OUGD406: SECRET 7 - Imagine Idea Development - Butterflies

Imagine Idea Development

After experimenting with my idea for Jack Garratt's Worry, I decided I wasn't making solid progress so decided to leave it alone for a while and focus on some new concepts for the track John Lennon - Imagine. As the track depicts this longing for a world of perfection and peace, as stated before, I started to visualise designs of fantasy, surrelis and collider scope type images which will go hand in hand with the the bright psychedelic colours and fluid patterns that ink marbling would provide. But first I wanted to look into using photographs and imagery to create these patterns and concepts.

Me and my roommates decided to visit Tropical World in the hope that this would provide us with photo opportunities to gather these brightly coloured textures and patterns off of their butterfly farm, exotic birds and reptiles. The trip was a success (see separate blogpost under the tags OUGD402 & OUGD406 titled "Tropical Word Visit - Textures") and we collected some beautiful imagery highlighting these vivid, natural patterns provided by nature/animals. A perfect sentiment to be used to depict John Lennon's concepts and ideas of peace and love. 

I was especially interested in experimenting with the butterfly images I gathered as spiritually they are very meaningful creatures within religion and various cultures throughout the world. They are viewed as creatures that represent endurance, change, hope, and life...

"Interpreting animal symbolism is a powerful way to connect with nature, and learn lessons from her creatures - lessons that we can apply to our own lives. Observing the butterfly and learning her symbolic meanings offers us an opportunity to apply her movements to our own lives. For example, we can relate the butterfly's stages of life to our own life-phases...growing pains, times of ravenous hunger, times of vulnerability, moments of miraculous expansion. The more we seek symbolism in nature, the more we realize we have a lot in common with animals, insects and life in the wild realms. Indeed, we are intimately connected with the animal queen/kingdom - inseparable from nature and her movements." - http://www.whats-your-sign.com/butterfly-animal-symbolism.html

Butterfly Experimentation

I began by creating sketch plans of how I could duplicate, layer and manipulate the patterns taken from the butterfly wings on Photoshop...

I also then had the idea of incorporating an eye into the centre of the design, with the collider scope styled fanned pattern coming out from this centre point. Although you are not allowed to directly use names/titles/imagery related to the artist and their track, I think by using John Lennon's eye with the rim of his famous circular glasses would aid the design nicely and provide some context if you actually stopped to think about it...

These screenshots depict the stages I went through to start achieving what looked like a finished cover. It involved cutting and layering the wings, adding backgrounds and then incorporating the eye in the centre... 

Reflection and colour experiments...

Some of the final responses to the butterfly/eye designs..

I am most fond of the middle red design, as it offers the most structured geometric pattern which wouldn't be easily identified as being made up of butterfly wings!