Album Artwork for ZYkR
ZYkR is an indie electronic band based in NYC, whose music focuses on a range of societal issues, such as political inaction, paranoia and addiction. I had a chance to collaborate with them on an album artwork for their upcoming song release, “Fantastic, I’m Plastic.”
“Fantastic, I’m Plastic” is a song about one’s loss of identity and agency in a corporate world. It depicts the feeling of resignation as the protagonist of the song becomes a cookie cutter employee.
I used the imagery of a smiling Lego face combined with a blank facial expression of the song’s protagonist in order to communicate the thesis and the mood of the song.
The image was hand-drawn in pen and ink, then completed in Photoshop.
Design Iteration 1
When Aseem Suri (the leader of the band) and I started discussing ideas for the artwork, we quickly decided that we wanted to use a smiling Lego face to reflect the song’s theme in a tongue-in-cheek manner. We purchased a set of Lego figurine wearing business attire and started playing.
Initially, I envisioned bright colorful images to highlight the word “plastic” in the song title. The happy mood did not fit the ambience of the music, however, and I moved away from the pop color schemes in order to explore gloomier moods.
Design Iteration 2
In the second phase, I built a small environment for the Lego figure in order to test an “eerie photograph” approach. The idea was to show a scene where the Lego figure was choosing a smiling face to wear for the day. I made a small walk-in closet with shelves displaying different plastic heads and accessories. I experimented with lighting and colors to create a dystopian atmosphere.
While the band and I both liked the concept, we realized that too much detail got lost in the photograph to effectively convey the meaning of the scene. Since most people will see the artwork only on their smartphones through a music app, I learned that it’s important to adjust the amount of detail in the image.
Design Iteration 3
Based on the learnings from the last iteration, I went back to a more simplistic style. I tried to give more focus on the iconic Lego smile while keeping a dystopian mood. The images turned out rather generic, however, and I quickly moved on from these tests.
Design Iteration 4
At this point in the project, I felt that I needed to recalibrate my approach and find a clearer direction. I studied the song’s lyrics to better understand its mood; I went to Midtown Manhattan, where there is a concentration of corporate office buildings, and observed the people in the area; and I went through a series of brainstorming sketches to explore imageries other than the Lego smile. I considered new imageries like mannequins, masks and the human face.
Based on this round of sketches, Aseem and I reached a conclusion that we wanted a “subtly unsettling” mood to represent the song: something that doesn’t scream “happy” or “dark,” but rather, something quietly disconcerting.
Design Iteration 5
With the keyword “subtly unsettling” in mind, I created the following new round of designs.
The first concept was to merge the faces of a person and the Lego figurine to show the song’s protagonist’s transition into a plastic version of himself.
The second concept was to show the loneliness and despair of the song’s protagonist.
The third concept was to treat the smiling Lego face as a mask that the song’s protagonist would wear. I decided to hand-draw this concept to give it a different atmosphere. One of the challenges I had faced in the previous iterations was the fact that the Lego face was so iconic and recognizable that it overly dictated the mood of the image. By hand-drawing it, I realized I had more control over the iconic smile.
Design Iteration 6
The band liked the hand-drawn illustration a lot, and we decided to move forward with this concept.
One of the feedback I got from Aseem was to make the facial expression neutral, instead of a smile, to show the protagonist’s emotional emptiness better. I used Photoshop to tweak the mouth and came up with two different versions of the neutral expression: one with a slightly open mouth, and the other, completely shut.
Final Artwork
After a bit more fine-tuning, the artwork for ZYkR’s Fantastic, I’m Plastic was completed.
Album Artwork for ZYkR #2
This was the artwork I created for ZYkR’s new release in 2020, called “Paranoid.” The song is about the anxiety the musician feels as the surveillance culture continues to grow in the society.
Process images and story coming soon!