I decided to only design the front cover first, so that the client could pick their favourite of the three I produce, and then I would design the back, as it saves me more time and the front cover is the focal point.
Idea 1
As I had found those free stock photos, I decided to experiment with those. I chose one of a sky, and one of a man underwater.
I combined them both, and added a gradient map, turned down the opacity and changed the blending options to get this darker colour tone. There is an aeroplane trail in the sky on one of the images, so I decided to incorporate that with the title. The client wanted artist title to be in lowercase, so I made sure I kept to that.
I played around with more colours and tones.
I also tried it without the second image to see how that looked, but I think it lost some of the meaning then.
I tidied up the excess cloud by using the spot healing tool.
I then added the levodopa diagram I made in the second image, as the client wanted this on the artwork and I think it works well there.
I wanted a sans serif for the album title to represent the modern, electronic music.
Idea 2
I decided to use another image from the stock photography, which is already very abstract.
I added a gradient map and reduced the opacity.
I duplicated the image, and used the liquify tool to manipulate the image further.
I also experimented adding the title and using blending options to change the colour of this.
I moved the title lower, and I think it works better here as it is more readable against the blue.
I added the levodopa diagram that I made, and kept that in line with the album title.
I tried the title 'awake' in the middle which I prefer. I'm happy with the outcome of this for now, as I feel it reflects the music a lot.
Idea 3
I quite liked how the stock imagery was going, so I decided to use another one. I felt the clouds represented an unknown feel to the music, and also allowed me to put the text on the artwork legibly.
To make the most of the clouds, I weaved them in and out of the levodopa diagram. To match this, I deleted parts of the artist title to make it more interesting and fit in with the rest of the artwork.
I duplicated the levodopa diagram layer so that it stands out more.
Overall I am happy with the three designs that I've created, as I feel like I have answered the brief well. I am now going to send these to the client on boards. I worked quickly on these so that I could get them to the client and see if I was headed in the right direction.
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