D&AD: XL Recordings

D&AD BRIEF: XL RECORDINGS.

Aidan Cooke U1251161 TID1162-1314: 1314 Graphic Design Professional Practice

D&AD NEW BLOOD AWARDS 2014

Background XL Recordings is a British independent record label started in 1989 as an offshoot of Beggars Banquet Records.

Though only releasing an average of six albums a year, XL Recordings has worked with artists across a range of genres, with album launches worldwide.

Brief set by: Xl recordings In collaboration with: B&a rePs london

illustrate Xl recordings – since 1989

crafts for design / illustration / Print with digital / Moving iMage / tyPograPhy

@DandADNewBlood #NewBloodAwards Deadline: 19 March 2014

creative challenge Illustrate a significant event, or series of events, from the history of XL Recordings, from the selection below: • Dizzee Rascal Boy In Da Corner wins Mercury Music Prize.

• M.I.A. performs at Grammy Awards while nine months pregnant.

• XL Recordings wins Music Week Best Independent Label Award.

• Adele Skyfall wins Oscar.

• Drake samples the Gil Scott-Heron & Jamie xx song Take Care.

• Radiohead In Rainbows pay-what-youwant release direct from the band.

• The White Stripes play the Amazon Theatre in Manaus, in the heart of the Amazon.

• As an escape from the music industry’s long lead times The Raconteurs release their second album Consolers Of The Lonely within a month of announcing it.

• 10,000 ravers still make it through to XL’s Popham Airport rave, despite police attempts to roadblock the event. Prodigy and SL2 headline.

• Adele becomes the first artist since The Beatles to simultaneously have two albums in the Top 5 and two Top 5 singles.

• Richard Russell and Joby Talbot produced avant garde orchestral Aluminium album pays tribute to the White Stripes, and is turned into Chroma, a ballet premiered at the Royal Opera House in London.

• Tyler, the Creator performs at MTV’s VMAs and wins Best New Artist award.

• A mysterious John S. O’Leary pops up to sing the chorus on Electric Six’s disco flavoured smash hit Danger! High Voltage.

• Fuck The Pain Away by Peaches becomes a defining track of Berlin’s burgeoning electronic music / arts scene later dubbed ‘Electroclash’.

• Richard Russell and Nick Halkes’ Kicks Like A Mule rave outfit release The Bouncer via Tribal Bass Records.

• XL The First Chapter rave compilation is first album release on XL. • Gil Scott-Heron passes away.

• Banned Smack My Bitch Up discussed

during Prime Minister’s Question Time.

• Vampire Weekend come third out of four at Columbia University Battle of the Bands, their first ever gig.

• Bobby Womack The Bravest Man In The Universe wins Best Album at the 2012 Q Awards.

Celebrate the artist and highlight their seminal moment(s) in a way that engages and communicates to your audience. considerations • Consider the broad context in which illustration operates in the 21st Century. Illustrators now have far greater flexibility to utilize all manner of skills and approaches – from hand rendered typography to 3D model making, from hand torn collage to highly rendered CGI, from the single static image to the animated narrative.

• Don’t be restricted by medium but do remember that concept is key.

Illustration is most powerful when driven by a strong concept.

• Your concept should work in both print and digital environments. target audience Music lovers.

Mandatories • An ‘illustration’ for one A1 poster.

• One ‘illustration’ for an online exhibition. The spec for this is open – it could be static or moving and the size, etc. is up to you.

• Document and show your research and how you developed your ideas. deliveraBles See ‘Preparing Your Entries’, included in your brief pack, for full format specs and submission guidance. Work will only be accepted in the formats outlined.

Main deliverables (mandatory) • Submit your poster as one image (JPEG only).

• Submit your online exhibition piece either as one image (for static work), or as a video (for moving image, MPEG or MOV, max. 1 min).

• To show your research and development, submit either up to four images or video (max. 1 min).

Supporting material (optional) If your online exhibition piece is interactive, you can submit it as supporting material.

D&AD NEW BLOOD AWARDS 2014. XL RECORDINGS BRIEF. For my second year project at university we were given the opportunity to select one of our own briefs from the D&AD New Blood Awards 2014 briefing list or the YCN briefs. After reviewing all of the available briefs, I decided to focus on the D&AD: XL Recordings Brief, this requesting that we as designers were to illustrate one of XL’s biggest events as highlighted on the list to the left, and present this on an A1 printed format. We were also told that the design must be compatible not only in print format but also on digital format, therefore I will ensure that my design functions in a suitable manner on both of these platforms. I will now undergo the process of researching all of the individual events themselves in order to discover which events I want to illustrate, as well as looking at existing styles of design which I could further pursue in my works.

SONY MUSIC TIMELINE. As a form of inspiration, the D&AD website actually supplied us designers with a few examples of existing design pieces based around music trends, with this one in particularly set around the Sony Music Timeline, with a specific focus on typography in the design process, with this designer making a beautiful and inspiring design which discusses the story of Sony Music through a timeline format, however using a custom made typeface, exploring different fonts, scales and sizes in order to form a visual which is aesthetically pleasing and discusses the context well. This is an element that will be key in my own designs, ensuring that the design is very visually pleasing to the audience as well as discussing the event which I decide to focus on well.

MUSICIANS THAT HAVE INSPIRED THE MUSIC OF TODAY. Displayed to the left is yet another inspiring piece of design which was displayed on the D&AD website, this in particular design focusing on the context of inspiration, with the idea of taking old musicians who and imprinting modern band logos on their t-shirts in order to represent who they were inspired by. This is a brilliant and intuative design idea, with a clever approach to the topic in discussion and a new and fascinating way of displaying it. This also gives the audience an opportunity to interact with the design piece, with them being able to present their own opinions and possibly taking the chance to listen to these old fashioned bands and these musicians who have inspired the modern day bands which the audience of today listen to. In my own design process I will consider approaching the design in a new and original manner in order to give my project an opportunity to engage with the audience in a much stronger way.

TYPE ONLY. Type only is a booklet designed by a company named Unit Editions, with them being a very inspirational graphic design company situated in London, producing some magnificant designs, mainly focused around book design layouts. This book named Type Only is one of my personal favourites from their collection, and I was recently fortunate enough to have a lecture from the company themselves, with a strong focus on discussion around this booklet itself, as well as a physical copy being present at the lecture. The book is almost used as a portfolio for some of the most brilliant pieces of type design that is being produced by some of the unknown type based artist around the world, with some inspirational type designs being present throughout. The company have also released a blog/website which features all the content that is featured in the book itself, however with a given opportunity for the company to add to the contents and update the site

with new designs which are being produced by designers of today. Even though the idea of the product itself is brilliant, it is the content in which it features that truly inspires my work, with some fascinating approaches to type design, taking a set of type and manipulating it in order to make the context much more interesting and appealing to be read by readers of the booklet. In my own project, masses of type will be used in order to discuss the event which I choose to work with throughout the project, however it is key that I do not make this bulk of type boring and lack interest to the target audience as this will allow my design to be unsuccessful as it does not engage with the audience, this being arguable one of the most important factors for a designer to consider when producing his or her work. So, after reviewing some of the work on the type only website I can now take a strong understanding into type design and how to work well with it.

POLYGON PIXELS. The polygon pixel designs shown to the right were found on designspiration.com, and are brilliant examples of using shapes in order to construct some sort of object or in this case animal. This could be applied to my own project in a similar fashion and could support me in producing a very inspirational visual, taking the use of shape and applying a bulk of these shapes in order to create a figure or human form perhaps. I will take into close consideration the design style of polygon pixelation, as it is a design format which I personally find very fascinating and would work well with an event which I decide to further discuss in my works. In this particular case of polygon pixelation the designer seems to have produced some form of origami pieces, with what appears to be folded pieces in order to form the character.

However, in my own works I would take a much more digital approach as I believe it would work just as well as the more practical approach and still leave a nice finish to the project.

TRIANGULATION. Triangulation takes on a very similar approach to the design style previously shown, polygon pixels. However, with the triangulation design there is immediately a noticable digital approach in the design, with the artist producing these art pieces on digital software, creating triangle based shapes in almost a flattened manner, and using gradients in order to create extra shape and form in the image. This design style reflects much more suitable on the style of work that I would like to work with in my own designs, creating triangle based shapes in order to create a sense of shape when discussing my event, and then possibly adding gradients and shading to create further depth and form to my designs.

GEOMETRIC FORMS.

The designs displayed above are further examples of using shapes in design in order to create movement and structure in the piece. In this case, the design focuses on geometric forms around these dancers, in order to create composition and layout around the page and a way to incorporate the type and the imagery together, creating a balanced layout across the page. In my own design process, I must take into consideration the idea of composition and layout, ensuring that the type and imagery co-operate with one another in some way perhaps, in order for the piece to work as a whole together oppose to a poster being produced which take the element of type and imagery and have no form of structure and layout across the image.

GLITCHING. Glitch: Designing Imperfection is a booklet produced by one of the tutors at my university named Joe Gilmore, along side some of his colleagues. This booklet takes on a similar style to the Type Only book, where it is an archive or a portfolio of a wide variety of artists and their glitch designs, all being displayed in one booklet format. Some of the design work in this book is inspirational due the interesting pieces of design through manipulation of imagery via this glitching process, with some of the designs displayed to the right being some of the more inspiring pieces of work. I believe this style of design could be applied in a similar fashion to some of my own work throughout this process in order to capture new colours and interesting design formats in my work, therefore this will be a design style which I will explore throughout this project to get an understanding of it is works in my design.

Radiohead.

Tyler The Creator.

CHOSEN CASE STUDIES.

Aluminium Ballet.

RADIOHEAD IN RAINBOWS.

RADIOHEAD IN RAINBOWS PAY-WHATYOU-WANT RELEASE DIRECT FROM THE BAND. The Radiohea In Rainbows advertisement does quite literally convey the idea of a rainbow through the use of colours in the design produced. This in particular design revealed on the right in particularly explores a splash designs style and is quite interesting being displayed on the black background. I could try and apply this sense of colour in my own designs when I explore the design process’ I want to undergo, how ever when using a wide range of colour in design it can look a bit over crowded and begin to look unprofessional and in a way tacky, therefore I must use opacity levels to make the colours not as strong and much easier to look at, instead of them overwhelming the image. I will start off with a very simple design as a form of inspiration as to whether I will further pursue this specific event.

DESIGN ANALYSIS. This designs displayed to the left is the front cover of the In Rainbows album, once again using the theme of rainbow in the colour scheme, however with an interesting piece of photography being used in the background of what appears to be a lava splash in a volcano. This splash based effect seems to be evident throughout their work and is something I could consider when producing my own design. I will also take into consideration the use of a photograph instead of an illustration as a starting point as this evidently works in a very successful manner, and could be applied to my own work in a similar fashion to produce something as visually pleasing as this design. However, I still have to take into my consideration that the design is not tacky and the colours used are not overwhelming.

DESIGN ONE. The design displayed to the left is my own approach to the Radiohead In Rainbows event, where I have applied a light gradient of colours in a low opacity over the main artist of the Radiohead band. The idea of this was not to produce something that is aesthetically pleasing and to a ‘finalised’ standard, instead just a way to give myself an idea for if this style of design will work. I personally don’t feel like the event in discussion would not be the best to approach for my own project as it does not conform to the typical design formats that I personally like to apply in my work. I also find that the event itself is quite boring and does not have enough back ground information to discuss in my design work, leaving a lack of context in my design and creating something that is unsustainable and difficult to discuss and explore in a wide range of visual formats.

TYLER THE CREATOR.

MTV’s BEST NEW ARTIST. When researching into exsiting projects created for the New Blood D&AD 2014 awards, Tyler the Creators event for Best New Artist was one of the most discussed, this being due to the brilliant style that Tyler himself possesses, in his sense of fashion, as well as his obscure facial features which he pulls during photoshoots, and finally his creative and anti-social attitude which he has and uses in his music as well as in his general every day discussions. I personally find the artist himself very fascinating due to these elements outlined, as well as the fact there is an interesting discussion to further investigate around the idea of Tyler being MTVs Best New Artist, something that is inspirational to a lot of todays music artists, as well as being a set of context that appeals to the audience of today.

DESIGN ANALYSIS. Displayed to the left is one of the logos that is assoicated with Tyler the Creator, this being his OFWGKTA group that he sets himself with, this standing for Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All, this being the abbreviated version of a much longer title that him and his associates title themselves as. I personally find this design fascinating as it captures a sense of colour and illustration, as well as having this theme of a donut situated around the logo. I also like the colour scheme used in his works, this being something that I will consider applying to my own design, where I will produce a illustrative version of the artist from one of his ‘whacky’ photoshoots that are featured on the internet.

DESIGN TWO. Displayed to the left is my illustrated version of the musician featured on the D&AD events list, Tyler The Creator, with a specific focus on the MTVs Best New Artist award. I find the design produced here are fascinating with the illustrated version of the artist being a successful outlook on the event, and the artist being easily identifiable by the audience due to the clear understanding of the musician. I also find that the colour scheme previously identified in the OFWGKTA logo is applied in a successful manner in this design, and is not an overwhelming sense of colour, with a neutral colour scheme balanced across the image. I will take the Tyler The Creator event into my own consideration for further development as it does have a fascinating visual outcome and aesthetically pleasing, as well as being an rather enjoyable process to undertake. Fortunately there is a wide range of photographs to apply this style of design to.

ALUMINIUM MEETS CHROMA.

ALUMINIUM ALBUM PLAYS TRIBUTE TO THE WHITE STRIPES AND IS TURNED INTO CHROMA. The Aluminium meets Chroma Ballet event is quite a very interesting event deu to its wide variety of details which it has and all of the content that it gives myself the designer a lot to work with. I like the use of colour and continuity in these designs, with the white stripes having an in particular nice set of colours in their style, using only red, black and white, a colour scheme also used in the aluminium designs, for the album cover as well as the advertisement. Another fascinating element is the Chroma Ballet photographs, this giving me an interesting collection of visuals to work with further in my project throughout the development process, as well as being an interesting element to link back to in the sense of shape and form through triangulation and polygon pixelation, a study previously looked at in my works.

DESIGN ANALYSIS. This design was made in order to advertise and a way of combining both the white stripes with the aluminium event, producing this small figure with the aluminium logo on the face, using the colours which focus around the band the white stripes. I find this design inspirational, however I would not be able to produce some form of installation, instead I will maybe consider producing some form of illustrations as a way of visualising the event in discussion. I will however take into consideration perhaps the shapes used and find some way of using the aluminium logo, using circle shapes and creating some form of illustrated design. I will also take into consideration the colour scheme perhaps, however this could be easily adjusted to fit my own personal visual ways.

DESIGN THREE. This third design is an exploration of illustrative design which reflects on the Aluminium meets Chroma Ballet event. This design here was originally based around the idea of shape and form, focusing strictly on one of the dancers, with this I have included a title of the event. This design is quite a nice idea and could be much further explored focusing on ideas such as triangulation and polygon pixelation, however I do find that the design does need to be expanded and I should utilise the other photographs available which represent the idea of dance further, oppose to this very static stance set by the dancer in this image. Also, if I am to further pursue this design which seems optimistic, I will experiment with some way of incorporating the event title in with the image itself, oppose to it sitting on the side of the image, as well as exploring colour, form and composition.

ALUMINIUM.

THE WHITE STRIPES.

RICHARD & JOBY. The gentleman displayed to the left are two of the main men in relation to this event, with RIchard Russell at the top and Joby Talbot at the bottom, these two being the members of the Aluminium Album. What these men did was create an orchestral reworking of the music by the band The White Stripes, this being endorsed by Jack White, a member of the White Stripes band himself. The two musicians shown here are inspirational to my own workings as they have the mind set that I must capture in my own studies, ensuring that I take interesting and original approaches, and rework my existing artwork over and over in order to produce the most successful design piece possible.

ALUMINIUM. The designs displayed to the left are all of the variations and cover designs for the Aluminium album cover, with a wide selection of different, interesting experiments with a strong focus around spherical formats. Also, there is a consistent use of the colours black, white and red throughout all of the designs, as well as this idea of all of the shapes working in a circular format. I personally find some of the shapes and the designs produced here quite inspirational and fascinating to be used further in my experimantations and development work throughout my project. I also believe that the colours used are very interesting however they do not offer me a sense of versitility in my designs as they would be strictly focused around this colour scheme, which even though it is applied well here, it does not offer me the wide development opportunities that I would hope to have.

THE WHITE STRIPES. The White Stripes were an American Rock due formed in 1997, with a married couple of Jack and Meg White who were made up the band. The band had a few successful hits around 2002 with the rise of the rock revival scene, with their albums White Blood Cells and Elephant being two of their most successful. One of the main elements that I personally find interesting about this duo is the style they possess, with them following this red, black and white colour scheme in all of their fashion, advertisements, album covers etc. Also the two have a very intruiging set of mannerisms with a rather strange approach to their photoshoots etc. with the photo on the left being a clear example of the type of photoshoots they take part in.

CHROMA. Chroma Ballet was a ballet that was formed and used the Aluminium album for their dancers. The interesting nature about this performance was the style in which the dancers captured in their acts, with them not conforming to the more normal or stereotypical forms of ballet, instead single or duo ballerinas working together and using their bodies in order to create interesting shapes and forms. This is an interesting element that I can explore further in my design process’ as I could apply the methods of design including triangulation and polygon pixelation to reflect on shape and form in order to create the figure and movement of the dancers. The two images displayed represent this unique style of dance and how the bodies are used to form fascinating shapes and a set of movements through their angles and movement.

ILLUSTRATIVE DESIGNS. In reflection to one of my previous designs in my project I produced an illustration of one of the ballet dancers from the Chroma Ballet, this can be seen on the far left. In order to expand my choices and portfolio I took to designing another illustration to see the success rate of this style of design, with a closer look to form and shape of a dancer, as well as making sure that the idea of it being a dancer is easy to identify. In reflection to this I do not feel the designs are working to their full potential and therefore do not give me enough leverage to further experiment with in my works. I therefore will explore a set of further styles of design in order to open a broader range of design formats to further pursue in my project.

TRIANGULATION DESIGNS. In reflection to my previous design, I went onto explore a different state of design, something that I researched earlier in my project, triangulation and polygon pixelation. During the process of my project I have been discussing these two styles of design and have finally experimented with them in order to gather an understanding for their success rate. I was overwhelmed with the success of the outcome for this style of design, with some really interesting visual outcomes produced through the idea of triangulation. I personally find the sharp edges combined, and the variety in triangle sizes and colours being combined against one another in order to form an actual figure in itself. Following my previous designs I have decided to pursue these new visuals as I personally believe they have a higher success rate, being much more professional and aesthetically pleasing.

GLITCH DESIGNS. In further reflection to my research I discussed the style of design glitching, with a strong focus on Glitch: Designing Imperfection. When studying this I found that the visuals that were produced to be very interesting and effective and could potentially work well if explored in my own project.

With this I decided to take some of my existing designs from my illustration collection, and run them through a glitching programmer on the internet, adjusting the script in order to create different visual outcomes. I find that some of these visuals are quite interesting and could be further explored, however due to the excessive lines being formed I feel that for one the idea of the dancer is strongly obscured and is difficult to understand, as well as the image itself being more diffucult to work with when undergoing the process of type and layout.

LAYOUT INSPIRATION. Now with a decision on what style of design I will be using, it is important that I begin exploring layout and composition, ensuring that my designs are professional and have a very fascinating visual outcome. Some of these designs seen to the left are very inspirational with the incorporation of type and dancers in order to produce some very nice visuals. I in particularly find the two designs on the right hand side to be interesting, with the interesting type being a reflection on the interesting forms and shapes created by the models. I also like the way in which the type wraps around the models, this being something that I will take into consideration in my own designs, ensuring that the type corresponds with the image used. I must also take into consideration the photographs I decide to work with, as they must have an interesting shape and form to work with immediately, to assist me further as I incorporate the relevant text.

METALLIC PRINTING. Taking into consideration my designs and my printing I took into thought the idea of metallic printing, as I personally feel that the effects produced through this style of print very nice with beautiful visual outcomes created when done well. The designs displayed to the left are a strong example of printing using metallic, with certain areas of the design being printed in this on a more matte based surface, creating a very nice contrast between the two styles of paper. If I was to print in this format myself I would probably print the type in a gloss or metallic form on top of the image in a basic matte card.

This then creates a sense of depth and allows for a much more professional finish for my product, oppose to it being a flat design.

Design variation of Chroma Ballerina #01

Design variation of Chroma Ballerina #02

Design variation of Chroma Ballerina #03

Design variation of Chroma Ballerina #04

DESIGN EXPERIMENTS. Following my previous designs I went onto further editing them to see if I could capture any interesting visual ways, with a focus on taking certain areas of the designs I have produced and inverting them into just strokes oppose to the full coloured sections. I believe these designs are interesting however they could be a bit obscuring when I apply type to my work, with the typeface being much more difficult to read if I use too much white and have these linear based formats.

Layout variations using the existing ballerina designs #01

Layout variations using the existing ballerina designs #02

Layout variations using the existing ballerina designs #03

Layout variations using the existing ballerina designs #04

Further inspection of current development progress.

Identifying the best features capture in the development process.

FURTHER EXPERIMENTS.

Glitch: Designing Imperfection is a booklet produced by one of the tutors at my university named Joe Gilmore, along side some of his colleagues. This booklet takes on a similar style to the Type Only book, where it is an archive or a portfolio of a wide variety of artists and their glitch designs, all being displayed in one booklet format. Some of the design work in this book is inspirational due the interesting pieces of design through manipulation of imagery via this glitching process, with some of the designs displayed to the right being some of the more inspiring pieces of work. I believe this style of design could be applied in a similar fashion to some of my own work throughout this process in order to capture new colours and interesting design formats in my work, therefore this will be a design style which I will explore throughout this project to get an understanding of it is works in my design.

Incorporation of interesting typefaces to add structure and form.

Experiments with the new designs in order to gather various resources.

Use of thin, thick and experimental fonts for variety.

Exploring scale and layout to come to a conclusive design.

FINAL DEVELOPMENT.

With a large selection of designs to already explore including layout and format, I now have the opportunity to finalise my designs exploring the use of type and layout to produce a visual which is aesthetically pleasing to the audience, as well as ensuring that the type works well with the image and is at the right weight and style. Therefore I will finalise my design and come to a conclusion which I can create a set family of designs around. I find that the previous process, creating a variety of different visuals in order to come to a conclusive design successful and worked well in allowing me to reach a professional and perfect visual solution for the brief. I will also experiment with colour in order to see if their are any sort of variations that I could work with or if the existing one is suitable enough. In order to come to a conclusion of font and colour, I will specifically focus around one in particular image as this will allow my eye not to be disturbed by the range of designs and instead be strictly focused on the type and colours itself.

Final development.

DESIGN ONE.

DESIGN TWO.

DESIGN THREE.

Family of three posters featuring Chroma Ballerina and the event title.

Presented on an A1 Poster Mock Up to meet the briefs requirements.

Family of three posters featuring Chroma Ballerina and the event title.

Presented in a Digital Formatted Mock Up to meet the briefs requirements.

PROJECT EVALUATION. In evaluation to my project I feel that my final outcomes are a successful response to the D&AD XL Recordings brief. The visuals that I produced are displayed both in a physical A1 format as well as a digital copy being presented also, these being requirements set on the XL Recordings brief. I believe the visuals produced are fascinating and they represent the event in which I chose to discuss successfully, combining the idea of ballet with the idea of shape and form, as well as incorporating the title of the event where Aluminium meets the Chroma Ballet. I believe that the fonts used on this piece are very fascinating, with some free to download typefaces including Transmission and Adam, accompanied by the well known Helvetica typeface for the small print being applied across the spread to produce a very clear and interesting visual response. I also find that the transmission type, this being the main font featured wrapping around the figures is quite interesting and is perfect in response to this style of design which I am exploring. This being due to the shape and the form of the characters reflecting on the interesting shape and form created through the font. I also find that the colours used in this family of designs is fascinating, as I think it would work well if it was to be printed with a metallic print over layed on the image via the typeface.

Also, with the brief requiring that we are to produce a visual that is interactive both in print format and digital format, I have decided to display the deisgns on a print based mock up as well as a digital mock up on a iMac. This gives the audience an opportunity to take into consideration how the visual would look in these two formats and allows the people who I send these designs too, to have an understanding as to whether the designs would work in these forms of media.