Music Cover-Art Design • "Surge" :: The KaeZo (2022)
KAV • VRTKX Design Studio
A » About this project
In this project, I brought yet another Genius-Level Musical Masterpiece to life, by designing an Eye-Catching Visual Representation of the song.
A1 » The Project Description
This is the Song Cover-Art for "Surge", an Epic Instrumental Soundtrack I composed myself.
If you'd like, you can listen to it via the link at the bottom under "More".
A2 »» The Client: KaveriK The KaeZo
This is a ghost project; I made designed this piece for another project of my own. I still worked with the same diligence I would for another person/company.
The KaeZo is an "artist name" for my work in Music Composition and Production.
A3 » Project Goal
The goal of this design project was to create a cover image, that matched the name and the atmosphere the song was intended to create.
The song is called Surge. It was composed to give its listeners a feeling of intense energy, excitement & motivation. I decided the best way to represent a "surge" of energy, was to use the symbol of electricity.
B » The Process
This is the "Behind The Scenes" peek into how I made this cover art.
B0 »» The Final
Here's the final image. It's a reference point for you to understand the process better. Scroll down to see how it came to be.
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B1 »» Phase 1:
B1.1 »»» Background Image v1
Here, I sourced a background image from Canva's asset library.
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B1.2 »»» Artist Name & Font Type v1
Here, I sourced my artist name from my logo (at the time).
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B1.3 »»» Mockup v1
Simply put; I "slapped" the elements together.
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B2 » Phase 2
B2.1 »»» Background Image v2
This is the 2nd background image I sourced from Canvas asset library.
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B2.2 »»» Adding The Artist Name
An artist's name must be present. Any song is a piece of marketing material itself. Thus, adding the name, and making sure it's properly visible - even if it's small - is a crucial step in designing cover art.
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B2.3 »»» Adding The Song Title (Mockup v2)
Just as with the Artist Name, the Song Title is also crucial (more crucial if you ask me)
The design here, did not "make the cut". Why?
Well ... the font I used here did NOT communicate to me, the *feeling* of a SURGE of energy. (see changes below)
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B2.3 »»» "Make it Pop" (Colour Enhancement)
A frustrating request ... a frustrating request?
Some designers don't like being asked to "make it pop". I imagine that's in part because the process of "making a design pop", can tend to look like a work of magic.
"Making it pop", is a process that is developed like a muscle, over time and practice, into something that begins to resemble intuition.
To be specific, • I upped the saturation, • upped the contrast, • ducked the shadows, • slightly boosted the highlights • upped the sharpness a little, • & added a bit of vignette.
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B3 »» Stage 3
B3.1 »»» The New Text & The "Dark Portal"
As I explained above, the font ... the font need something to communicate energy. What better to do the job that a font called "Electrical".
Contrast.
Contrast is the one simple thing I find lacking in many designs I see. In simple terms, it means to ensure that different elements are:
- easy visible
- from afar
- in low lighting
- in extremely-bright lighting
- & still be (comfortably) legible.
This was the reasoning behind adding this dark blob here.
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B3.2 »»» Great Contrast
Following the explanation above, here's what the design looks with great text contrasting.
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B3.3 »»» Name Alignment (Final 1)
Lastly, I felt like it was really weird to have the Artist-Name "hiding" in a corner, so I centred it to match the Song Name.
I also removed the curvy line from under the Song Title; it wasn't adding any value. In design, "less is more".
... and voila! (for now)
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B3.4 »»» Font Coherence (Final 2)
Does a design really ever truly finish? Does a designer stop growing?
No. I don't think so.
I recently looked over this and realised the Artist-Name font-type, was just not coherent with the theme. I decided to use the same font here, as I did with my other similar project, "Web-Head".
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C » In Closing
C1 »» More on This Project
If you'd like to listen to the song on YouTube, here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKBOuPgPYF4
For a short Spotify preview, follow the link here: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/thekaezo/surge
C2 »» Project Reflection
This was an amazing learning opportunity that taught me that it's wise to consider past projects and materials when working on something new. This speeds up my workflow and helps me improve on mistakes I made in the past.
All this learning is a continual effort to be able to give my clients THE BEST service I possibly could.
Thank you for scrolling through. I appreciate you.
C3 »» Let's Work Together
If you like what I do and how I do it, & you have a project that's important to you then let's work together.
Reach out:
© THE KAVERIK 2022
