Story behind my cover song artwork

If you’ve listened to my renditions of WHAM’s Club Tropicana and Shirley Bassey’s Diamonds are forever on my YouTube Channel, you’ve probably noticed the graphic designs and font styles that I used for the videos. If you’re looking for ideas for your creative and artistic endeavours, here are the steps that I used to generate artistic and graphic design ideas for my cover song artwork.

1. Get inspiration from your muses.

I watched Hollywood Reporter’s songwriters’ roundtable discussion where Pharrell Williams was a guest. I remember he made a point that we should “stay loyal to [our] muses.” Well in my case, I got my inspiration from my muses – George Michael, Prince and Karl Lagerfeld. I considered and consider them to be artistic visionaries who are unique and different. I saw a picture of George Micheal where he wore sunglasses and his face was slightly bent downwards. I also wanted to create my version of a picture I saw with Prince and Karl Lagerfeld where their faces were photographed at an angle.

I like the mystery and wonderment that these images evoke. You can’t see their entire face, so you’re left to wonder what’s going on in their heads. I wanted to evoke a similar sense of fascination and wonderment with my artwork.

2. Assistants are amazing

I asked my beloved and amazing mother to snap some photos for me. I gave her instructions and away she snapped! If you’re unable to find someone to assist you, you can use your tripod and the self-timer feature on your camera – if you’re using a DSLR camera.

3. Less is more

I like using minimalism in my artwork and graphic designs. I think people can get distracted from your core message if there’s too much “razzle” and dazzle. I like my content to be simple to read and simple to watch.  I didn’t want the font to be too “loud” or goofy. I was mostly looking for a font or typeface that was simple and sophisticated. I chose the white colour for the font as I thought that white is the best, brightest colour.

The background colour was simply the colour of the inner wall. I also thought the wall’s neutral colour worked well.

Finding what works for your creative process can be exciting, thought-provoking and satisfying. It’s also really amazing to know the different ways that our creative brain cells get activated. I also think that it’s worthwhile to get inspiration from someone, somewhere and someplace.

I’d love to know your creative process! Comments welcomed below!

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Author: Naomi

I blog. I think, sit and write content that I hope will inspire you, re-awaken your curiosity and motivate you to pursue your interests, talents and hobbies. I sing. I started "officially" singing during my teenage years. I was a member of a youth choir. I also wrote and sang a song for a school competition. I've participated in singing auditions, I've sang at weddings, corporate events and promotional campaigns. I write. I've been writing stories and songs from my early childhood years. My love of writing, story-telling and creative writing also led me to write for my college's school newspaper, participate in a competition to co-author a book with best-selling author James Patterson I envision I envision the world to be a place that welcomes, celebrates and appreciates creators who aspire to make positive changes. I seek to create a world that welcomes and celebrates creators who open, re-open, re-explore and re-discover creative chapters in their lives that they thought were closed permanently. The door is now re-opened View all posts by Naomi