Saturday, 9 April 2016

OUGD503 / STUDIO BRIEF 01 / SECRET 7 / EVALUATION

Taking inspiration from the overall tone of the track, which aims to induce sleep on the listener, I took this idea and tried to take it by an alternative angle. I took the word ‘sleep’, and used it literally in terms of permanently sleeping, or dying. This concept allowed me to really have fun and experiment. The dark themes of this brief suited my personality and design style exceptionally well, and I felt I had a lot of freedom whilst creating the set of record sleeves. 

Secret 7 is a subjective brief as it allows the designer to essentially go in any direction. As I was successful last year, this gave me the opportunity to visit the exhibition and see the other entries, some of which were very abstract and had nothing to do with any of the tracks. However, I chose to keep my entry very concept driven as I wanted to have a clear process. This brief enabled me to visit a graveyard and take photos in context, giving one of my entries a very real and impactful edge. The fallen grave really embodies the idea of being forgotten and left behind after death. This sleeve aims to induce fear and sympathy through the very dark and lifeless imagery. I feel this is the most successful sleeve design in my entry, as the photography has authentic visuals that suggest realistic pragmatics. For example, the image contains a very real gravestone from a very real person.

Another symbol that encompasses death is the coffin. This is our final destination for some of us, and it is an unsettling symbol at that. People view the coffin in a fearful way, as everyone knows that someday they will pass on. I wanted to use this symbol to communicate this fear, similarly to the previous entry, using impactful and contemporary visuals. I chose to use vector, as it is clean, bold and organised. The black background represents the darkness after death, and contrasted well with the pure white lines. 

I also chose to use text for one of my entries. This contained the literal definition of sleeping in terms of death, which conveyed my concept in the most objective way possible. Text is not particularly popular in the secret 7 entries as I noticed last year, however all these resolutions when seen as one physical submission work together harmoniously, and each of them utilise a different media. 


It was an extremely enjoyable brief which allowed me to explore a concept deeply, and due to the nature of the brief it was fun and relaxing. Since it is a live brief, this built on my experience from the previous year, as I felt I gained a knowledge for what the judges look for. 

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