I have always loved music - perhaps because it is truly a universal language - or maybe because I love to deconstruct things to understand them inside and out. Either way, come back often, let's take a journey to see how sound influences visual design!
Janelle Monae is an artist I have been listening to for the better part of two decades. Being similar in age, it feels like her music continues to put words to my different life experiences. In this latest, I found the carefree confidence and self-acceptance that comes with age and wisdom. The first song, “Float,” sets the album's tone and inspired me to create an Afro-surrealist concept of a black woman in the form of a deity walking on clouds. As clouds symbolize celestial mobility, I used them to represent the path for the protagonist’s next chapter. I posed the model nude in a variation of the Superman pose to signify her confidence and self-love.
I used landscape and studio photography to create the composition and composited the images using Photoshop. The design concept was inspired by luminist painters like Frederic Edwin Church. When capturing the sunset, I took several shots aiming for a picture with the sun shining through the clouds. The model was then captured using a similar light angle. Filters were added to create a hard light effect on the model and to colorize the background with softer pink and purple hues.
R&B Album Design Concept
