For my Applied Illustration brief I chose the 'Packaging and Retail' and retail specialist area, focusing on the 'Secret 7' live brief, but also including some related bit and pieces, such as another internal LAU live brief, '27 Club' and some album artwork for my friends' band. I usually struggle with or don't even consider how my work might be 'applied' to different contexts so this module had the potential to be a challenging one for me and I'm slightly annoyed I didn't decide to do something which would have pushed me further out of my comfort zone.
This is namely because, I actually think that album art is probably one of the least restrictive forms illustration can take. The only requirement really is that whatever one creates needs to be square. This meant that I didn't really have to alter my thinking processes or adapt what I usually do all that much, and as a result I think I definitely became a little complacent around halfway through the project and maybe didn't take full advantage of it's educational purposes. Having said that, I did enjoy the freedom this brief presented and can't see my practice ever evolving into one in which I work according to a preconceived purpose anyway. I did also manage to slip in a bit of painting and incorporate it into the way of working I carried over from 503 which was something I wanted to do.
I had never attempted any album art prior to this and it had been something I wanted to have a go at as music is such big interest of mine and I don't ever really respond to it artistically. In this sense 'Secret 7' was quite rewarding, because it is so open I definitely had fun when I started work on it, particularly as I chose a track which I wasn't that well acquainted with prior so could fully absorb it without any prejudices and without getting bored. However, it actually turned out not to be the best channel through which to explore album art for me personally, as a lot of the elements I was interested in weren't actually relevant to the brief.
For instance, I was hoping to force myself into becoming more confident using type in my work, and gaining a greater understanding of how to incorporate it, but 'Secret 7' requires that you don't use any type on your designs. I was also quite interested in designing a back cover and inside cover art (for an LP) but, again, 'Secret 7' doesn't require those. I was initially planning on using my friends' bands album to try out all these things and although I did manage to play around with type a little, in the end time just got away from me. Because I didn't really map out specific enough aims for myself, considering the restrictions and requirements of the main chunk of this body of work weren't reflective of what I really wanted to learn, I felt I cheated myself somewhat. My work for the '27 Club' brief also felt a little redundant, despite liking some of the drawing I did for it. I didn't really put much thought into it and I think it shows, which is a pity because I am a huge Robert Johnson fan and I think I could have made much more use of my interest in his music given this opportunity.
Overall I think that I squandered a lot of the opportunities and experience this project offered me due to relying too much on the parameters or lack thereof imposed on me by the briefs and by myself. At level 6, I want to take forward the fact my work should be made somewhat for the sake of itself before anything else, but not to let that stop me pushing myself to pursue the things I want to learn about, or using the fact my work isn't really application led as an excuse.
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