Album Cover Design - The first assignment that we were tasked with involved the process of creating a front and the back for an vinyl and/or CD album. Were were given the creative freedom of shaping the album cover in fashion that fit with the identity of both the music genre and the artist of said album. Furthermore, we had to create two separate versions of the album that took different interpretations of the artist's identity using whichever software.
For my artist, I chose the late MF DOOM specifically his collaborative album with music producer Madlib, Madvilliany. This 2004 album has been argued amongst hip-hop enthusiasts as being the main inspiration for many hip-hop artists nowadays.
In order to properly shape this identity, I designed two differing perspectives using Adobe Photoshop as well as some help from Texture Lab on YouTube. The first rendition was fashioned with a lighter duotone of yellow and green with a graffiti hip hop art style. I used a hip hop font that I found on Adobe Fonts and used layered textures to create the weathered look.
For my second interpretation, I wanted to go for a darker duotone of red and blue combined with a gritty art style to better incapsulate the dark nature of some of the songs within the Madvillainy album.
Interview Story - My classmates and I were given the chance to conduct an interview for a biographical book with a family member, loved one, person, or fictional character. With this in mind, I chose to do an interview on the leading protagonist from the Rockstar developed game, Red Dead Redemption II. The story of this game is centered around the notorious Van Der Linde outlaw finding themselves at the near end of the outlaw era. The user plays as Arthur Morgan; a middle aged man who is one of the senior members of his gang.
Arthur finds himself at odds with his gang leader Dutch Van Der Linde for the fact that Dutch's ambitions got the best of him during a ferry boat robbery in the town of Blackwater. This botched robbery caused the gang to go on the run from a government hired mercenary agency known as the Pinkerton Agency. These men are tasked with taking out the remaining wanted criminals throughout the wild west, by any means necessary.
Throughout this interview, I asked Mr. Morgan questions about his life ranging from his outlook on the world, what his thoughts were on the gang running from the law, and his loyalty to his leader Dutch. I also delved further into Arthur's character development when he initially started out as a brutish, shoot first ask questions later kind of guy to an honorable, caring, and just man.
