Graphic Design IV, Spring 2019, Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Procreate
The assignment: Design an album cover for a music group from your country of origin. Throughly research your country's history and culture, using all of this as inspiration to form a conceptual design. In addition, the country's flag colors must be included.
(See below for my design proposal and concept).
MY DESIGN PROPOSAL
.01 BRIEF OVERVIEW
Kraftwerk was, and still is, one of the most influential and noteworthy music groups of Germany. Emerging in the 70s, Kraftwerk pioneered the development of electronic music and established a “sonic blueprint” that many of today’s famous artists have followed. Some of these include Jay-Z, Madonna, Cold Play, and Daft Punk.
Electronic music was largely influential in Germany’s political scene as well. In 1989, after the wall came down, hostility between east and west Germany still remained. Electronic music was played during night life events, where anyone was welcome to come and join the scene. This “safe space” created through music helped heal the split between the two sides.
Inspiring Kraftwerk’s music is their obsession with the fusion of man and technology. Many of the concepts behind their albums focus upon modernization (i.e., cars, computers, trains, and the radio) and using the sounds of these mechanical innovations as inspiration for rhythms.
Today, Kraftwerk is still obsessed with the fusion of man and technology, but they are also interested in how this can fuse with the modern art world. They are all about creating a souped-up experience at their live performances. Playing in galleries, they tend to align themselves with art over pop.
.02 CONCEPT
Two-thousand nineteen marks 30 years since the Berlin wall came down in ‘89. The purpose of my album will be to celebrate this milestone and to commemorate the influential role of electronic music in the 90’s as it helped heal the split between Berlin’s divided east and west.
I plan to utilize Germany’s flag colors in the album art. This is because (a) the band is German and (b) the flag also stands for unity.The flag’s three colors (red, black, gold) represent three different political parties, equally represented spatially on the flag.
Looking at the themes of Kraftwerk’s passed albums, I desire to continue their themes of modernization and mechanical innovations. This is what inspires their robotic & electronic sound. They have yet to theme an album all about space—despite having individual songs that mention it (i.e., “Radio Stars,” “Comet Melody,” “Spacelab”). Therefore, the inspiration of my album will be outer-space travel because I believe this would make a lovely sequel to their albums already titled “Autobahn”(Freeways), “Trans-Europe Express”(Railways), and “Tour de France”(bicycling). I also believe that this album title holds true to their intentions and ambitions as both musicians and artists.
Based upon these ideas of unity and space, the title of my album name will be “Unified Space.”In this context, the word “Space” represents three things: the space of the clubs, the space of the flag, and outer space travel.
.03 DESIGN STRATEGY
Speaking more specifically about visuals, I plan to maintain their idea of merging man and technology with my design choices. I intend to use a retro astronaut helmet on the front cover. On the back cover, the helmet face will lift up, revealing mechanical gears and electronic motherboards on the inside instead of a human presence. This is an attempt to preserve and reinforce their phrase “Man-Machine”—the title of a previous album. There will be a slip cover inside the main outer cover that holds the record. This slip cover will continue the gear and motherboard patterning. That way, when taking out the record, it will feel as if the “brains” of the machine–astronaut are also being removed.
