Week 8 – Colour and Composition

For this weeks work, we looked at colour and composition. In our lecture we learned about colour theory using a colour wheel. I learned that harmonious colours are colours that are beside each other and that complementary contrast are colours that are opposite each other. There are also thousands of different colour pallets that can be used to change the mood of a piece.

The task for the week was to create three album covers following the restrictions of: complementary contrast, harmonious colours and pastel colours. As well as a second task of creating 6 posters of typefaces showing feminine, masculine, playful, power, pattern and scale using fonts such as: Bodoni, Helvetica, Rockwell, Claredon, Calibri and Myriad Pro. Two fonts needed to be used in each piece.

Album Covers

For my first attempt with the album covers, I listened to the music and then made what I felt when I was listening to them. I started off with the first song which was Music for 18 Musicians by Steve Reich.

For this piece I chose harmonious colours and made a purple cover.

For the second album I did Impressions by John Coltrane. I chose to use complementary contrasting colours.

For the final album, The hissing of the summer lawns by Joni Mitchell, I did it in pastel colours.

After finishing all the covers, I really didn’t like them and wasn’t really proud. So to tackle this, I completely remade all three. Instead of diving straight in to make them I drew thumbnails so I could gather some fresh ideas.

I then took my ideas to InDesign and Photoshop so I could make better covers. I started again with music for 18 musicians. I played around with the colours and the positioning of the text because when I was drawing thumbnails I felt I wouldn’t be able to know where I truly want it until I did the final version.

I settled by putting the title into a bubble to make it fit in without contrasting from the colours too much.

For the hissing of the summer lawns I wanted to use harmonious colours instead however, I wanted to also play around with texture so I took most of it to Photoshop to play around with the filters.

I added a border round the edge and felt so much happier with this version.

For the final cover, Impressions, I used the pastel colour pallet. On my thumbnails I didn’t have any pastel colours to colour it in however, I wanted to use purples blues and pinks in my work, which I briefly coloured the first two in with.

I started by cutting out a clarinet and then using a gradient map to make the colours pastel. I then duplicated the clarinet and started blurring for an interesting effect.