Exploring the Videotape With Music

Song: “VCR”

By: The XX

For this stage I decided to experiment with be illustrative designs to represent the music. Each design would be used for an album/ep cover for The XX. Michael Craig Martin is know for having done a pop art piece based on a cassette tape so the colours were replicated in this piece. There was something again very 70s/80s about the use of bright colours in bold shapes which marked the rise of the tape. However, this was less in keeping with the work developed involving pixelation and formulaic illustrations. 

 

The next illustrations were also very characterful and free hand. These were successful in their cartoon aesthetic however they had no purpose and no driving force. Despite this, there is potential in making the videotape into a fantasy illustration, as the object has become so obsolete a new meaning can be given to it. 

'I'm gonna dive and have no fear'

'And we, we live half in the daytime...' The use of aliens is to create a weird and surreal effect.

'I think we're superstars'

1. But you, you just know, You just do. The simple white here works to give a very clinical effect, perhaps not as in keeping with the videotape era.

2. But you, you just know, You just do. The lines have been added here to imply that the heart is being powered by the tape and the memories it holds.

3. But you, you just know, You just do. By inverting the colours it has given a much more dramatic effect.