Carleigh Peters

Music has always been one of my favorite things. It’s gotten me through a lot of things in my life, and this pandemic is no exception. Live music is one of the things I miss most about pre-pandemic life, which is why for my capstone project I decided to come up with a fictional band and create all the artwork surrounding an album release and resulting tour.

From a design standpoint, I feel like there is something to be desired in how music is released and sold. People are buying physical copies of albums less and less. To solve this problem, I took inspiration from the Korean music industry and created a box that holds not only the CD itself but also a folded poster, polaroids, and a concept photo book. To me, this helps the consumer build a stronger connection with the concept as a whole and makes the music itself a collectible.

For the theme of the album, I wanted to come up with something that focuses on the healing power of music. The term ‘uncanny valley’ refers to the feeling of discomfort you feel when you see something that your brain recognizes as just not quite right. It is a common term in android literature and creates a unique challenge for android designers, because their main production goal is an interface that is palatable and inoffensive to the public, and the closer they get to something humanoid the more uncomfortable and unsettled people get. This is why I chose to use the concept of the uncanny valley as the overarching concept of the album. The story revolves around someone who looks in the mirror and no longer recognizes themself, to the point where they may no longer perceive themself as human and only as an imitation, a persona that they have created of what a human is ‘supposed’ to be. As the album progresses, they evaluate and rebuild themself, finally arriving at the outro track, Feel Real, at which point the main character has overcome their internal struggle and they feel real, like an actual person and not a projection.

When creating the visual elements for this project, I continued to think about the uncanny valley and went with a dark nature-inspired supernatural aesthetic. Ravens are carrion birds, and are featured in many mythologies in connection to lost spirits. Mushrooms are the only way in which decay exists as a form of life. For the antlers and type, I took inspiration from Victorian style design. Antlers are also a symbol of regeneration, as they fall off and re-grow throughout the deer’s life.