Secret 7

BRIEF

"We take 7 tracks from 7 of the best-known musicians around and press each one 100 times to 7” vinyl. We then invite creatives from around the world to interpret the tracks in their own style for every 7”. 700 sleeves are exhibited and then sold for £50 apiece. You don't know who created the sleeve, or even which song it's for, until you have parted with your cash - the secret lies within."

As Secret 7 has returned, and with the unsuccessful attempt to get in last time, it was pretty obvious that this brief would be a definite choice for one of my briefs. I also believe the whole idea behind the exhibition is inspiring. Taking a piece of work and making the customer pick a design they actually like, and appreciate the artwork, instead of picking a design on the name. In addition, the cost of the sleeve gets donated to charity. This competition will help and change peoples lives and producing a piece of work that would in theory, go on to help someone and improve their life, means this competition is important to me.

RESEARCH

UnderWorld - Born Slippy. Nuxx

Looking at the tracks given, Underworld - Born Slippy Nuxx was on song that really stood out to me. The band released this song stating that the pounding and relentless rhythm with the shouted lyrics of the track was originally created to be a "joke", which received little attention.

The song was intended to sound like an alcoholic's internal dialogue. (Karl Hyde was an alcoholic at the time).

The ".NUXX" name was created by a computer fault that added that suffix to the name of their working files.

Karl Hyde wrote the "larger, larger" lyric as he found himself paralytic in a pub situated in soho pub and found himself unable to catch the last train home to Romford.

"All the lyrics were written on that night. A drunk sees the world in fragments and I wanted to recreate that. I was inspired by Lou Reed's New York album and Sam Shepard's Motel Chronicles. I was into flash photography as well, so I was walking around Soho with a notebook and camera, just observing things. In those days I'd open the book whenever a musical idea inspired me. Rick [Smith] came up with a rhythm and I started singing over it. The vocals were done in one take. When I lost my place, I'd repeat the same line; that's why it goes, 'lager, lager, lager, lager.' The first time we played it live, people raised their lager cans and I was horrified because I was still deep into alcoholism. It was never meant to be a drinking anthem; it was a cry for help. Now I don't mind. Why Born Slippy? It was a greyhound we won money on."

- Lyrics written on that night. 
- Fragments of the world 
- Lou Reed's New York Album + Sam Shepard's Motel Chronicles 
- Flash Photography, Soho with notebook and camera
- Observing 
- Larger cans raised, deep into alcoholism.
- Not a drinking anthem, a cry for help. 
- Born Slippy is a greyhound that won them a bet. 

INITIAL IDEAS

Taking the aspect of the name the song was given, and the meaning being Born Slippy, I started to sketch and experiment with a slightly humorous design. I would like to work with the greyhound sketches, and produce a messy, drunken dog that has a pool of alcohol surrounding it. This links with the name of the song and the idea of a drunken event. Below are the initial sketches for this idea:

I wanted to experiment with the idea of events that are unexplainable do to the fragment of a night. I will experiment with creating marks that were not produced on purpose and almost have no reasoning for being there. This interests me as the idea of unexplained pieces of art relates to this song and works with a fragment of memory.

I also find it interesting the way that this song has been perceived as a drinking anthem, when on paper, it was a cry for help. This sort of, perceiving a cry for help, could become an interesting thought as people were unaware about the pain and suffering that was apparent. This idea came from the repetitive beat of the song and the almost hypnotic obsession with larger. I would like to produce something that almost represents this hypnotic element with the hypnotic rhythm of the song.

I wanted to incorporate the idea of having the alcoholism constantly on his back, but in a humorous and not so obvious way. My idea was to generate a design that represented a fish being caught within a plastic beer holder, however change the fish with a brain, that looks like its suffocating and struggling due to the tie around it by the beer holder. As this could be a graphic image, I will create a vector image, with a contrasting colour scheme, to give the vivid look, but not be as graphically disfiguring as a brain.

After producing initial ideas and sketches, then taking this design to digital, I began to find myself limited and struggled to get the design to the standard I was expecting. I wanted a cleaner, humorous approach and with the obvious reference to the alcoholic aspect of the song, produced a difficult platform to start my experiments.

I started to sketch ideas that are more conceptual and link towards the song title more, These ideas could be progressed further however as there isn't much time left I decided to go with my strongest sketched idea and start mocking the design up.

With this small initial sketch, I instantly knew this was the design I wanted to go with. Being more conceptual and working with the actual song title, it allowed me to produce a piece of work that really means something to the band.

The concept behind this design is taking the name of the song, Born slippy. The name was derived from a drunken night, and born slippy was a greyhound that won them money whilst betting. I decided to take this idea, and apply it to the album cover. Including the stuffed heads as trophies to symbolise the memories that have occurred from this drunken night. 

FINAL