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Reflection

Having stopped now to do some reflection on this proposal I really enjoyed discussing the development of the two industries and I am sure its what I want to continue doing next year. I have had a strong interest all of my life in the elements that make up the theme of my dissertation, design, music and technology and I think the way I have tailored this dissertation to incorporate all of those has given me a real passion for it and most of this project once I found my feet barely felt like work at all. I found the hardest part maintaining a focus on the design aspects of the discussion as, often the design is so tied up in the music as that is usually the driving force. I think that by conducting more research over the next year I will be able to hone in on more specific points with regards to design, maintaining more of a focus on that area whilst still paying homage to their musical integrity and influence. I struggled with remembering to put all of my references in for a while also, but with a bit of practice I think I now have the hang of it. I thought that the writing style of a proposition was quite hard to grasp initially, which is why I accidentally wrote my first version as a draft, and I often found myself wanting to go into a lot more depth than the word count would allow, but I like to think this is just as a result of good research as I had a lot to say about each point. With regards to my research there was a lot that I didn’t get to include in the proposal that I had looked at, also as a result of the word count, I look forward to opening the discussion up to more artists and key points next year as I begin to explore the topic more. Some ways in which I would like to improve my research would be one to one interviews to try and capture some of the experiences of other people who have lived through these different innovations. As well as this I think I am lacking on some digital mediums thus far, mainly in music videos and supporting social media content so, this too is an area I will put more time in to researching. Overall, I have thoroughly enjoyed working on this project and although I didn’t have the supporting research I think would really elevate it as a result of our current situation, I think I will be even more motivated with it when we return next year as a result. I think that this dissertation will really help me progress as a designer as the nature of this multimedia industry will have me looking through such a variety of research and production. In addition to this, the opportunities for content for me to produce as my supporting artefact gives me a lot of room for experimentation with different styles and technology. I am going to give a lot of thought to the future of the industry and trying to incorporate this within my artefact and create something for the future of the industry. My only anxiety with this project is waiting to start it properly, which I think will lead to a lot of research and experimentation with regards to it over the summer.

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Draft rather than proposal

I made the mistake as I began writing my proposal of taking the angle as though I was writing a draft of my dissertation as opposed to a proposal. Writing 1800 words from entirely the wrong angle was frustrating but it did give me an idea of the depth into which my research will allow me to go into each area I have picked out. Rather than just delete the draft I will save it as I think its a good example of what my dissertation could look like next year and upon revisiting it between now and next year it will definitely highlight amendments that can be made to narrow my focuses and make the dissertation even better. All in all though although the draft was a mistake I am really happy with the depth of my research and the depth that allows me to in in my arguments and findings. Thankfully however before writing this and then using some of the 1800 words I had written I was able to adapt it into a strong place/outline for my proposal.

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Down by the River

In the editing process I wanted to draw from the bold colour schemes of Reid Miles in the Blue Note Record covers, also similar to him I cropped the image to select just the part I thought captured what I wanted. Whereas Reid Miles was trying to capture expression and emotion, I was just using the context of the image while conforming slightly to a grid layout to present the image in a way that is slick and also has a pattern to it that the band requested. I played around with the Typography for a long time before I settled with it in the corner. I think the weighting of the title in the top right corner and the branding in the bottom left balances the piece really nicely as text in any other place prior just didn't seem to sit right. I really love the colours I managed to get out of this photo and I took a lot of inspiration from the modern work of Tame Impala but also the psychedelic rock of the 60s where colour became much more prevalent. The band themselves said the song ‘isn't really about much’ which is why they wanted this cover to be purely aesthetic based, all I really did was transfer the theme of the river into the artwork to create a relation and develop the brand. If they ever wanted to move into video production also for the single I have video footage of the same reflection which, according to Burke, would create good synergy across different mediums for the band. The artwork was really well received by the band they felt as though it was exactly what they were looking for and we have plans to keep working together in the future which, from a band with 12,000 monthly listeners and almost 300,00 streams on their top song, I think is great for me. Great feedback was also received for it on social media on both facebook and instagram across both mine and the bands profiles. I really enjoyed working on this piece and having my first piece released on Spotify whilst working on developing this dissertation I felt really helped me apply what I was learning through my research into my work as a designer. So actually seeing the benefit in my own work has just motivated me to delve even deeper into the topic next year and I am really excited to begin writing it and also begin planning and working on next years artefact which I hope to aim very high for. 

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Down By the River

The Monday Night Club approached me with the release of their next single coming up and told me they wanted some artwork producing for it as they wanted to move away from just using their band typography or a photo of the band as the cover for the song as, within the genre this is quite cliche. We were  talking about it and they said they wanted something that was ‘like a pattern’. but just clean and nice to look at. I wanted to allow some of the research from this project so far to inform my work through the use of colour scheme, typography and blend between Photography and design, like I had seen from that of Francis Wolff, Reid Miles and Hipgnosis. I have collected a good catalogue of river photography as I'm a big fan of reflection so I managed to select an image I took recently that I thought could work with the ‘pattern ’idea they had. 

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Artefact

I have given a lot of thought into the artefact that I could produce with this dissertation. I have a real passion for music and the design that comes with it whether it is print based, a music video or just supporting content in general. I thought it was really interesting when Greg Burke was talking about how nowadays success is good all around branding and having synergy among similar content. So I would quite like to look into branding an artists release, informed by what I think makes a successful release based on everything I have learned. I have a lot of friends and acquaintances I work with that are actively engaged with and releasing music that I could work with in this dissertation, either supporting a release they have planned or working more closely with them on more integrated project. This could include producing print based work, music videos and social media content, the possibilities are endless really as is the nature of this industry in trying to stand out and do it differently to everybody else. I am having ongoing discussions with close friends about the possibilities of an integrated project and definitely have some good ideas in development where the music production and weighting of a video production are exactly equal, putting both aspects of the art on the same level. I am currently doing artwork for a band called The Monday Night Club for their new single Down by The River which I think will serve as a good practice for next year as the artwork will be going on Spotify and other major platforms in April. 

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“Digital media, music consumption and our relationship with music in the 21st century“

I read a very informative article by Adam Butler which goes through the different releases of media technology and talks about some of the opportunity that each provided. This website really helped me set out my narrative and pinpoint the release of different technologies and where it aligned with the music and design industries, ranging as early as Thomas Edisons Phonograph to the Compacy Cassette, Compact Disc (CD) and portable technology like the Walkman and so on. I think having done a lot of research into artists prior to the research in technology it allowed me to see the significance of each release and the new capabilities it gave musicians and designers. But this website was crucial to structuring the narrative for my proposal and was the backbone in my research into designers. 

https://blog.yorksj.ac.uk/musicproduction/2018/01/22/digital-media-music-consumption-and-our-relationship-with-music-in-the-21st-century/

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Harvard referencing revisited

On Microsoft Teams we had a lecture with Juan revisiting Harvard referencing. At this point I had a much better catalogue of research which was primarily made up of websites so the referencing system for my project should be quite simple. I just need to ensure that each quote is followed by an author and a year as well as a paragraph or page if applicable, and in the bibliography including full details including: the Author, Date, Title of the piece, the date last accessed if no publishing date can be found and a link to the website/article etc. This session did make me think about the range of research I had collected up until this point. Online websites and forums are a great place to learn about music as it is so well documented but I think that in many ways it is lacking a personal touch and I think it would be great moving forward with the project to do interviews with people from different eras with different interests and just talk to them about music and their experience of it as, fundamentally music is about that personal experience and everyones is different. This is something that isn't really possible in the current situation with Coronavirus but I hope that coming back in third year to work on this again we will be in a position where that is possible as I think that that is something which could inform the project in a really positive way, capturing more of the energy of which this is all about. 

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Refining key points on Technology

As Technology will be serving as the narrative for my dissertation I thought it best to outline some of the key points in time around which I can centre my arguments. Some ideas I came up with included Pre Digital and the inventions that laid the foundations, looking at early illustrated work, then moving into digital, followed by the growth of multimedia, the development of streaming services and lending thought to what the future may hold. 

I also posed some questions whilst roughly outlining a narrative: is technology development taking away from designers in means of quantity of quality. Are Artists now brands/bigger than their music and what that means for designers in their production, is it about representing this artist in a transparent way or a way that is going to sell records and top the views on social media and streaming charts.

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Devaluation of Print Media

Whilst looking into the growth of streaming services I found this graphic which I think really highlights the devaluation of print media with the rise of streaming services. As I said prior I think in many ways this takes away from the art and I have spent some time thinking of solutions for this. I think that services like Spotify either need to evolve or new ones form which weight the value of digitally streaming a song and physically owning one in a more similar way. For example a user could pay a fee and receive a physical copy of the song but also a key which will allow them to access the song digitally, as well as any other content related to it that the artist may want to release included in that fee. I think this opens up a lot more opportunity for crossover then between physical and digital, new technology like augmented reality for example, could be used to have an artist perform on the vinyl like it were a stage or even in the room. This is something that I keep thinking about as I am doing my research though is how as new technology allows new opportunities and the industry moves forward, should the old forms of media be forgotten or should we make an effort to preserve them. I think with the growth of streaming that when it does come to those physical pieces now it does bring the music and the art even closer together.

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Growth of streaming services

I saw this article on the new publishing standard talking about the rapid growth of Spotify. Some key points I picked out were that this is the fourth year in a row of double-digital growth with the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) attributes to increases from paid subscription services, with 80% of the music industry revenue coming from streaming services in the USA. This really highlighted that although designers are still designing for a range of platforms; a huge portion of the consumption of content is through streaming services. Which I think is really negative for designers as due to the hierarchy of content on these platforms, artwork is often reduced to a small square often in the corner of screens. whereas it should be on display for people to enjoy equally with the music as all of the coinciding development over the years meant that music and art were almost inseparable. Streaming services seem to take something away from the beauty of that so I wonder is there a way that they can both work together.

https://thenewpublishingstandard.com/2020/02/27/in-usa-80-of-music-revenue-came-from-streaming-as-the-market-grew-with-2019-streaming-alone-bigger-than-total-market-revenue-in-2017/

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"Spotify usage and revenue statistics 2020″

I think a large part of my dissertation will be spent looking at the streaming services like Spotify and the transition between physical forms of distribution to where we are in the modern day with streaming dominating the music market. Looking at this period I also hope to gain some insight on what the future of the industry might be as streaming does have its imperfections, what comes next and how will this transition from streaming take place or possibly work in support of it? Spotify was originally started to combat music piracy which had been a huge problem but through this service artists still feel like they are being paid too little. This article I read on the Business of apps gave me a good insight into Spotify as it has been founded with good intention but in many ways money talks as we can see from the figure that 87% of content available on Spotify is owned by the four biggest music labels, creating in many ways a oligopoly of the market. But the argument can also be made that Spotify gives anybody the opportunity to put their content out there, so I wonder is there a happy medium where everybody can win, which also preserves the physical mediums which provide a more personal experience with music and the artwork that comes with it.

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“Technology is changing the way album covers are designed”

I read an article on Splinter News about how technology is changing the way album covers are designed which I think gives a lot of insight into to way the industry is moving with the development of more digital mediums. In the article Greg Burke, the Creative Director for Atlantic Records, talks about how nowadays you can't just design an album cover, you have to lend thought to the other platforms that content related to the release is going to be distributed on. This can range from album covers to music videos, live shows and social media posts and the designer(s) must ensure that all of the different content has synergy with one another. In the modern day, it is more about branding a package than just designing artwork for a song. I found this really interesting as it just highlights the presence of the different means of distributing content and the variety of it being produced within the Design industry for Music. 

https://splinternews.com/technology-is-changing-the-way-album-covers-are-designe-1793848662

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Hipgnosis

Hipgnosis was made up of the design pairing Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell. They went on to produce almost 200 pieces together and were responsible for some of the most iconic album covers including the timeless Dark Side Of The Moon for Pink Floyd of light splitting as it goes through a prism, also producing work for artists including 10cc, Peter Gabriel and AC/DC. The different aspects each brought led to such a variety through their work which at the time was extremely progressive, constantly chopping and changing different elements in their work ranging from photographic pieces to symbolism. 

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Proposing questions

Now that I was making some headway with research I thought it would be a good opportunity to try and outline some questions and more specific ideas for myself to explore. This was to make myself think about my research from another perspective and to try and get a feeling for the strengths and weaknesses and general narrative. I think the points of most significance to the project include  - what makes a successful piece of design?  - how do genre and message influence design - how to produce a coherent multimedia piece - the effect of different media platforms  - how do music and design effect society?

I think its beneficial sometimes to stop and outline some key points to inform research as I felt as though I was almost aimlessly looking through different album covers and not learning much from it so, it is good to define some points of interest for myself to make the research process more efficient. 

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Reid Miles + Blue Note Records

The development of the Jazz aesthetic can be dated back to Reid Miles working for Blue Note Records. His work featured a combination of photography, sometimes his own in later years but, predominantly that of Francis Wolff, accompanied by bold colour schemes and typography. This created quite an abstract feeling to the pieces which I think captures the feeling of jazz at the time, the typography captures the movement and energy of the genre and its transparent representation of the artists lets the core purpose of enjoyment shine. The covers were bold and represented the out there nature of the music, which was the single aim of Blue Note Records according to the founder Alfred Lions “Hot jazz is expression and communication, a musical and social manifestation, and Blue Note records are concerned with identifying its impulse, not its sensational and commercial adornments.” and Blue Note certainly delivered on that. During his time working at Blue Note Records Reid Miles designed upwards of 500 covers and if pioneering the aesthetic of Blue Note Records, and indeed in many ways Jazz music, isn’t proof enough of his influence, we can see from his legacy as those who have paid homage to Blue Note records and indeed Reid Miles include Wu-Tang Clan albums and Barack Obama portraits.

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Alex Steinweiss

I thought a good place to start would be with the first record sleeve designs as this was essentially the start of the crossover between these two industries. This was supported by the invention of the Phonograph by Thomas Edison in 1877 which allowed for the recording and playback of audio. Alex Steinweiss working for the American Gramaphone Company, which would later be renamed Columbia Records, had originally been designing posters and catalogues but, he had an epiphany when he thought about how they were  currently selling records in unattractive brown paper bagging. He asked his superior if he could design some covers and despite an increase in manufacturing costs, he was allowed to do so. The first ever album cover can be seen in the top left, and his illustration for Bruno Walter’s Beethoven Eroica symphony Newsweek reported compared to the first release, unillustrated packaging had an 895% increase in sales. This just shows the impact that accompanying artwork can have on the distribution and consumption of music. He also designed the fold over format for record sleeves which is still used to this day. Alex Steinweiss was a pioneer and marks the start in my opinion of the relationship between these industries. 

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Refining

At this point I was beginning to go more in depth with my research and I thought it would be a good idea to outline more of a narrative for the project which could inform how I was conducting my research. I know I want to look at the development of the relationship between the Design and Music industries and I think a good supporting narrative would be the development and release of new technology as this is what allowed the crossover of these two industries and provided the new pathways for their joint progression.