Rosmarie Tissi was a Postmodernist designer. Using bold colors, shapes, and text she created many designs that resulted in effective communication. The Postmodernist design movement went against the modernists’ “one given meaning” mindset and challenged designers to interpret the world through their unique perspective, creating a variety of interpretations. The world was now whatever designers wanted it to be. Through her designs, Tissi challenged her viewers’ interpretation of a post-war world and inspired them to see the world through exciting imagery and lively abstractions.
Through postmodernism, Tissi managed to create refreshing designs. Additionally, by going against the grain of modernism’s stiff interpretation, she, along with other postmodernists, paved the way for future designers, inspiring them to embrace the freedom of original interpretation.
Because Tissi’s design style was inspiring and, dare I say, fun to her viewers, I wanted to capture that same concept through this album cover. After browsing through several singer-songwriters, I chose to redesign an album by Cody Fry. Although Fry is likely to be titled a pop artist at first glance, recently he has begun to dip his toes into the world of orchestration and jazz piano. Combining both Tissi and Fry seemed fitting considering they both went against the grain of what was popular during their time. When designing this cover I strived to encompass both of their styles, in hopes of achieving a coherent marriage of both Tissi’s and Fry’s interpretation of the world. I began by creating a bright blue, teal, and white gradient for my background. Then, I began tinkering with musical abstractions to fill the front cover. After playing with many shape combinations, I landed with three solid abstract instruments. In addition to the obvious musical staff across the axis of the cover, I created a flute (top left), piano (right), and neck of a violin (bottom left). Together, these abstractions served as a tribute to Tissi’s abstract design style while also representing Fry’s recent incorporation of orchestration instruments in his music. I applied simple text to the bottom right corner of the cover (once again, the same style as Tissi’s). On the back cover, I continued the theme of abstracted music on both the top right and bottom left corner. To illustrate movement among the back text, I lifted the body text on the left and lowered the tracklist on the right. Finally, on the record artwork, I created a design similar to the front cover. For the sake of consistency, I included staff bars, music notes, and the black and white rectangles making up the piano.
I'm Isabella, a freelance digital media strategist with a passion for digital communication, social media marketing, and video production.
