OUGD406 STUDIO BRIEF 1 - INITIAL THUMBNAIL SKETCHES

I produced a series of thumbnail designs for my chosen track Digital Witness to get started on coming up with ideas and seeing them down on paper, if they actually worked on paper or not.

Here I experimented with lots of different ideas. I tried making the building blocks into windows with sound wave line rectangles coming out of each window. I tried having a person, perhaps the woman, waving her arms around madly as this was how I danced to the song in my room thinking of ideas, as it has an excellent beat to the track. I quite like the idea of the eye with bands of colours coming out of it, as her thoughts pour out perhaps. In the middle of this sheet I tried to figure out the beat of the song, and realised it has 3 short beats then 3 long beats with a few squiggles in between I chose to ignore for this time. I reflected with with 3 circles then 3 rectangles, I tried squares to make it more even but then all the beats looked the same and I thought it was important to highlight the difference in the beat. I then tried to include the domed building in my designs however  don't think I have achieved this very successfully, I think this design will work a lot better when done digitally. My final design for this sheet was the top of the woman's head with her crazy hair made out of circled and rectangles from the beat. I really like this idea as a sketch, however I think that when I come to produce it digitally then it won't look as effective as it does being sketched. I also think the design could be a bit overcomplicated for the simplistic style of the video.

i explored more ideas to do with the circles and rectangles on this design sheet, using them as sound to come out of a trumpet, as trumpets or other similar sounding instruments are a key aspect to the track. I also used them coming out of the top of the woman's head, as her mind goes free, also contained inside the woman's head as well, which I don't like so much as it looks a bit like I'm doing brain surgery on her. On this sheet I wrote some some more interesting and key lyrics from Digital Witness, to see if there was anything I had missed in the lyrics just by listening to the track. I found an interesting lyric at the start about"mashing teeth" which I thought could form some interesting imagery. I then set about producing teeth imagery, which I quite like the teeth in a row simply, as it is bold yet uncomplicated, which is completely the style of the video. It is also an unusual content of imagery to the rest of my designs. Another design I tried was having the woman in bed with her crazy hair and eyes wide open, as in the video she mentions not sleeping, I thought this could be an interesting interpretation. 

My third sheet of designs I placed the geometrical stone from the video right in the centre of a blank page, as i thought the stone was an unusual part of the video that wasn't very prominent. I continued experimenting with the domed roof, this time turning the rounded street lights into footed pillars, which I think actually makes it look a little bit like a bug. I experimented further with the round headed lampposts, as I thought they created interesting imagery, as was a simple idea that still created some sort of pattern. I replaced the tops of the lampposts with TV screens, to show that screens are everywhere. I tried a skyline kind of thing however I'm not sure it's that effective as it looks a little too blocky. I then tried using an eye, because in the song the lyrics "you can't see me" keep on being repeated, so I thought it'd be interesting to do something to do with eyes. I placed the round lampposts inside the eyes, and then on the second design I added the lampposts with cogs instead of circles on top, to link back to mechanics and the inner workings of a computer or TV. I really like the eye idea as it is a little creepy yet thought provoking, and I can still include patterns and some sort of geometrical design to link back closer to the music video and track. 

I tried a pendulum type of design, to show time passing and nothing changing, however I think it doesn't really look like a pendulum but some sort of flower. I continued with the eye idea, think time replacing the circle part with a brain, as if the eye is looking into your mind. I also tried it with a light bulb and light bulbs are often placed over peoples head when they have an idea, and I thought that this could reflect this. I tried a window kind of design, incorporating the same circles and rectangles before, however I'm not really happy with it as it just looks like a cross road of lines.

I think I will take quite a few of these designs forward and produce them digitally, as a lot of them use the same or similar elements, which will make producing the designs and variations of them pretty quick and simple. At the moment I quite like the designs to do with the lampposts with circles on the top, as they create interesting yet simple imagery which links directly back to the music video. I also like the eye designs, and how I can incorporate the eye and other designs as well as it makes it look like there is a deeper meaning to the track and my design.