Song chosen:
Kwaku Asante – Molasses (Audio)
Background/Concept:
My first thought for this project was to find a song that had groove and a head-bopping rhythm. When I came across this song, a design immediately popped in my head of a groovy center piece with different designs building off the sides. If you listen to the song, it has almost a sticky, vibe that I thought would translate well in this project.
First draft:
Draft #1 Sound Visualization Project
This first draft was an initial almost sketch of what I wanted to portray with through this song. The center line of O’s was the first section I laid down with the intention of it being the focal point. The wavy concept of the line was the initial response to the song itself and the mirrored sections on the bottom right and top left of the piece were to express the stickiness mentioned before.
After the first Mini-Critique, I was told to be more experimental with the design and create more texture throughout the piece. I was contemplating what to do at this point but knew a general direction I wanted to continue in.
Second and Third draft:
Draft #2 Sound Visualization Project
Draft #3 Sound Visualization Project
With these next drafts, they were in attempt to add more texture to the piece. I varied the sizes of fonts, switched in and out different letters to add levels of texture and I messed with the mirroring situation I had in the first draft. Throughout this process, I couldn’t quite figure out what to replace the top left design with because I wanted it to still match with the music. I then landed on the idea that is in the final draft.
Final Draft:
Final Draft Sound Visualization Project
I added the rows of M’s in which they were gradually decreasing in size to represent the constant rhythm throughout the song. When I came up with this idea, I didn’t want it to be the same size of M’s so I decided to decrease the font each row to add more texture.
Conclusion:
Overall, I believe this project was a great way to use a tool we wouldn’t normally use to create a design and especially with it based of a piece of music. This allowed me to stretch my creativity in ways I haven’t before and I am very happy with how this turned out.