Design Context: OUGD406 - Design Is About Doing Research

As my initial ideas was to do geometric shapes, I started to look at album covers and book covers that use this in their designs. This was so I could see what had already been done, how it had been used and if it was actually interesting enough to continue with.

I found that there weren't many album/cd covers that were directly geometric patterns, but patterns and shapes have been used to create the imagery. I like the two ideas of using the computer to make perfect shapes, but also the idea of doing it hand drawn as those images have a bit of quirkiness to them and seem to have more personality.

The images below aren't necessarily patterns, but they use shapes in a way which looks like it. They show that they don't necessarily have to be typical geometric patterns to work and look like one on a first glance. The colours on these also work well as covers, so this is also something I will take into consideration. The bright colours make them very bold, however the top selection with a more faded pastel approach also works well and seems a lot more balanced.

To keep with the geometric shape theme, I started to look into aztec style print as it is more interesting than just plain geometric shapes. It gives a much more stylised and contemporary approach to simple geometric patterns and could definitely work as a background for my designs.

I found a blog that was all about vinyl covers and filtered it down to look at those that were geometric shapes, shapes in general or more abstract covers. I found that the ideas fit in well with what I was doing as they all have the clear circle in the middle - which could easily be relatable to my spirograph idea. I found a huge variety of designs and chose a selection of which could be useful to me and developing my designs.