Amritha Vadi OUGD603
Studio Brief Two Amahla - Live Brief
Amritha Vadi OUGD603
Amritha Vadi OUGD603
Rationale Design an EP front and back cover for Artist Amahla for her album release on the 15th of February. Research into the Artist and past EP work, to construct a strong understanding for the Artists vision for the brief; that incorporates collage design. The outcomes needs to be cohesive to amahla and visually narrate the meaning behind her music for her album, Consider This. To build up to the release of Amahla’s EP, create social media content that can be used to promote the lead up and the release of the EP. The themes to explore in the EP design: - Brexit - Rise of Hate Crimes - Me Too Movement - Gentrification in London - House Prices - expensive living - Rise of Trump - Black Lives Matter - Jeremy Corbyn
Amritha Vadi OUGD603
Amritha Vadi OUGD603
Research Amahla’s past EP pieces were very simple with oversized handwritten type. The nostalgic feel to the imagery is a key feature Amahla wants across her work, so old photos of her will be one of the key things to use to keep a consistent link to the new EP. Amahla’s music reaches out over a large age group (18+) target audience, specifically the Soul Music community so the design needs to target and relate well to both young and old, offering a nostalgic yet youthful tone. Her imagery of inspiration was a simplistic collage piece of mine, and two digital collage designs that look at hiding messages and symbolism through composition - these images will be used as references to inform the work that will be further created in the brief.
Amritha Vadi OUGD603
Amritha Vadi OUGD603
Initial Ideas Initial sketches and ideas were noted, looking at ways Amahla’s room could be the setting of the EP, representing her and what matters to her in a really simplistic but clever way. Digital design ideas were created encompassing elements around Amahla, or through her. The design approaches were created to explore the ways in which the themes could be represented on the EP without being too obvious and having the viewer looking deeper into the design. Amahla’s inspiration for the new ep consists of having one location shown and elements building out from it. The chosen location for the album was Ridley Road Market. Primary imagery was taken of the Market and of her room to gain a stronger understanding for her and the area. The strongest initial concept was having the Ridley Road Market as the setting, and having elements around the photo photoshopped out and replaces with the chosen themes - also removing any illegal usage of company logos.
Amritha Vadi OUGD603
Amritha Vadi OUGD603
Development Amahla changed the design approach of the EP. A collage design that is centrally placed on the cover and has elements building outward. The Ridley Road Market will be the central element of the design, and will build up with symbolism relating to the themes of the album. The tone and colour scheme of the design needed to reflect the music, looking into warm and velvety colours that link to her singing style. The symbolism for themes were chosen as subtle representations to not make the outcome look to political - and follow her commission of being an EP that invited people to look closer at the design. The central collage design was deemed more successful in representing the themes and forming an evenly composed outcome that can be used over different social media platforms.
Amritha Vadi OUGD603
Amritha Vadi OUGD603
Production The commission involved designing promotional content to be used for social media that was coherent to the EP, building up to the release of the EP. The chosen promotional content was a visual countdown to the release, and a moving image post. The purpose choosing moving image as the promotional content is to offer viewers a more refreshing approach to an EP release, referring to research on the importance of Motion Graphics, decorative animations offer to create a more original outcome that can engage the viewer through the interface design - generally making the image more interesting and stand out. Through rough visual sketches the motion design was influenced by the imagery of nature and the burst composition of the ep design. The countdown imagery was inspired by the build up of all the elements of the logo - revealing the album bit by bit over the days until the final design is revealed - other approaches to this were explored, including the reveal of the design from decreasing the gaussian blur of the design.
Amritha Vadi OUGD603
Amritha Vadi OUGD603
Final Outcome The final outcome for this project was an EP design that visually narrated the stories behind each of Amahals songs through the use of symbolism; without creating an obvious political protest design. The outcome builds on both Amahla’s work and herself through the use of old imagery to relate back to her old EP work. To further push the EP release, promotional content was created in coherence with the EP design - to form a set consistent visual assets. “Ami’s work on the Consider This EP artwork was brilliant. She was receptive to all my comments and the amount of times I changed my mind on various aspects of design. the final design represents everything I wanted to capture. The chaos of mymind, mergingdifferent aspects of my personality and reflecting the juxtapositions in our current political landscape. I think in a few years time we’ll look back and realise how impactful Ami’s design was in reflecting the polarities of 2019.”
Amritha Vadi OUGD603
Amritha Vadi OUGD603
Brief Extension Following the submission of the EP, and the positive response, Amahla extended the commission requesting merchandise consistent to the EP visuals to be made. The merchandise assets chosen were 2 sticker designs and 1 A3 poster design to be printed by Awesome Merchandise. The outcomes created show a clear understanding for correct composition and placement along with a proffessional understanding for file preperations towards out of Uni printing facilities.
Amritha Vadi OUGD603