[PROCESS]
[1] As we began to discuss the concept for the album, my first image was a wave of non-touching connected lines, either flowing from one place to another or spreading radially from an epicentre. “Feel It” in my interpretation is to convey a vibe to its listeners, but very subtly and unintentionally; as if putting something out there in the open and inviting someone to come experience it for themselves. I also thought of neural signals/brain waves/graphs because of my psychology background (haha). Another idea that surfaced was ‘thumbprints’, as if someone picks up and feels the album.
[2] When discussing the brief, Tizaan mentioned that he would really like his portrait to be on the cover. Hence from there, I thought of showing a double image to represent the physical and mental state of a person when receiving tactile sensations. To relate the work back to jazz music, I used more vibrant contrasting colours that portray a starry/jazzy night. This also referenced to two of his songs “Beyond The Stars” and “Living in the City”.
From the two main concepts above, I combined the elements of ‘wavy contour lines’, ‘portrait’, ‘starry night colours’, and came up with the first draft. Tizaan also really liked the colours dark red, black, and ivory, hence we tried some of those colour combinations as well. After a few rounds of feedback, we eventually went back to the blues and oranges, and proceeded with the design.
[1] Two overlapping minimal line portraits + wiggly thumbprint. This was another one of the proposals I had, and I thought the clean/minimal look would really put the emphasis on the lines, and the line portraits are also very much in trend at the moment.
However, Tizaan really preferred my art style for drawing portraits, and also liked the vibrant colours more.
[2] The overlapping wiggly lines in the background was my interpretation of overwhelming and unsettling feelings, as if situated in a warped space and time. Also referencing back to the fast irregular beats, unpredictability, and improvisations in jazz. Despite the seemingly negative valence in such sensations, on the other hand is to let loose and be vulnerable to these feelings and blend into the warped-ness. I paired this with handwritten letters because its inconsistency and wobbliness felt more fitting to the image.
Nonetheless, Tizaan preferred a tidier typed out font and a more concentrated look (eg. having a circle encasing the portrait).