The document summarizes four experiments conducted by Harry Taylor to develop techniques for a music poster and album cover. In the first experiment, Taylor created a poster for a summer tour using techniques like cutting out the artist, adding a stroke, and experimenting with brush fonts. In the second experiment, Taylor created a CD cover using graffiti text over a scenic image. The third experiment created a glitch effect using layers, blending modes, and overlays. The fourth experiment was an animation replicating the glitch effect over multiple frames. Taylor reflected on including elements from the experiments, like graffiti and glitch effects, in a final product.

1. Experiments
Harry Taylor

2. Plan 1
Plan 1
Colours
ImagesFonts
Red
Yellow
Grey
Dark
red
Blood
red
Bright
People
Script
Handwritten
Brush
Against
background
Looking at
scenery
POSTER

3. Process
• I have made a poster for a summer tour that this
fictional artist will perform at. The steps to creating
this were basic and easy.
• The first thing I did was cut around the artist using
the polygonal tool. I didn’t use the quick select tool
because I couldn’t get it to work on this picture.
• After this, I added a simple stroke effect around the
cut out image. This adds colour and makes the
picture stand out.
• Following this, I then found some brush fonts from
the website DaFont.com and experimented with the
type of effects that looked good such as “Gradient
Overlay” and “Drop Shadow”.
• I then added a Gaussian Blur from the “Filter” bar
to the background just to make everything else
stand out that fraction more.
• The final step to this poster was adding a black fade
circle image underneath the “KB” text. I chose to do
this because I makes the text blend better with the
background.

4. Product

5. Reflection
• What elements of your experiments will you
include in your final product?
• From this experiment, the features that I liked were the black fade circle
and the brush fonts. I will try and use these techniques in an alternative
way when I make my final product. I also like the blur tool so I will find a
way to use this. A potential way that I could use this tool would be to blur
the edges of the album cover/poster so that everything that’s in the
middle stands out. The final thing from this experiment that I could use
would be the stroke around the artist. I think this technique is very simple
but very effective. I’m not sure how I could use it yet because I don’t want
to use it in the same way as I used it in my experiment. I will definitely
make my final product a lot more complex and use a lot more techniques
than I have used in this experiment.

6. Plan 2
Plan 1
CD COVER
ColoursImages
Fonts
GraffitiBrush
Green
Yellow
White
Red
Original
Desaturated
Scenic

7. Process
• The first step to creating this cover was choosing a
suitable image. I did some original photography and
came up with this image.
• To create the graffiti effect on this image, I had to
create two Photoshop documents. On the first
document, I had to desaturate the chosen image
and adjust the black and white tones using the
“Levels” from the Image > Adjustments tab.
• After that, I saved the document as a Photoshop
document and closed it. I then reopened the
chosen image on a new page (the image was back
to normal) and added the text using a graffiti font
from DaFont.com.
• After that, I converted the text into a smart object.
• Following this, I went into the “Filter” tab and then
Distort > Displace. This then allowed me to open
the desaturate file from before.
• I then adjusted the Blending Options so that I could
make sure the graffiti would fit on the wall.

8. Product

9. Reflection
• What elements of your experiments will you
include in your final product?
• From this experiment, I will definitely include the graffiti effect. It wont be
the main subject of the cover but I could put some graffiti in the
background somewhere. I didn’t include much else on this experiment as
the graffiti was quite complex. I will aim to include a lot of complex
techniques on my final product. The pose of the photo is definitely a
strong point of the experiment. I think that the way he is looking at the
graffiti is effective because it shows that the music from the album will
leave his mark.

10. Plan 3
Plan 1
Random
effect
ColoursImages
Fonts
None
Blue
Grey
White
Red
Original
Scenic
Cartoon
Glitch

11. Process
• I have made a glitch effect for this experiment. The first
step to creating this was finding the image and
duplicating it within Photoshop using CMD + J.
• I then made the image black and white using the Image
> Adjustments tab. I also duplicated this layer and
unchecked the red in RGB channels on Blending Options.
• The next step was to separate these layers slightly so
that you could see the red and blue.
• Then, I added an image that would strengthen the glitch
effect and selected Overlay in Blending Options. I also
changed the opacity to about 60% so it didn’t make the
red and blue disappear.
• Following this, I grouped all the layers apart from the
back ground, copied it and used CMD + E. This flattened
the layers in the copied group.
• I then selected the Rectangular marquee tool. This
would create the little glitch sections by selecting a small
area with the tool, pressing CMD and then dragging it
slightly to the side. I did this multiple times.
• I then clicked the “Create new fill or adjustment layer”
icon, selected the “Gradient” option, changed the
gradient to the last pattern and changed the “Style”
option to “Radial”. I selected the “Reverse” option and
changed the scale to about 500.
• The final step was to change the overall opacity of the
layer to about 50%.

12. Product

13. Reflection
• What elements of your experiments will you
include in your final product?
• I have learned a lot of new techniques in this experiment such as
flattening an image and using new blending options. I will try and use
these techniques in my final product and maybe even use the glitch effect.
I think it is very effective in making the viewer look at the picture.

14. Plan 4
Plan 1
Animation
Colours
Fonts
Any
Blue
Grey
White
Red
Using
Photoshop

15. Process
• I have stuck with the glitch theme for this experiment but I have made an
animation this time.
• The first step to make this animation was make the page 1000 x 1000
pixels and make the page colour black by pressing Shift + Backspace.
Then I selected solid colour and chose black.
• The second step was making a new layer of a static background and
overlaying that layer onto the black layer so that the colours from the
static image would be slightly visible on the black background.
• The next step was to find a font and distort it using the same technique I
used before. I had to “Rasterize Type” before this as I needed to turn it
into an image. This technique was selecting the rectangular marquee
tool, selecting an area of the text and then using the arrow keys to move
that section of the letter across one way or another. I copied the layer
before I started distorting it so it would act as a frame. I named this
“Frame 1”.
• I then duplicated this layer 3 times for a red blue and green layer. I
moved these three layers to the left and right so that they weren’t
directly behind the white text. I then added a motion blur onto the red
blue and green text. I added a Gaussian blur to the white text. I named
this “Frame 2”.
• The final step was the animation. For this, I went into the “Window” tab
and selected “Timeline”. I then pressed the 3 boxes at the bottom left of
the timeline which would allow me to make the animation in frames.
• On the first frame, I hid “Frame 2” and made “Frame 1” visible. On the
second frame I made “Frame 2” visible and hid “Frame 1”. I then selected
the “Tweens animation frame” option on the timeline so that the
animation would transition better. I made the first frame 1 second and
then the next two frames timed on “No delay”.
• Then I duplicated the sequence a couple times so that it would replay.

16. Product
https://youtu.be/BsJMkfZrbQ0