Study Task 6 - Typesetting outcomes

This idea was exploring the concept of discomfort and lyrics that is directly related to both tracks and their music videos. I chose to collage an optical illusion over a heavy amount of bold, uppercased letters in which the leading is reduced so that the text would be condensed and instead of being easily legible, it instead conveys the patterns within the lyrics. Parts of the optical illusion are cut out to show parts of the text that don’t make sense which is used to create confusion to the viewer, along with the optical illusion. This confusion connotes the discomfort of the tracks.

As a response to my research into Charlotte River’s book on Innovation in DVD Packaging Design, I began exploring type layout in a way that’s hectic, but fixed in a structure, and almost completely legible through rearranging Sophie’s ‘Faceshopping’ lyrics. This is to convey the main concept of Experimental Pop being unconventional but accessible as the text fits a grid and can be read but is cut up and rearranged in the incorrect order so that it won’t completely make sense. Towards the bottom, the text begins to overlay on top of each other and be sliced so that it’s no longer the complete letterforms. This connotes the hectic, overlaid rhythms and beats within the track and the use of Impact as a typeface allows it to be bold, connoting the loudness and flashiness of the music video. The addition of cling film and a produce packaging sticker is to bring in the element of grocery and the concept of the word “fresh” being used literally to represent the innovativeness of Experimental Pop. The strips of collage at the bottom resembles meat, further emphasising the idea of produce packaging however it’s close up images of human skin to relate to the music video and also symbolise the track being superficial; ‘skin deep’. I also further explored another concept relating to the use of cling film.

This idea is another approach to the idea of produce packaging and unconventional type layouts however I approached this with the main idea of simplifying the layout while being more experimental. This represents the idea that Experimental Pop continuously pushes general Pop elements. The simplification began with using both track titles rather than the lyrics, and using lowercase to suggest the feel of simple through its softness as lowercase connotes more of a friendly tone than the bold, uppercase letters in Impact. The use of all lowercase letters and the rounded, Futura typeface also introduces the element of childless that was derived from the fact that both Sophie and Joe Meek began creating music in their childhood as a response to the pressures of their young life. This is reflected in the type layout as it’s not strict and rigid, which further conveys this childish theme. Instead of cling film, I used two layers of tracing paper as I wanted to explore the different texture of a more rigid material and possibly explore the idea of packaging in a more subtle way. The overall effect of the blurriness was successful in emphasising the softness even more.