The task given to me this week is to design the front cover for a 12 inch Vinyl. There were multiple songs to choose from, from which I choose Strings of life by Rythm is Rythm because the name and genre of the music appealed to me.
The song was written by Rythm is Rythm a.k.a Derrick May in 1988 and had many covers and re-publishing associated with it. The genre of the song is Techno/House and is often recognized as one of the founding fathers of the House genre.
Research
I began researching multiple things in order to get inspiration for my design. The first thing I did was go to a Second-Hand vinyl shop called Groucho’s and purchased a cheap vinyl and it’s cover so I could use that as a Blanck Canvas for my design. The second thing I did was to create an image board which is compiled of various images varying from modern Vinyl and Cd covers to textures and patterns of the late 80s.
Initial Sketches and development
I then did multiple initial sketches, I did a survey with multiple people for which one they believed would make a stronger impact as a cover of a vinyl. I wanted my design to be minimalist and bold as I thought that it could fit the Techno genre well. The design that was voted the most popular out of my initial sketches was the third sketch I did.
After that, I made multiple drafts of a lifeline and surveyed multiple groups of people which one was the most suitable the second lifeline I had drawn was voted the best for the vinyl.
I then began to create smaller version of the vinyl cover. The first one I made I did not have any black paper to make it and thus I made it using a black marker, the overall shape and design of it was recognisable but it did not accurately depict my idea because I could not colour all of the paper in black.
The second draft was made using white paper again but this time I had the idea to cover it entirely using black electrical/insulation tape which would be easier to do than colour it. I then tape the lifeline unto the paper and began testing multiples ways to make the inside of the line more interesting. I preferred the 2nd design and proceeded to use it.
Final Design
Originally the design was supposed to be made by covering the vinyl cover that I had bought with a black piece of paper and paste the lifeline design on top of it. Then a person which I was chatting to told me that spray painting the vinyl cover would probably make it look better and more professional instead of using a black card. I listened to his advice and proceeded to spray paint the vinyl in black. If the idea did not work I would revert back to using card which would cover the spray paint anyway so it was worth a try.
The spray paint turned out to be more aesthetically pleasing and thus I decided to keep it. I then made the lifeline design using a white piece of paper and a black marker for the lines in the middles and pasted it unto the vinyl cover.
This is the finished front cover.
Other Parts of the vinyl and it’s cover
As an extra task I gave myself, I decided to also make the back of the cover and the design on both sides of the vinyl. I did this using a black card and white paint on one side and paper on the other. As for the back side of the cover, I made a stencil and spray painted the writing and a white line at the bottom of the page. The spray paint makes the vinyl look more grungy which contrast with the crisp and bold design on the front of the vinyl.
