D&AD

For this project we have been given the chance to work on a D&AD brief, this year for the new blood awards they had a total of 16 clients that all had seperate briefs, after reading through a few of them, the two that caught my eye were the national trust as this brief allowed for a lot of freedom and creativity in the output, and the other that I thought was interesting was the XL Recording brief. This brief stood out to me as I love illustration while it still had the online exhibition which gave me some extra room for creativity which is why I have decided to move forward with the XL brief and start my research.

Reading though the brief the key point seemed to that the submission should consist of one A1 poster along side an online exhibition piece that goes beyond the standard ideas of illustration. The project is based around celebrating things that the company and its artists have achieved such as MIA preforming 9 months pregnant or XL The First Chapter rave compilation's first album release.



Brief Outlines

Target audience- Music Lovers

Challenge- Illustrate an event or series of events from XL Recordings history

Aims- Create an A1 poster and one “illustration” for an online exhibition along with a research document showing work progress

Considerations- Concept is key, think about flexible 21st century illustration that is not held down by the medium, designs must work in both print and digital.



XL Recordings is a small British company that started in 1989, they release around 6 albums a year and work with some world famous acts. Their only studio in London has been painted by Stanley Donwood, who has very cleverly transformed the building in stages so that he could create a gif of the artwork moving around the walls. This great artwork shows that the company are very create and care for the small details. Stanley Donwood has also worked with clients of XL Recordings, Radiohead. One of the briefs this year for the D&AD involves Radiohead and their choice to sell their album “In Rainbows” directly from them for as much as the customer was willing to pay, this meant that some customers downloaded the music for free while those who truly loved the music, ended up paying over the normal album price. This experiment they did grabbed news papers and caused a stir as to whether they were devaluing music, however this shot their album to number one and then went on to win two Grammys for ‘Best Alternative Music Album’.


This is the event that I have decided to chose, and as both this album and XL Recordings have such a strong tie to Stanley Donwood, I will be taking a look at more of his work for inspiration towards this project.