After completing my experimentations, I began to see how they would all work together to create a successful vinyl cover. I decided to make the focus of the main cover the heart as the song is all about suffering a broken heart. As the brief was to follow the style of the punk era which can use quite dramatic imagery and statements to portray the message of the song, I decided to make the background black. This was to help the images stand out and also make sure the stencilling is clear and visible to read. I added some quick drawings and lines with white pen to add to the broken feeling and unevenness I wanted to achieve. While the imagery is quite dramatic, I feel it best represents the feelings the artists includes in their lyrics in my chosen song.

An image that stood out to me from my experimentations was the man with the oxygen mask as it directly links to the lyrics visually. I found turning the second image upside down so that it reflects underneath and then  also reflected the second word so that it matches with the images. I chose this part of the lyrics as they are in the first line of the song and its quite striking and sets the tone for the rest of the song. Also, the image of an oxygen mask came to my mind straight away so I felt it would be a good addition to the design.

For the inside of the sleeve, I decided not to include as much imagery and use the abstract/expressive acrylic paint as the main source for the background. However, this didn’t turn out as well as I had hoped as I feel it’s too busy and quite messy. I created a quick piece of the three members of the band using the posterize tool on photoshop and keeping to the red, white, and black colour palette. I thought it would look effective if I used acrylic paint and pulled it down to make it seem like the image is dripping. I feel this would have been more effective if I had placed it onto a simpler background.

For the disc label, I decided to use one of my experimentals directly. I created it by creating a quick 30 second pen study of the image of the man with an oxygen mask, then adding the main lines on top using a black sharpie. For the overlapping outlines, I used red and white sharpies onto clear acetates. I feel that the simplicity of this is key and makes if very effective as the disc label.

Overall, I feel that the aesthetic I wanted to achieve is effective in completely changing the original mood of the song so that it would fit into the punk era. However, if I were to do it again, I would make the inside of the cover less busy by only having some of the paint coming in around the edges.