Troubleshooting is the first full length album from the rock band Xdinary Heroes. The album follows themes of not conforming and continuing to break the mold by being unafraid to be yourself. It also follows the band's storyline as an escape from a digital world and into the unknown of the real world.
Research
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I began my research by looking at the lyrics and pulling out what I thought best showed the themes of the song. After that I gathered images for inspiration. I found images from the original album cover as well as other images that worked with the themes of the album.
Test Shots
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My plan for the cover was to create a a still life of a desk that would be mostly in shadow and lit only by a lamp on the desk. I began with some tests for lighting, and many of these were too dark. I knew I wanted to use cool blue tones throughout all of the images. To keep the colors consistent, I made a filter out of blue cellophane that I would put over my lens. For the back, I wanted to create chaos with wires.
Typography Exploration
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In the first iterations I had added the text on to the photo digitally, but after some experiments I decided that it would be better to naturally integrate the typography. Making the text a part of the image helps to give the feeling of being in the "real world". The track list on the back cover was made by writing the titles out in a text editor used for programming. This would tie the digital themes and the connection to the IT terms used for this album and all of the band's previous ones.
Finals
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