RHCP - Californication

This is the 1999 album cover 'Californication' by the band 'Red Hot Chilli Peppers' (RHCP). This cover art, for the album cover created on the 8th June of the same year by the Warner Bros. group, the actual designer/artist is unspecified. This image, for me is interesting through the reverse of the sky and water in the centre of the image. Even though the editing through the transgression between the sky and foliage isn't executed to perfection, the picture is very relaxing and simple to look at. The reversion of the two colours invoke a particular effect to the eyes and give a non-specified place of interest.    

Google - Typography

Google, created in January 1996 as a research project by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, both PhD students at at Stanford University in California. This font, created by Google has evolved from its origin in 1996, and become smoother and more visually appealing. The font itself is san-serif and is now a world-wide recognisable font and design. I like this font as it is not complex to look at, and is almost very visually inviting and appealing. The Google font was rated the 17th world-wide known font back in 2006.

Rickenbacker - Typography

This font 'Rickenbacker' was created in 1932, by Adolph Rickenbacker along with George Beauchamp. The font was designed and created to become the face of the company 'Rickenbacker', that became the worlds first to produce electric guitars, electric basses and other musical accessories. The font itself was created from scratch and did not originate from another, pre-existing text. Its' unique design is now well known throughout the music industry. This font, however all the letters joined together, is still clear and easy to understand, the most part of the text is serif, as the two 'E's are written like this, with 'A' being the exception.

Rush - Presto

This is another album cover from Rush' 1989 album 'Presto'. The image depicts rabbits on a hill, and escaping from a top hat. The image is representative of the album name 'presto'. 'Presto' the word which magicians from the 17th century to the current day would use to show the 'unbelievable' part of the magic trick, in this case rabbits materialising from a top-hat. This album cover is in our day effective, the black and white effect on the image represents how old the trick is, while the fact the band name at the top of the album is in colour, allows the name not to be missed, but is not so much that it completely distracts the attention of the audience.

Photoshop - Walk through

These images I created in Photoshop. The steps I took and tools I used to create them start out by selecting 'large' sized image from either the internet (Google images), or pre-existing own photos. Firstly I found that my image/s were clean cut around the edge, so I decided no to use the lasso tool, instead opted for the magic wand on level 15. This selected all my image with no remaining background image, I wanted to go for a different background to that already exiting in the photo. For my first image I selected a 'carbon fibre' textured background to layer my image on to. My second image I decided on a sun-setting horizon. My second image was relatively straight forward and all I did was create a new layer and layer the image onto the background, then I used the magic wand tool once more to select an area, this time the lips in order to colour them.

My first image was however more technical and I used a wider range of tools to get my desired image. After I had initially created a new layer to layer the image onto the background, I then decided to duplicate the image four times and place them in a 'pop art' style around the edges of the page. Each image was its own layer and from then manipulated each with different effects. The first (top left) I used an artistic effect 'negative colour', this appeared to invert the colours of the image but used a combination of green, yellow and red around the edges. The second image (top right) I used another artistic effect called 'cartoonize', with the intensity setting to 3/10 and thickness of brush to 4/10, this effect slightly distorted the image and made it appear cartoon-like. My third image (left bottom) was a third artistic effect, known as 'sepia fade', for this effect I did not change any further settings, the effect appeared to make the image slightly warmer, using warmer tones of dark yellow and red. My fourth and final image was a simple effect 'black and white' in which the image is changed to black and white, the colour is removed. After I applied this effect I turned the contrast down to a mere 3/10 in order to darken the image.

Rush - Moving Pictures

This album cover from Rush' 1981 album 'Moving Pictures' is for me a 'triple' inspiration, with the use of fine art and decided setting to 'pun' moving pictures. Firstly the literal moving of the pictures, the pictures are being carried towards the building by hand. Secondly there is a small film crew shooting the footage, thusly film - again moving pictures. Thirdly and finally, there are bystanders looking at the paintings with visual emotion, so the pictures are 'moving' once again - moving pictures. The picture is shot infront of Ontario Legislative Building in central Toronto, Canada. The designer of the shot and concept are Hugh Syme and Deborah Samuel.