the tutorials and combining the two ideas and two of the tutorials, I created a logo which holds the image of a rocket-ship (which I initially could not make look right with the pen tool) flying past a 3D planet with a star design and crater. Next on my list was creative ideas for packaging and using other materials than just card simple net design. We also made CD origami holders, packaging out of postal materials, plastic bags, leaflets, paper, plastic bottle caps, string and more to hold a CD, making us think outside the box when it can to shape ideas, however what gave me the most inspiration was looking at how the packaging kept together, not how it was made, which is why on my packaging my biggest emphasis in on the front of the box, with the handles and the padlock. Finally it was developing my artwork and putting everything together. I had early on decided my theme for this album would be Space, which is explored by StarKid's work, and it was hard to juggle all their work. This is why my later artwork is drastically from my work during the summer, as I was torn between using the mediums I was using before, the photos I had taken during the photo-shoot or developing the wallpaper designs I had created in Adobe Photo shop and Illustrator. It is clear to see that I headed down the later route, though it didn't mean I was limited to these processes and I tried to incorporate the images I had taken but it was hard to use the hand-made work as these two processes clashed, though the they both had produced some of my best work. This is were I had the idea to compromise and use stitching (taken from my favourite hand-made work of the summer) to add parts to my packaging: stitch areas together, add more materials I explored but never had a chance to combine, etc.

So as you can see, the overall design is very simple, but I still have a chance to improve it a great deal. Also while trying to incorporate the photo-shoot in my packaging, I covered the negatives on the CD holder since I couldn't get hold of any StarKid flyers. 

My artwork for my final outcome was initially inspired by StarKid's new, space-age logo, which has a colourful nebula background. Using this I did a number of my own experiments, helped by these tutorials:

This taught me how to make a space scene as my theme was abstract space.

This tutorial helped me to make a smoke effect. I was curious about making realistic smoke as my logo was a rocket-ship. In the end this idea was scraped

This was very useful as it gave me a place to download Photoshop brush sets that helped me create various other abstract shapes. 

In the end I decided on my favourite wallpapers:

The Bokeh Effect, its rainbow colours suit it well, and the varying sizes of the bokeh circles look like planets.

Another version of the Bokeh effect, at this point it had become my favourite wallpaper so I decided to make it look a little more Space-like. I used a grunge brush to make it darker and a star shaped brush to add  a little detail. 

Finally, I used the Bokeh effect to edit this picture of a keyboard, then taking my logo, I made it into a brush to finish off the picture. I like it as the keys look like steps leading up to the ship, like the staircase holder in my packaging.

This background made a good design for the CD holder as its rainbow colours fit. I also like the down streak which looks like flames.

Bokeh Tutorial

Colorful background tutorial.

The idea of the box came to me as I was watching StarKid's musical 'Starship.' The biggest set piece of the play was a pair of the Starship's doors which could slide open. I tried to make the mechanism that would slide open the two doors on a box, but it was too difficult. Instead, I decided to just have two normal doors with a pair of handles to open the doors.

The Sliding doors in 'Starship'

As it was hard to close, I decided to add a padlock, inspired by the Houdini album by Jessamine:

A CD case you have to pick. My lock is a bit more traditional: you unlock it with a key.

My idea to make the unique staircase holder contained within the box came from a suggestion made by a classmate whilst listing ideas on how I could improve my packaging design. The idea came from the understanding of stages in parallel to the steps leading up to rocket-ships  From that idea came this: 

A three layered staircase, that is intended to contain the CD, the Inlay and a poster.

My idea of using stitching to hold the packaging together was inspired by the techniques shown in this tutorial, which was part of the summer assignment project:

The project has gone by very quickly, making it hard to finish on time, especially with the amount of work I had to hand in. I was pleased by the amount of the experiments I had done in preparation as it really helped me find a look for my packaging, unfortunately as later on I was working on the computers, I found it hard to keep my sketchbook updated as my experiment were all computer based, meaning my blog showed the most level of progress, though parts were missed out since I was working so quickly: for example when we had to do analysis on packaging ideas, I pick three random packaging ideas rather than a generalised look at them all. When I had discovered I could of looked deeply at Jessamine's 'Houdini', I was too late as I was caught in the sea of work. Since we had so much to do, there no time for mistakes, which is unfortunate as my CD packaging kept coming out frayed and unprofessional. Since I had the most to make, it took me longer to produce my work and I fell behind. I had little time to develop my ideas, improve my packaging and finish others, like my inlay and poster, so they became rushed. I do like the look of my outer packaging, though it was hard to make as it was required to be so big, meaning there was a problem printing it out. I couldn't print it all out on card, so I had to do a lot of gluing to get the pieces on. I did my best but it was still falling apart. The stitching on the staircase helped it immensely and it looked more professional. The stitching on the box helped a little as it stopped the glue from coming undone (I had to work with terrible glue) but since the width was constrained as much as possible, the staircase just manages to be put inside, and the stitching on the box became loosened slightly. The CD holder and CD are also a little frayed around the edges and a little glue is visible on the negatives but I am overall pleased about there shape. I had to make the CD at home, however I was able to print it out on a good quality card that gave it a shine. Although I had to laminate as the ink wasn't drying quickly, it still looked well-made despite a slight frayed side. I like the look of the decoration of the negatives on y CD holder as it looks innovative, though through lack of time, there isn't a track list to look at: it is only featured in the inlay. I think that if I had more time, I could of done a lot better and been sure of the way of it had all looked and fit together if I had been better at planning, as a lot of trail-and-error went into the production. Though it is satisfactory, I am slightly disappointed as it doesn't look entirely professional. 

When we move on to the Personal Project, I would like to move on to developing my hand-drawn skills even more, all the while keeping in mind what I had done for the project: I have really become proficient at using Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator and would like to continue that link as well. Moving on from this, my theme will be Life, Space and the Universe, so definite links to a wide form of Nature, which I am interested in. Artists I would like to revisit and continue to explore would be Zim & Zou with their paper planets, Rob Ryan's in depth paper cutting and Deborah Moon's style and collage.