603 - Brief 06 - Album Artwork Development

I went about starting the illustration for the album art

- basic line drawing
- vector shapes which could be easily converted to blocks of colour with no outlines like in the work by the influential artists I have looked at.
- can then go about adding the detailing afterwards, allowing for a more in-depth consideration of texture and stroke style.

- Deliberately used quite dull/pastel-y colours to contrast with the background and infer the shadow casted by the bright colour behind him.

- Opted for a bold yellow background, which is his favourite colour, but deliberately invoke various ideas...
Yellow represents happiness and spontaneity which can be reflected through the vibe of Ferguson's DJ sets - yet it can have conflicting associations too. On one hand yellow stands for freshness, happiness, positivity, clarity, energy, optimism, enlightenment, intellect, and loyalty, but on the other, it can represent conflict and deceit.

The bright yellow I have used is an attention-grabbing colour, and when used in combination with black and other dark colours, it creates perfect contrasts. This making it one of the easiest colour combinations to read and see from long distances - which is why school buses, taxi cabs, and traffic signs are painted yellow and black. 

With this confirmed by Ferguson, I went on to mocking up various layout for the type, considering where each element could lie to be most effectively communicated to the audience. - constantly considering how the contrast is created between each element of the artwork.

I went on to putting further detail into the piece, easily made more three dimensional and realistic through the addition of white and other slightly brighter colours to represent where the light is shining through from behind the subject. 
To counter this I'd obviously need to use darker colours to create the creases in his clothes and the shadows created, deliberately using a sketchy and more fluid style to represent the roughness and vintage feel to the old tractor..

I considered how another nice touch would be to make use of the little reflective sticker on the bonnet of the tractor.
This would tie the whole concept together much better and also balance out the other content I was set to include on the album cover...

- To most effectively balance out the other included elements - like the label and sponsor logos, I made use of the main Ferguson logotype in the centre of the album art. This would draw the most attention and create a strong contrast being stamped over the top of the main illustration. The solid black shadow beneath the white enhances that contrast between the various layers of colours in the album art.

Feedback:

- little touches make it feel more considered and personal

- strong illustration makes it feel very professional, whilst introducing a new and quite unheard of style to the bass/grime scene 

- very conceptually supported too

- attention-grabbing through the vibrant use of yellow