question for trav (or other atrisits) re: maintaing a theme

[davidian68]

just a quick question regarding maintaing a theme in your work....

for example the 'forgiving eden' works,
is each idividual poiece taken from a larger work? or are the done seperately.

as an artist myself i find it hard to maintain a them, and a feel to a work, if there are to be multiple instances of it, for example a CD (the cover, back cover, inlay card, pages of the booklet etc)

ive noticed that sometimes trav doesnt stick to the same theme ie Sadus : elements of anger. but other times all the art seems to be related in some way.

it would seem to me the easiest way would be to create a larger work, then divide it up, using the most 'confronting' or attention grabbing segment for the cover... then assigning the rest of the segments their respective roles, such as back cover, inlay etc.

sometimes it feels as though we are being tricked into believe that there is an underlying theme running through 'connected' works, yet all that is really similar is the use of colour and texture... is this how you maintain the theme???

hope my question makes sense as it was pretty hard to word, yet its something that has intrigued me for a while.

thanks
D A V I D I A N

ps do you get to listen to the music or skim through the lyrics before attempting the art? it would seem impossible to me to come up with approriate art unless i had heard what it will be used on.

 

[Seems like Trav]

sometimes i get to hear it beforehand, and sometimes i don't.
i think in the last year the only project i got to hear the music for BEFORE
the art, was Terria.

For themes, i'll go with your example. forgiving eden is all about one theme.
so i thoguth of a few different ways to imply that theme and created a few of them.
each piece is it's own and not a part of a larger whole.

Usually in every project i think of multiple ways to tell a story, so it's good when there is a main
theme to an album because it lets me use a little more of those thoughts.

Sometimes i don't want to stick to a theme, so i don't.
Recently though, i like to.

T

 

[davidian68]

wow that was quick!!!

thanks trav, so you approach the covers as if you are coveying a story....

do you also approach each piece of art as if it is a potential cover?
or do you come up with something and go 'ok thats the cover, now ill make something for the the inlay' or does the work sort of 'find its own place' in the whole scheme of things...


sorry if this Q is a little confusing, its just that i was asked to do a package design for a cd, and i came up with a cover, but had a hell of a time trying to work out what to do for the rest of the overall design.

thanks again!

D A V I D I A N

 

[noren]

As Travis just said, it's not often you get the chance to hear the music before you start with the artwork. It's all about deadlines, and the ultimate scenario for the band/label is to have the artwork ready the same day that the mastering is done.

But at least you can listen to earlier releases by the band so you know if it's pop or metal

When I start with a project I always start with the cover artwork, and when it's ready I approach the rest of the booklet to get a matching feeling.

It has happened once that the band preferred an image from the booklet instead of the image I created for cover, so we band a switch (Evergrey).

The cover is the most important part of the package and the image that takes most time to create (usually). So once that is ready you know how much time you can spend on the booklet to have everything ready for the deadline.

 

[Seems like Trav]

Yeah i wish it could be like that. It was cool for terria because devin sent me a new version pof the music every week.
that album sounds really cool with only guitars and drums.....

anyway, sometimes i do a cover first. sometimes i dont know what the cover will be.
usually i have more than one idea. and if theres time i do all my ideas seperately, in the mindset
of assuming all of them might be the cover, to keep the same frame of quality, depending on themes and titles. so after i do that.
i show the band my favorite or let them pick from all of them.

sometimes there is only time for a cover and i do my favorite one if the band agrees, and then i see what i can do for the rest of the package.

for something like terria, we picked the cover early on, and i spent the rest of the time improving it, and trying to out do it with the rest of the art.

for something like anathema, the cover was done first, and then i spend the rest of the time doing stuff to ciompliment it.

for something like opeth, i did a bunch of stuff at once and let htem pick the cover.

T

 

[SamRonin]

davidian68, here are a quick and dirty tips to keep formal unity on your work

*Keep a pallete of specifc colors and textures for each work.

*Make sure that all images are the same iconic qualities (ie. if the main cover is photorealistic keep the rest of the images photorealistic)

*Like the legendary Travis said "have a good concept" then explore different ways to aproach it.

*Use always the same font, using too many fonts disrupts the reading process.

These are just a few, just remember, that these "guidelines" are not set in stone and can be broken anytime. Experimenting its always good (and the Music industry seems to encourage this more than the Book Publishing), well, thats all, I hope it helps!