This is another 2 star assignment that finishes my week with 16.5 stars! I had to make a design representing a song without writing any words.

I made this using Pixlr.com to represent one of my favorite songs, Cosmic Love by Florence and the Machine. This is actually three stock images lined up against each other in separate layers. I cut them out to fit together in this way using the cutout tool. It was really tricky trying to cut them all out nicely to fit this way.

This song is very ethereal and beautiful. It compares lots of aspects of love to parts of space. I thought these images would make a cute cover photo for the song. I love how the lighting on the two hands work with the firework heart in the middle. This felt almost more like a visual assignment than a design one, but I think I’m getting better at photo editing and designing.

One of our ds106 crew had the brilliant idea to put an 80s twist on the Name That Single assignment, so I thought I’d give it a shot. I wonder if we can make a trend out of this.

I didn’t know what to do, so I googled “1980s hit songs” and got a selection of links to videos. My first thought was to take the opportunity to do a rickroll, but I couldn’t think of a way to visualize “Never Gonna Give You Up.” But another song on the list gave me an idea, and it had GIF potential.

I tried to take the easy way out and find the GIF I was thinking of online, but I couldn’t, so it was DIY time. It’s a Blade Runner scene. I was able to find it on Youtube, and use a Firefox extension to download it. I know there are easier ways to make GIFs, but I use the old-school ds106 method, except I use Photoshop instead of the GIMP. I do it that way because it gives me more control and ability to manipulate the image and timing. I came up with this thing:

but it really doesn’t say “single,” does it? I needed to square it off and put a hole in the middle. I found an image of a 45 single sleeve and one of a 45 adapter, so I screened that over the GIF frames and cropped the image like so:

Design-wise, I think it’s weak. Maybe I should have added some graphic elements. I used a posterize effect to make it look more “designed,” but it’s really more decorative. I consider design to be a deliberate decision making process to achieve a desired end – to convey a message or solve a problem. If it’s done for the sake of appearance rather than meaning, it’s decoration. I like the idea of an animated image on a static object though. I don’t know if it really conveys a sense of the song or its title, but it was fun to do.

I’m also wondering to what extent “single” is an 80s concept. I see the 80s as the cassette era, and singles as more of a 60s-early 70s thing. Singles never really went away,  but I think they were esoteric at that point, more of an indie band thing.

I picked this design assignment because I love music. I picked one of my favorite songs that is by a female country singer (hint). Even though I don’t think I am that good at drawing, I tried my best and since it is one object that describes the song, I picked the most prevalent thing. I even quizzed my mom and she guessed right! I did have a sign to go along with it, but when I reread the description it said no words, so I took that out.