2. Who is Storm Thorgerson?
Storm Thorgerson is an incredibly famous British designer and artist who is
responsible for some of the most famous album covers known to man! His
work is very compelling and is a great source to use as a media student
because of his inspirational and memorable designs. Not only will his work
spark ideas and interests for our own work, but also Thorgeson has released a
case-study on the process he went through while designing a particular cover.
This will influence and guide our group through the process to understand how
professionals in the field really think and act.
3. THE BRIEF
In this stage, the designer – in our case my groupmates, listens to the music
(possibly only demos at this stage), reads the lyrics, and talks to the band.
These create a ‘brain soup’, from which ideas can be extracted to form the
brief.
4. ROUGHS
Over a number of meetings/days, the designer meets the band again for
discussions, in an attempt to pin-down a theme or big idea. This stage is
creative, with word-play, honest thoughts, and scribblings. The best are
converted to more complete illustrations (the ‘roughs’).
5. TESTS
Once a rough is accepted and a budget agreed, a prototype is often created to
ensure that the idea works. Depending on the idea, this could involve the
creation of scale models from clay or polystyrene. If everything works, the
final models are constructed.
6. SHOOT
A location is researched and booked, possibly for a long-time if outdoors and
in uncertain weather. Models are erected and positioned, with help from
volunteers if the shoot is big and complex. A wide range of photographs are
then taken, under varying light/weather conditions and filters.
7. EDITING
This could be called ‘selection’, where the best shot from the shoot is chosen.
This can take several days, if hundreds of similar shots need to be compared.
8. ARTWORK
Finally, having chosen the perfect shot, any cleaning-up or final computer
editing is performed, before handing over the final product.
