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Artwork
Still Cover Art
I used the website Canva to design my cover art. Canva has a range of stock images and videos which I took advantage of when designing my covers. I've used the website before when creating social media content for other projects so I was already pretty well acquainted with its functions and tools. The visual aspect of this project was really important to me. One of the limitations of my research paper was that my survey participants were analysing the videos I had attached to the survey rather than the music when I asked them to align each song to a specific season. I wanted to use this attraction to visuals as a positive through my project. I've created many different styles of cover art and video art for various reasons during the project. You can find the still images I created below and the video art here. I initially wanted to create a 10 panel CD digipak for a physical release, however this was incredibly expensive. I'd planned on using my seasons cover art background for the middle panel and having each cover of the four seasons as the other four inside panels. I decided against releasing it physically once I discovered the difficulty to creating such a digipak, and so I stuck to streaming platform releases only. However the cover art remains a very important aspect of the project. I've found
I picked a warm brown palette for this cover. It depicts a cosy indoors scene next to a cold looking window. I wanted a cosier indoors theme for this one as I feel like it suits the songs the best. I was split between three or four coloured dots on these artworks. Either three for the three months in each season or four for the four seasons. I felt like four just looked better because of the symmetry so that's what I went for. I feel that this cover works incredibly well with the autumn aesthetic. It's dark and dreary but there is still that bit of light in there which reflects the music.
I picked a cool colour palette for this cover that depicts ice and snow. The background a snowy scene, however it isn't dark and dreary, with a nice glowing sun in the background. This also mirrors the songs, with some brighter songs than you wouldn't expect on this EP. I did well to make this different from the other colder seasons cover.
I picked a light pastel palette for this cover to emulate the flowers of spring. The image shows blossoms on a tree with a bright clear sky. This cover isn't as busy as the rest, which matches the chill and relaxed attitude of the music on this EP. This was the first of the brighter EPs and it was really fun to work with some brighter, more positive looking colours.
I picked a beach inspired palette for this cover. This image is of palm trees with a clear blue sky. Out of all the EPs, this was the one with the most different background options and I was contemplating the ocean. I chose this one though because it helps my colours pop which I feel is important for a fun and vibrant EP such as Summer. I drew some inspiration for the palm trees from summery music videos such as Cheerleader - OMI. I liked how this looks structured, which is similar to the songs. It's the most pop inspired of all the EPs.
I wanted the Seasons cover to be different to the EP covers so I decided to keep it as simple as possible. The font is still the same and so is the border but the background is a gradient of purple, blue and yellow. I liked the idea of the colours mixing together just like the seasons. This was originally a video graphic which was a great feature for my social media. Therefore, I decided to create another set of EP video covers for my social media when introducing new music and to use as backgrounds for my Spotify Canvases.
Draft Covers
Here are the drafts that I created before the final covers. As you can see, the colourful dots were always included in the design but the backgrounds were improved to create more visual depth. I was probably most torn between the Summer EP visuals because they all looked pretty similar and worked well with the colours.
Colour Palettes
Here are the colour palettes that I used when creating the covers. I wanted each cover to have it's own colour scheme so spent a lot of time finding colours that fit each season without any of them being the same. I mainly drew inspiration from my Pinterest boards that you can find on my Music & Inspiration page. My Autumn palette is mainly based around dying leaves, my Winter palette is based around ice and snow, my Spring palette is based around flowers, and my Summer palette is based around a beach theme. I'm using these to theme any social media posts dedicated to a certain EP.
Video Art
I created moving versions of the cover art for my social media pages. This was just a fun way to announce each EP and then the still cover art was used to announce their release dates closer to the time. Animation is always more eye-catching than still images and it's a great way to grab an audiences attention. Having this movement made the project feel more alive and this was a really important idea while creating the rest of my video art. I wanted the EP video art to encapsulate the entire EP rather than just a specific song. This is because I would be creating individual video art for each song for other purposes.
Cover Art
A rainy forest background for the Autumn video art.
A snowy scene for the Winter video art.
A flowery meadow video for the Spring video art.
An ocean theme for the Summer video art.
The original video graphic cover for Seasons. The still cover that is used as the main cover art on streaming platforms has been taken from this video.
I wasn't planning on creating these initially but I decided that they would be a nice addition to my Spotify page. A Spotify Canvas is a short video that plays in the background of the music on the app. I already had some videos made for reels and instagram stories so I decided to adapt those for use as a canvas for each song. I'm really happy with how these came out and they all suit their songs really well. Again, I used Canva to find the videos and then edited them to create the look I wanted. This meant altering the exposure, highlights, shadows, contrast, warmth, vibrance, saturation and speed of these videos through both Canva and Final Cut Pro.
Spotify Canvas Art
Smiling Not Blue Spotify Canvas
Pumpkin Patch Spotify Canvas
When I Look at You Spotify Canvas
Bitter Chocolate Spotify Canvas
Starting Up Again Spotify Canvas
Love Kicks in Spotify Canvas
Mushroom in a Meadow Spotify Canvas
Flooded Fantasy Spotify Canvas
Bloom Spotify Canvas
The Mirrorball Spotify Canvas
Hello Girl Again Spotify Canvas
Dreaming Of Spotify Canvas
Lyric Videos
These were another last minute addition to the project. I was confident enough with my basic Final Cut and Canva skills to create these videos. I chose the songs for these lyric videos at random. I wanted the videos to have the same theme throughout so I used the shadows of leaves as the background with the colour changing depending on which EP the song featured on. The text and animation remained the same throughout but my introductions changed for each song. They all feature different transitions at the beginning depending on the song. For example, Smiling Not Blue has a wedding veil fly by as the transition to the lyrics whereas Hello Girl features bright green leaves to fit with the background. I used the EP cover art and the video that I used for each songs Spotify Canvas as the background to these intros. I also had to do some background removal editing to the little sound wave you can see at the beginning of these videos. I found this animation on Canva but it had a green background, which I got rid off with the background eraser and some other tools on Canva. I didn't include these videos in my social media strategy for Social Media Campaign Management and didn't set exact dates for them to be released. I plan on releasing more of them randomly to keep my releases relevant throughout the rest of 2023. I don't announce these releases on social media either as I feel it is better to just drop them as a surprise. I've gotten a good number of streams on these videos and they are helping me to build more awareness of my music by using visuals. I made sure to give my collaborators credit, just as I have on my streaming platforms, and included all of the necessary copyright information in the description alongside my other social links. The first four videos have been publicly released and the final two will be released very soon. I am planning on creating and releasing the final six in the lead up to the Seasons album release to create more hype.
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