Music: A to z

[A Collection of Playlists]

The goal of this project was to create a non-traditional book that displays a collection of found samples of each letter from the alphabet, by collecting these samples of letters from any typography in the environment (as chosen). These "found letters" should then be compiled into some sort of book that also illustrates a strong visual concept that cohesively integrates the found letters with the overall design. I chose to create a book based on music, because I am so inspired by music on a daily basis. I play guitar and have a weirdly large knowledge of the musical world, especially with alternative and rock artists. I decided to source all 260 total letters (10 sourced letter for each letter of the alphabet) from album covers themselves, as I also enjoy observing album art on a design-thinking level. Using Photoshop, I extracted every single letter from the covers.

Then, I created my own template for a record in Illustrator, utilizing a grid system and adding gradient overlays and other effects to boost the readability and aesthetic appeal of the book. I based the actual formatting on Spotify playlists and used pieces of the website itself to aid this, such as the "Next" and "Play" buttons. I used the typeface Gotham, which is used professionally by Spotify as well. By lining the found letters up in a vertical line, I was able to really visualize and learn from the differences that are present in typography throughout the album cover world. I based the actual themselves off of my personal music tastes, including artists like Pearl Jam, The Strokes, Tame Impala, Lana Del Rey, Frank Ocean, John Mayer, The National, alt-J, and more. Finally, for the cover and back page of my book, I used some of my favorite album covers and created an interesting piece on Photoshop. I printed the book saddle-stitch style and bound it in the middle with a black spiral-ring. Then, I hand-cut every page around the edges of the circle (which was marked with a thin white line on my created Illustrator template), as displayed below. Although this project was very tedious, especially extracting the letters, I had a lot of fun with it because I am extremely passionate about the music industry. I am a strong believer that music is an ancient form of human communication, and I loved being able to combine it with visual communication design.