For this project we had to create an Album cover design using a particular design movement from the 1950’s to present. The design had to represent the movement in a both visual and historical context.
For this project, The art movement chosen was Pop Design and the song chosen was “Fortunate Son“ by Creedence Clearwater Revival. The song came out around the same time that the Pop Design movement was founded. This union of Historical and visual context resulted in this final design.
The song related to the Pop Movement by the Movement’s purpose was to convey a message for the social climate of the time. “Fortunate Son“’s message is that the wealthy are able to avoid the Vietnam War draft and that people less fortunate must go instead. The poor have to fight the rich man’s war, whereas the upper class avoid service.
This relates to the Pop Design Movement by Pop Design is forms of expressionism at its core, showing a message using bright colors, bright psychedelic aesthetics, typography, bubble-like letters sacrificing readability for style and the message, silhouettes, and juxtaposition. Ultimately means the movement is intrinsically tied to freedom of expression, youth culture, and of course social unrest (such as protesting the Vietnam War).
The aesthetics of the Pop Design movement also connect to the song because the tune was created out of spontaneity. The singer John Fogerty, in the “How I wrote Fortunate Son“ YouTube video, even states that he got the idea in one afternoon while previously having a loss for what to write. He just knew that he had a message to tell and he wanted to tell it just like other pop designs (Fogerty). It provides sharp-critical commentary on the social unrest of the time and the environment . This is the crux of the Pop Design movement.
In creating the design the process was: The piece inspired by pop design pieces shown in class. For Michel English’s “Hapshash and the Coloured Coat”. A photo of Vietnam war soldiers in their trenches preparing for artillery. A raw photo showed these soldiers on the ground ducked inside the trench waiting for enemy fire. I then brought it into Illustrator where I used “image trace” to replicate the look of Michael English’s. Then 60’s bubble/psychedelic text was added emphasizing the chorus and message of the song “ it ain’t me “.
Then 2 more graphics were added: The American flag in the back, lowered the opacity, and blended mode it on Photoshop so I can show the true meaning, and thereby replicating the pattern-like look that some pieces have.
This design achieved the goal of using visual and historical context to represent a design movement and connect a movement to a song, creating a cover for a particular song or book.