Development

After I decided to take the illustration approach over light graffiti I sketched some quick ideas. The cover had to be clearly Hip Hop and eye catching in order to entice someone to want to listen. 

Front Cover

To make it clearly Hip Hop I thought of illustrations of him rapping aggressively over his mic, as seen in the top left, top middle and bottom left designs. I then looked at just a large close up image of his face, much like Will Prince's portraits, as seen in the bottom middle design. None of these ideas seemed to grab me so I thought about the album title and what I understand of it. I then thought of conceptual ideas about the contrast between summer connotations and his negative story. The top right idea was Vince Staples  in black and white as the main focus and the background was going to be blurry people in colour. The colour would show the positive side of summer, blurred to show movement. Vince Staples would be black and white to represent his negative memories and still and in focus to suggest time stopping. The sketchy Will Prince style would suggest an urban genre. The bottom right concept idea was similar, featuring Vince Staples in the centre behind a crowd of reaching fans. However he is looking up to the heavens looking sorrowful. Above him are faded images of a ramona park sign and street signs. These represent the story and where he comes from. The overall concept was despite his success and lifestyle, the summer of 06 is always on his mind. The concept ideas were my favourite as they had a message and told a story, which could intrigue a viewer. I chose to finalise the last idea as in the previous one black and white played an important role, which were colours I wanted to avoid due to competition.

Back Cover

For the back cover I looked at placement of type and the use of imagery. The top left idea just featured the tracklist centered which was a bit boring. The top middle idea featured Vince Staples  with the tracklist in a continuous paragraph above. The top right idea shows a close up of Vince bleeding off the page with the tracklist left justified filling the other half of the cover. The bottom left idea shows a ramona park sign as imagery with the tracklist in the bottom right quarter right justified. The bottom middle idea is the view of my chosen front cover but reversed. The perspective is from  behind so shows the signs fade into the back of Vince performing to a crowd. The tracklist would be overlayed and it would be unique to turn over the case and see the same image from behind. The bottom right idea was Vince's head close up but cropped in half bleeding off opposite sides. The tracklist was then centred between them. Overall I liked the use of imagery as its more visually appealing and would build a theme with the front cover and rest of album campaign. The bottom middle and top right were my favourite but I chose to design the top right because the bottom middle would likely have illegible type due to the background its on.

Chosen font 'Agency FB'
I was scrolling through fonts with an open mind and this font just stood out. I kept looking for alternatives but kept thinking they weren't as fitting as this one. I think I like it because it has a nice weight to it, light yet bold. Also it is quite condensed which I think made 'Vince Staples // Summertime '06' seem shorter. I think the squared shape of the font makes me think of urban environments like city skyline silhouettes and bricks and buildings.This combined with the sketchy ragged illustration style, hint at urban music.

I researched cover measurements and measured myself to confirm.
The front cover is 12x12cm and the back cover is 11.75x15cm