STUDIO BRIEF 01 - DESIGN IS ABOUT DOING

SECRET 7:

Leif Podhajsky is an artist and Creative Director. His work explores themes of connectedness, a psychedelic experience and the relevance of nature. Creating his designs for a number of brands, labels and musicians around the world such as: Tame Impala, Bonobo, Nike, Wired Magazine, Sony Music etc. 

It's Nice That
"Come dip your toes into the psychedelic stream of Leif Padhajsky’s imagination for some striking abstractions of nature – mirrored vistas, engulfing waves, rippling, melting cosmic landscapes."

Wired Magazine

                                     

Young Magic - Melt Album Cover

A personal favourite... its emotion its intensity, the material, the blend of colour, the curiosity all come to one in this piece. A real masterpiece with so many definitions. 

      






For research criteria involving Dream 3, I looked heavily into minimalism as a main design concept.






I have been waiting for a brief like this since the course started. A brief purely based on the creative aspect, obviously some of my designs will offer substance and reasoning/context behind them. But for the majority of this brief, I will unleash an array of design approach’s. That was my main goal from this, sometimes in my work this year, it started to get repetitive, and tiresome always having to justify the reasons for why I did this or that, when really to be truthful, I base a lot of my design decisions on feeling. When a brief comes along such as Logotype or Money brief where you have to take a lot into critique as there is a lot of background information, and evaluate before you make your next move, that is understandable. But a brief such as this, I find I will use to promote and express myself in a more artistic approach. I much rather the postmodern style of working, but I also know when it is not/is necessary to use it. This brief is the perfect opportunity to ‘strut my stuff’ (haha)

The most overtly psychedelic album cover belongs to Cream. The image was created by Australian artist Martin Sharp. Sharp would also contribute lyrics to the album in the shape of the song ‘Tales of Brave Ulysses. The loud colours used is something I want to apply in my design. This is an early representation of my ideas, I want mine to be a bit more crisp in its own approach, perhaps its also to do with the quality of print back in the 60s, it is much less defined. 




Designer Peter Saville's decision to go with pulsar radio waves is right up there with Martin Hannett’s spellbinding production in making this album a goth classic. Disney's Mickey Mouse shirt parody four decades later only reaffirmed its legend.

I designed the image above, taking inspiration from Joy Division, a little more abstract, in relates to the brainwaves theme well I believe, however this was just an experiment, I like it but I am going to be experimenting a lot with this brief, with a range of approaches and outcomes.

I designed the image above, taking inspiration from Joy Division, a little more abstract, in relates to the brainwaves theme well I believe, however this was just an experiment, I like it but I am going to be experimenting a lot with this brief, with a range of approaches and outcomes.

This is from the image on the previous page I took it in Vancouver, This was a positive design from the feedback. A lot of people liked the idea, however they said it was not really Tame Impala, but Dreams. I personally do not like the first two, but the last version is one of my favourite designs of this process. I am going to apply twice, and hand the 3rd design in for Dreams. I do not have much purpose behind this design, I thought ‘currents’ could represent a calmness in its approach. Sometimes you have the right design staring you in the face, but colour scheme does not fit, this can completely alter your design decisions if you do not evaluate a range of the same idea, with appropriate change in colour, so you get the best elements out of your design.

This is my attempt endearing to the same style, with my own twist, it is the design from the previous page duplicated multiple times, blending different levels of opacity together. I like this design, as it is visually satisfying, a lot of people in the feedback enjoyed this design, many said they were physically drawn to it in a literal sense. Again going off on a tangent, but I enjoy this style of working, free expression. It feels less confined. My ideas are more fluently generated, theres no restriction, so a wider range of ideas are made to select from.

This is the image edited. Repeating the image on itself. Feedback said this was more dreams. So I decided early on that I would experiment with both, but final design for the brief would be Tame Impala. The soft colour palette suggests a dream like flow in it’s approach.

I took an image from my Berlin trip, the Holocaust Museum. I feel this design, evokes a deeper rooted meaning, exploring the never ending space in our mind. The gaps inbetween represent the same way the folds and ridges are displayed in the human brain. 

This is a piece by Leif Podjhasky, it is very expressive, no recurring general theme, very post modernism. This is the general style Tame Impala choose for their album cover art.

“Nowadays, it’s crept back into vogue as people realise how key it is to connecting with an audience. Visuals are usually the first thing people associate with a band or record and it has to tell the story of what’s inside. I like to think of [my job as creating] visual stories for musical adventures.”

Something I really wanted to experiment with for my final outcome is Leif’s fondness for images of the natural world, to his use of distorted colours and graphic repetitions. He is equally as influenced by album designers such as Peter Saville, Mati Klarewein and Storm Thorgerson.

As I lost my final Tame Impala design, I had to come up with a new design, my only problem with these designs is they felt quite rushed, and feel that is evident in the designs, however it has that expressionist element that Podjahsky likes to experiment with. I realised a lot of mini crits had to be undertaken for this brief. It was hard to base a decision purely on my judgement, so I asked for constant inquiry as I was indecisive a lot for this brief. Which I believe is understandable, when you have different versions of the same design, your judgement becomes clouded.  When looking into the background context, such as the music video and listening to the song, it lacks coherency, it is a mish mash of styles, unexplained but yet it still works, I have no idea what was going on, or what the context was but it worked. The visual expressionism in this track, implies loud, vibrant colours with random appropriation, this is something I have brought to my design, of course it is not my original design and I do not deem it better in the slightest. 

Album cover art used to be all about opening up a gatefold record, and sitting back gazing at the artwork, it was key insight into a bands ethos, and acted as a visual representation of the music.Visuals are usually the first thing people associate with a band or record and it has to tell the story of what’s inside I wanted my cover to express the feelings associated when listening to the music. 

I feel I have explored a lot of content in this brief, taking “design, is about doing” to it’s full literal sense. Experimentation was the goal, to produce an array of designs, with different themes and contexts applied. Not sticking to one specific style. Of course this has its limitations, as you have less refined ideas, but a range of designs you can delve into if you like the concept and look of where its going. Sometimes working on the laptop can make you rigid in your design process, as more strict guidelines are applied to the process. This brief felt like I was stepping away from this method of working, as I saw the laptop as a canvas to which I could express myself, and just throw my imagination onto the page, it was much less informed. This has its negatives, as the actual process can become disjointed and less structured which lengthens other aspects such as the selection process. 

Feedback was really helpful, it enabled me new insight into my work, the only real problem with it is when people do not provide justification to their comments. I did not think my work was suited to two albums, once I realised this I made the decision to continue with both album covers as I had already done a substantial amount for both. I know this is not the brief however it makes no difference as I went through the same processes for both and would deem it a waste not to submit a strong idea/design. 

In relation to my Dream 3 album, I am happy with my final design. If you consider the beginning of my evaluation, there should be a relation between the artwork to the music, I devised a visual test for this brief, where I would listen to the song and look at my designs