Padlet of Inspiration:

The posts with a blue background are the ones I feel has impacted my final design outcome. The things these designs have in common are that they all use a dark background. I was inspired by the use of colours against the dark background, creating a contrast that puts an emphasis on the text. It also creates a different feel to dark text on a light background, one that I think coordinates with the style and emotion of the song more. I also like how two of the examples had selected words in a different font/colour to make them a higher point of focus. I was inspired to do the same with my final outcome to bring out the meaning behind the lyrics and create something more interesting and visually appealing.

Rough Sketch of Ideas:

My three original song choices were:

• “idwgtyp” by lovelytheband
• “Grey” by Why Don’t We
• “We Are Young” by fun.

For the rough sketches, I narrowed them down to “Grey” by Why Don’t We and “idwgtyp” by lovelytheband

1) I ended up using the font from this sketch because I liked the sketchy feel of it, but also how it is a bit bolder so it pops off the page more. I also included the smudge of the mess because I liked how it created a blurry but still readable effect, which ties into the meaning of mess (messy).

2) I didn’t end up choosing this song, but with this sketch I played with how the colour ties in with some of the words. For example, when it says grey, the text is in grey and the background too. This is my own version of some of the ways I saw other people play around with colour in my inspiration padlet.

3) This sketch is also of the song lyric that I did not end up choosing, but like the sketch above (2), I also played with the use of colour and its connection to the lyrics. If I further developed this idea I would’ve made the colour turn to grey more gradually but the inspiration was also from the precedents in the padlet. Specifically, how people have used colour to connect it to the lyrics and how the lyrics gradually fade, except instead of fading, it’s gradually turning grey.

4) This lyric was from the song I decided to use for my final version. I experimented with basically the exact style of one of the precedents in the padlet, but I didn’t think the black and white fit well with the feel of the song. I also think the song matches better with a dark background because it is considered more of a rock song. Plus, the font also did not capture the mood of the song as well as I thought it could.

Design Development Sketches:

1) For this design, I really like the white on a dark background but it does bring down the mood, and it doesn’t reflect the upbeat, exciting feeling the song brings as well as a colour would. I continued with the blurred mess idea, which I think worked really well since it contrasts from the main bulk of the text making it stand out, and also incorporating the meaning of the word into the visual of it. I experimented with a way to write ‘art’ which a calligraphy brush on ProCreate giving it a really unique blur effect with multiple colours. I did not end up drawing it with this brush because I think it created something a bit too similar to ‘mess’ and though I think it creates a different and special look, I wanted ‘mess’ and ‘art’ to contrast more because of the contrasting meaning within the lyrics (mess compared to art).

2) This design was more inspired by one of the precedents from the padlet. It was also the only one I used a white background with. As stated previously, I feel that a black background better captures the essence of the song, but I wanted to try something with a white background to see a variety of ideas. This design is very simplistic which is something I liked about the designs I selected for inspiration. I used the red to highlight ‘mess’ and ‘art’ but I don’t think it shows the contrast of the meaning behind the lyrics as well as the design above (1) shows. Though I did like the simplistic and minimalistic styles that was shown in my inspiration padlet, I do not think it worked as well for my chosen lyrics because I liked how the variety subtly connected to the words and the meaning.

3) This design continued to further develop the idea of using a black background, and making ‘mess’ and ‘art’ stand out. This font with the rounded edges made the white on dark background less sad and serious, but in the end I still think a coloured font would fit the style better. And, the rounded edges doesn’t fit as well with the rock style of the song. I used the same font and colour for ‘mess’ and ‘art’ which still did not capture the difference as well. I added the red splotches on top of ‘mess’ but I didn’t think it added the depth to the word ‘mess’ like the blur did. I also added these textured brush strokes to experiment with how having an extra element other than the lyrics would go, but I think only having the text works better since all the focus would be on what it says, and the use of colour, font, and special effects would stand out more on it’s own.

Feedback:

Notes for the peer feedback session.

For the feedback session, my partner didn’t exactly get the style of music right, but I do think a lot of that is open to interpretation. The part that was majorly off was that they said it seemed kind of sad, and serious. I think changing the colour of “life’s” from yellow to hot pink to make it stand out also brought up the mood a little bit, and the blue of art makes it pop and brightens up to mood slightly. But, ultimately I do think the yellow font ties in better to the upbeat feeling of the song rather than plain white on black. I did get a suggestion to make the background a lighter blue-ish grey colour, but I kept the very dark grey colour as the background because I think the darker colour made all the text pop out more, and it contrasted the colours more.

Typography Practice with Music Styles:

Classical: For this composition, I changed the baseline to a curve, so the letters create an arch, which shows the unique flow of classical music. The c, a, and s all show a bit of an overhang from the baseline since they are rounded characters.

 

Jazz: For the main portion I removed the baseline and cap height so that the biggest ‘jazz’ is not perfectly in line because it represents how there’s a lot of different elements to jazz, and sort of creates an organised chaos. For the smaller background words, I changed the leading between each two, making both words touch and overlap a little.

 

K-Pop: For K-Pop, I extended the leg of the K outwards to touch the edge of the grey background. I also changed the baseline of POP to be on the leg of the K. It overlaps with the leg of the K, so the outline of the K’s leg cuts into the counter of the O.

 

Ambient: For this one, I widened the tracking of the word to fit in with the filling and spacey vibe ambient music gives off. I also shortened the x-height, making the word flatter, to match the soft, sleepy feel of ambient music.

Final Poster 

Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths: I am really happy with how my final poster turned out because I think it accurately captures the upbeat, lively and exciting feel with the colour while still maintaining the rock element with the dark background. ‘Mess’ and ‘art’ are also in colours that are different from each other, one being a warm colour and one being a cool colour. ‘Mess’ is also blurred connecting into the meaning of mess, by showing it’s messy but also readable which was one of my goals from the start. ‘Art’ is in a light blue, which is a colour that really stands out compared to the rest of the poster. I think it emphasizes art and creates a clear difference to ‘mess’. I also added the title and the artist of where the lyrics came from on the bottom of the poster so people can listen to the song. Overall, I think the final product came close to my starting hopes and goals for the project.

Weaknesses: I like the idea of having “life’s” in a different colour because it highlights it, which is important since the whole comparison in the lyrics is talking about their life. Despite the fact “life’s” is in a different colour, I think that the pink seems a bit dull against the background, and since the font is very similar it also doesn’t create as much of a difference, which in a way diminishes the emphasis on the word. I also would have rathered to put the Spotify code you can scan so it’s easier for people to access the poster, but because of time, I wasn’t able to add it. As a whole, though I am happy with the product, I think that since this was hand-drawn the spacing and alignment of the texts aren’t perfect, which takes away from the quality of the poster.