Malibu Nights PROCESS BOOK
Chris Maxwell
CONTENTS
04
Creative Brief / Proposal
06
Research
08
Color
10
Typography
12
Vinyl Design
18
CD Design
30
Shirt Design
34
Phone Case Design
38
Billboard Design
42
Ui Design
46
Final Thoughts 03
CREATIVE BRIEF Project Requirements: For this project, designers were asked to conceptualize and execute a capstone design project. Me, along with the rest of the class, brainstormed different ideas that all fit our area of interest. Some requirements for this project were that it must be approved, it could be completed within a few months, it could be displayed to view, and that the projects would be in perfect format when finished.
Project Goals: For my project, my biggest goal is to successfully design and promote this album release. I want it to look as professional as possible. Aside from that, I also want my message to be clear and to the point for potential viewers. I want their experience to be easy and fulfilling. Lastly, I need to match my artist’s already existing brand with what I design.
Overall Objective: For my Project, I want to dive into UI and branding. One thing that came to mind immediately was branding an artist’s album release, designing promotion for all platforms, and creating a corresponding app that showcases the album on screens. This would give me experience in areas of branding I have not designed for, as well as allowing me to learn more about designing for mobile.
Resources: This project requires some research on the specific artist of my choice. I have to understand what look and feel they typically go for when reaching their audience. I also have to look into designing for Vinyl, CD, and different social media platforms.
Target Audience: My target audience will be those who are connected to this artist, those who are familiar with social media, and those who are attracted by the look and feel of my design. Ages could range anywhere from 15 years old and onwards.
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PROPOSAL With the opportunity to work on a project outside of a book, I must take it. I would like my future after Mason to include UI design along with branding. Classes like UX Design, Mobile App Design, and Branding have helped me find what I enjoy making and designing for most. For this project, I would like to expand on those interests and have a solid portfolio piece when at the same experimenting in new areas of design unfamiliar to me. With permission, I would like to dive into what it takes to execute a successful album design, album promotion, and mobile app. I will first choose an artist whose style plays to my strengths in aesthetics. Next, I will provide three separate cover art designs for cd and vinyl. Along with this, I will provide all of the branding and promotion for the album release including t-shirts, phone cases, and billboard advertisement. After the branding and design is secured, I’ll create the screens for an app based off of the particular album that is strongest from the three. In the app I’ll have four main features: upcoming tour dates, a music video section, a section that provides the lyrics to their songs, and a section to purchase merchandise. Lastly, I’ll bring my designed screens into Invision to have a full functioning prototype of the app. At the end of this experience I will have experimented with products in branding that I have not yet designed for, while also exploring deeper into Ui design.
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RESEARCH The artist LANY is an American boy band consisting of three guys. Paul Klein is the lead singer and face of the band. Charles Leslie plays piano and guitar while Jake Gross plays drums. They have opened for artists like Halsey, Ellie Goulding, Troye Sivan and, John Mayer. LANY’s style of music is considered indie pop, which can be heard in their two albums and three EPs available for streaming today. Their most recent album is named Malibu Nights, the album that I have redesigned for my project. To the right are some examples of their cover art for their prior albums, EPs, and singles.
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ALBUMS
LANY 2017
Malibu Nights 2018
EPS/SINGLES
I loved You 2015
Make Out 2015
Kinda 2016
Mean It 2020 07
COLOR For my color choices, I took their current aesthetic and found three colors that still embody their presence. Each color represents each album that I designed. The pink represents the redesign of Malibu Nights’s regular album theme. The purple represents the acoustic edition of Malibu Nights’s album theme. The blue represents the deluxe edition of Malibu Nights’s album theme. Throughout all of my creations I referenced the same texture for each color. These three textures can be found in every piece.
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HEX: #f9b7b3 RGB: 248,183,173 CMYK: 0, 34,20 ,0 PANTONE: P59-1U
HEX: #ae8194 RGB: 174,129,148 CMYK: 34, 54,29 ,0 PANTONE: P78-5U
HEX: #c4c4d9 RGB: 196,196,217 CMYK: 15, 14, 0 ,8 PANTONE: P101-1U
Pink Texture
Purple Texture
Blue Texture
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TYPOGRAPHY For typography, I decided to not steer too far from their already existing brand. They use a simple sans serif for all of their branding. In my project I included two solid typefaces. For my primary typeface, I added some funk by choosing a sans serif that was bulkier than what they’ve gone for before. Azo Sans was used to brand my redesign of the normal album as well as the deluxe edition of Malibu Nights. For the acoustic version, I wanted a typeface a bit more daring since they’ve never released an acoustic album before. BalboaPlus was my secondary typeface and was also used to brand the acoustic album design. This sans serif is condensed and gives off a concert vibe.
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PRIMARY TYPEFACE AZO SANS UBER AZO SANS BLACK AZO SANS BLACK ITALIC AZO SANS BOLD AZO SANS BOLD ITALIC AZO SANS MEDIUM AZO SANS MEDIUM ITALIC AZO SANS REGULAR AZO SANS ITALIC AZO SANS LIGHT AZO SANS LIGHT ITALIC AZO SANS THIN AZO SANS THIN ITALIC
SECONDARY TYPEFACE BALBOAPLUS
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVXYZ abcefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVXYZ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
MALIBU NIGHTS For the redesign of Malibu Nights, I first took inspiration from the cover art of their prior work. They tend to use warm colors within their designs. Reds, pinks, and oranges can be seen in almost every piece. I wanted to keep that same feel by experimenting with several of those colors in a causal gradient in a way they haven’t done before. They also tend to use a lot of imagery within their designs, mostly of different outside landscapes. Since the name, Malibu Nights, paints an image of the west coast, I used imagery that showcased this feeling. The palm trees paired with the warm toned buildings seemed to be a perfect fit. The line “A feeling that I’ve never known” is a lyric used in the song, Malibu Nights, on their album. I thought that specific line sums up the tone of the album pretty well and decided to include it in my cover design.
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ACOUSTIC MALIBU NIGHTS For the acoustic edition of the album, I wanted to experiment with visuals that they haven’t executed before. They have never used concert photos as cover art which makes this the perfect opportunity to do so. The photos I used from their website, thisislany.com, and decided to go for a mysterious feel. The smoky atmosphere gives people who haven’t been to a show of theirs, an idea of what it’s like. The rose in the photo is an Easter egg within the design. Roses are thrown on stage at every show by fans, so choosing a photo with Paul holding the rose is a clear distinction of how LANY recognizes their fans’ loyalty and love. For the back of the cover art, I saw an awesome opportunity to merge both the type and the image. The cure of the stage set a clear pathway to list the songs on the album. This was a fun way to keep the visual as the main focus.
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DELUXE MALIBU NIGHTS For the deluxe edition of the album I brought in visuals of Paul himself. Most of their current covers of photography are specifically landscapes. This was a technique to introduce a new style of photography to something so meaningful. As for the photo itself, Paul seems to be trapped behind a fence. This is an abstract correlation to the theme of the album which discusses being trapped in your thoughts while being in love. I chose to keep the back of the cover the same image but just zoomed in. Along the diagonal shape of the fence there was an opportunity to list the songs.
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CD MALIBU NIGHTS The design for Malibu Nights’s CD is consistent with the Vinyl design with the addition of an inside flap and CD disk. For the inside I wanted to keep the aesthetic similar by introducing a photo of the band. I did this in a casual way that matched the overall pink color theme. For the CD itself, using an image of a palm tree in the center of the disk felt consistent with everything else.
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CD ACOUSTIC For the acoustic edition of the album there was more room for me to experiment with imagery and effects. I decided to edit and blend three concert photos together to showcase the electric feeling their shows give off. For the CD itself, I used an image that includes Paul, Jake, and Charles admiring the crowd in one of their shows. Fans will appreciate the grateful presence this portrays.
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CD DELUXE The deluxe edition of the album is very simplistic. Since there’s heavy imagery on the outside covers, I did not want to overcrowd the design as a whole. Using those red flowers for the inside flap feels reminiscent to some of their earlier works that fans will appreciate and value for their first deluxe album.
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SHIRT DEISGNS Another part of my project is to promote these albums. A great way to do this is with designing merchandise for the people who enjoy their music. As a fan myself, I find the more simplistic the band shirts are, the easier it is to wear them. Most consumers don’t want wardrobe pieces that scream the band’s name, they want a subtle nod to the type of music they enjoy. With this in mind I designed four shirts for each album. I used imagery and color familiar to the album art to execute each shirt.
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PHONE CASE DESIGNS For my project I continued to promote the designs with different types of merchandise. Along with shirts, fans also go crazy for phone cases. As a fan, this is another way to show support for the musicians you love. From a marketing standpoint this is a great way for an artists work to be promoted in different avenues of everyday life. Who knows where that phone case purchased by a fan will travel and who it will come into contact with. This is the time to make the phone case design eye catching and attractive. I did this by using fun color and imagery that would cause people who are unfamiliar with LANY to ask who they are.
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BILLBOARDS The last part of the branding portion of my project was to create three separate billboard designs that promote each album. These billboards would live near highways or in cities to spread more awareness of the artist and their new album. Each billboard has very few wording to keep the overall message simple and effective.
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UI FLAT DESIGN For the Ui portion of my project I created an app that promotes the album Malibu Nights. In this app there are four main features. The first feature allows users to check upcoming tour dates and locations for live concerts. The second feature is a spot where users can view each of LANY’s music videos. The third option takes a deeper dive into the songs on the album by providing the lyrics to each song. The last and final feature allows users to shop their merchandise! For the design of the app, I wanted to keep the layout simple to keep the functionality effective and easily understood.
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FINAL SCREENS Heres a look at all of my final screens displaying each feature. You can view the prototype here: https://invis.io/SDX2PZCR483
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FINAL THOUGHTS This has been an awesome journey. I was able to lose myself for hours in the design process throughout the entirety of the project timeline because of how much I enjoyed this. With the subject of my work being something I care for, my desire to continue designing remained very prevalent. I was able to explore branding further while also practicing correct Ui design.
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