Kali Malone is an artist who enjoys challenging the human senses with her experimental drone music. Her minimalistic compositions gained world recognition as she performed with a clear and immersive vision.
A new set of promotional materials, such as a poster and social media materials, is needed to present the opening of Kali Malone’s concert, Does Spring Hide Its Joy. The designs must reflect the artist and the music’s message in an abstract and contemporary fashion.
Firstly, a concept must be developed that mimics the artist's and her songs' overall atmosphere. Since the artist enjoys pushing herself to new horizons and wants to experiment, an element of endurance should be included to reflect her vision. After numerous abstract associations with the music piece and its production, the ideas of stillness, repetition, and interjection emerged as each tune fluctuated from high to low at different intervals. With her use of a sine wave oscillator as the primary tool in her piece, the ‘wave’ introduces the addition of water into the design.
To represent the notion of stillness with water, a water reflection in a glass was used to mimic a form similar to a water puddle, which shows varying lengths of ripples, similar to the varied tones in the song. This concept of variation is also relayed in the display type, which has differentiating thicknesses on each character. Instead of having the text go horizontally, the vertical length adds an element of growth that contrasts with the circular visuals.
The vinyl cover embodies the same characteristics as the poster but is presented abstractly. This altered design direction shows the artist’s passion for experimentation and different high and low tones in her music. Include a similar vertical length in the text, and the casing and the booklet are combined to become an accordion booklet. The ripples are made with clear die-cut sticker sheets, making the circles shine, and adding a subtle element of interjection and waveform to the cover.
