Reading some science articles, I chanced upon Ernst Chladni’s figures/arrays – created by putting sand over a thin metal plate and subjecting it to sound. The study of the visible sound vibrations is called Cymatics.
I have an inclination to tracing patterns and figures found in movies and old prints. It’s like a refresher in using different tools and techniques in vector manipulation, as well as preservation of the things past.
I remember my humble beginnings in Photoshop and didn’t have the files to prove it because my hard drive crashed. Well, it really did and that will be another story.
The second batch of practice files are still with me though. Not everyday did I experiment on lo-res stock photos and found pictures on the internet. So I could’ve not improved drastically from the first few years to the next.
During the late 90s, armed with an amateurish guitar-playing skill, I got hooked in playing with electronic music using MTV Music Generator in PlayStation 1. And a couple of years after, I upgraded to an early version of Fruity Loops.
Here’s an example of what I managed to produce in the PlayStation:
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/135683847″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_artwork=true” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]
How I magically got that in MP3 format? I hooked a PC mic in front of the TV speaker while PlayStation is playing the song.
The whole point of this is that I was so excited to design my own (imaginary) album covers. I consider these designs part of my practice files – created out of pure enjoyment.
I followed this up with more “serious” compositions and with that came more “serious” album covers.
Check back soon for Part 2.
I leave you with a saying by the great Confusious:
A true designer only uses solar flare for irony.
Confusious
Here’s a series of posters with two words/phrases side-by-side – with the opposite meaning; some are about common phrases we always say in a sentence, like for example…
