Research
In order to gain a true understanding of the 80s gothic era and style, I decided to create two mood boards focusing on the band, the music and other designs both general and refined.
For the general moodboard I began with the initial research point of the band itself, the original vinyl cover and Bela Lugosi to which I discovered:
- Original Cover: a screen capture from the film “The Sorrows of Satan”, which through researching other silent vampire films such as “Nosferatu”, “London after Midnight” and “The Vampire” used defined silhouettes to convey a sense of the character without words.
- Bauhaus: The Band being named after the German art movement characterised by its use of geometric shapes and curves to portray still life and people (in movement) alongside block colour.
- Performance Style: Bauhaus the band and movement both retained their own unique sense of performance style. The band utilised bold, heavy makeup and hair to portray a sense of rebellion from their punk forefathers whilst the movement utilised striking outfits to portray a sense of character – both of which were regularly monochromatic with striking moments of blue-greys and reds which assisted the creation of a colour palette and form.
- Date: The single itself was released August 6 1979 which makes 2019 its 40th anniversary which provided me with the insight to create a unique experience for my design – a celebration of the song and era.
Colour Palette 1
Colour Palette 2
Following this, a more defined moodboard was generated with more finalised ideas.
Through research, I decided to work on using:
- Eyes: Through primary research of visiting record stores I discovered eyes were a prevalent feature on both Bauhaus and other genre hits of the subculture which I partnered with the infamous Dracula screen capture of Bela Lugosi’s eyes to tie the themes together to create an icon from the iconic moment.
- Lyrics: Chosen quotations from the song and subsequent interviews to incorporate into the design:
“Red velvet lines the black box”
“Strewn with time’s dead flowers
Bereft in deathly bloom”
“It was the stuff of dreams…”
“A vampire can never retire from being a vampire, because that’s for eternity.”
- The latter two quotations providing the most prominence to the overall use of symbology; the dream allowing for the creation of a more surreal, abstracted design of the iconic creature with the secondary quote providing ideas on the contrast of life and death through principles (e.g. shape and colour).
- Colour Palettes: Used to oppose the basic black and red stereotypical design of the subculture and created using sources from make-up, clothing and other albums.
Initial Concepts
Originally, I decided upon very literal iconography of the fangs and eye due to their understandable nature and defined form. An amalgamation of both was then developed for the final concept – the circular insert representing the pupil, the left triangle design representing the bold, geometric formation of the goth-style makeup and the right imitating a fang. Overall, the form was that of the classic eye silhouette structured in a straight-lined nature to imitate the bauhaus style.
The large wingspan design was focused on the ideology of the album itself being a re-issue for the 40th anniversary of the song’s release ( 6 August 1979 ) providing a sense of presence and replicating the original album cover’s silhouetted image. Originally, these sections would include images and text relative to the band and song, further incorporating the anniversary appearance. This would be an idea I returned to later in the creation process.
Initial Concept
Initial Wing Concept
Untitled_Artwork 4-2k40u54
Diverging from the wing idea, the front cover itself was then restricted to two central ideas: the fang icon and the eye icon. Both work upon the usage of a simple geometric nature inspired by the bauhaus style itself with the central open circle as a way to utilise composition to guide the user’s eye to the music being the central focus of the album – all other elements are expanding from the music itself.
The use of zig-zag lines also originated from the need for composition; the line separating the fangs as a form of a leading line through the design originating in the upper left (the natural rest spot for the eyes when observing a page, due to how we read and comprehend) and label and the line bordering the eye and floral design as a way to connect both elements and once again generate a leading line starting from the upper left.
Final Design
During the creation stage, a final decision was made on the final design to be the iconic screen capture of Bela Lugosi’s eye in Dracula – this was made due to the overall stereotypical nature of the fang idea being too obvious and overdone and opposing the goth subculture’s want to be original and revolutionary, building from its punk roots.
Final Concept
Bauhaus Flowers Layout
Iconography
Final Generated Concept
Final Production Piece with Vinyl Sticker in Place
Final Concept with Wings and Digitised Details
Aspects of the design include:
- A bauhaus styled bouquet: reminiscent of a funeral and referencing the lyric “Strewn with time’s dead flowers Bereft in deathly bloom”.
- Red borders: mimicking the electric tones of the song itself, the sharpness indicating the rough, one-take nature of the piece. Used to create a non-visible diagonal across the artwork, assisting in leading the eye across the page.
- Eye Icon: influenced by the iconic imagery of Dracula’s eyes with the dramatic cubism nature exemplifying the dramatic make-up of 80s goth. The geometric nature stemming from the modern-nature of the music whilst incorporating a fang-like shape to the right – further incorporating subtle references into the design.
- Rule of thirds: utilised to create a clear design, segmenting the flowers, eye and text into their own element and generating a more structure look.
- Cut paper: Layered in order to amplify the depth aspect of the album and promote the block colour and geometric form of Bauhaus.
- Wings: These were experimented with throughout but were exempt from the final design due to the rigid size constraints and real-life expenses utilised if incorporated into the design.
- Colour Palette: Focused on the bases of red and black referencing the stereotypical style and lyrics whilst incorporating a grey-blue to create a near complement to add vibrancy and life, contrasting the death aspect of the character and album yet adding credit to the idea of the song’s paradoxical nature – keeping a dead man ‘alive‘.
Overview
Overall, I greatly enjoyed the uniqueness of the task at hand. Being able to look into a genre and song I have heard of but had not truly listened to was an interesting research task to undertake and I overall enjoyed the final design process. The cut paper technique utilised within the project itself was quick and simple and allowed for the creation of simple, geometric designs – a technique I will most certainly use in later projects.
If I was to undertake another task similar to this, I would look into different ways of producing the artwork itself to diversify my work further and focus on creating simpler, cohesive designs.