Studio Brief 1: Idea Development

To come up with Ideas for record sleeve designs we looked at the diferent approaches that we could take. We could look at the name of the band or song and see what images we could produce from that. We can analyse the lyrics to see if there are any significant lines that could help produce ideas. We can also watch the music video to see what the colour schemes and general themes of the song are. Below are a few ideas I came up with by doing this.

There are many references to alcohol throughout the song. I thought that I could possibly incorporate this theme into my design by depicting a cocktail glass which could be the 'cocktail called "Grounds For Divorce"' which is mentioned in the song. Another approach would be a pint glass that would represent them 'drinking with the seldom seen kid'. 

Another theme of the song is a sense of loneliness and a sense of loss. I had a few ideas to depict a figure stranded, but didn't want to focus on the negative themes of the song.

One of the iconic pieces of imagery in the music video is the use of a vintage styled microphone. I think that I could create an image that focused around this, simply showing it in the middle with a lot of white space.

I then began to look at the other instruments that are used in the song. i could possibly illustrate a silhouette of each instrument side by side, showing a sense of unity.

Without focusing on the lyrics, I found that the song has a sense of travelling or movement. The lead singer even stated that the song is partially about the fact that he wanted to completely leave manchester and start over. I looked at diferent ways i could depict this. One idea was to depict a train moving towards the viewer and leaving the background behind, moving away from the horizon. Another more simpler approach would be a packed suitcase or guitar case with stickers showing where it has travelled on it.

The lead singer stated that the song was written and based around the loss of his friend. The line 'Mondays is for drinking to the seldom seen kid' could possibly be in reference to his friend. Although it is a quite depressing approach to lyric, it could be visualised with him sitting or standing by his friends gravestone. The song is more of an upbeat approach to his friends death though, so should be shown in a diferent way.

A very simple approach to the sleeve design would be an info graphic way of showing the name of the band or song, although it would be hard to do in an interesting way.

One of the most repeated lyrics in the song is 'There's a hole in my neighbourhood Down which of late I cannot help but fall'. This is a metaphor, but could be interpreted directly into a visual metaphor of a man stuck down a hole.