NIGERIA 70
Brief: Produce a self initiated project and body of work.
Titled Nigeria 70, my project focuses on the genres of music surrounding Afro Beat, Afro Funk, High Life, Afro Funk and World Music celebrating the influential artists and musicians at the centre of the movement. Through research, exploration and experimentation I aim to to emphasise Nigeria’s cultural change that took effect from the expressive music of the 1970s. Using a mixture of mediums my outcomes take form of two seven inch compilation record cover designs based on the album Nigeria 70, as well as four accompanying posters, the overall concept represents an imaginary special edition box vinyl set that I have been commissioned to produce the artwork and design for. This project is an exploration into a personal interest of mine, the music from Nigeria during the 1970s is filled with excitement, enjoyment and meaning; the stories behind some of the music inspires and provokes a message, whilst the accompanying culture is filled with igniting visual imagery through art and fashion; my work is a celebration of this and a reminder of a movement that changed a cultural movement not just in Africa but worldwide, that combines contemporary illustration to challenge the existing.
With already a basic understanding of the music from Nigeria in the 1970s, I wanted to delve further into the culture and meaning behind the music and its artist, to gain a better sense of the subject that would in turn influence my outcome. I began by focusing on the broad genre of music that Nigeria has to offer, going back to the folk beginnings origins with JuJu and Sakara, then developing into Highlife and then later Afro Beat, Waka, Afro Funk and Afro Rock. An interesting aspect from the multiple genres of music I researched is there progression from one to another, and at there core are pickings of western and African stimulus such as jazz, pop, and rock; this approach to combining and mixing many different features was an aspect I wanted to include in my design process.
Continuing I researched into the artist's and musicians behind the sounds of Nigeria, forming a list of many musical creatives I selected four to take forward to explore more and form the basis of my outcomes. Fela Kuti, William Onyeabor, King Sunny Ade and The Lijadu Sisters are the four that connected with me the most both through their music but also their stories behind the music. Extending my analyses of the four musicians, I started to gain an in depth narrative behind each individual, for example Kuti was a very influential activist as well as a progressive and highly skilled musician who used lyrics and sound to voice protest about Nigeria’s inequality and corrupt government and military. The intriguing knowledge that I gained from researching further into the four chosen musicians enabled a clearer story behind each character but also supplied essential subject matter to build visual imaginary upon.
With a better insight into the music to Nigeria in the 1970s, and having established a basis to work from, I wanted to search more into the culture of the music and Africa in general. An outstanding pointer I came across was the Nigerian civil war that took place from 1967 and 1970, the end of the war saw an influx of fresh creativity both aural and and visually, the music industry exploded with fresh sounds and meaningful lyrics that spoke to the people and brought Nigeria into a new world; many of the influential musical artist rose to prominence as a result of the end of the war. Additionally I looked into the fashion, many African garments contain hidden meanings and provoke individual cultural and personal ideologies, for instants Adikra symbols are a west African representation of concepts, beliefs and aphorisms formed of delicate emblems. Colour also influenced emotion in African fashion, red is often used to highlight violence and anger, where as blue is an indication towards love and prosperity; this way of using medium to describe emotion was an asset I wanted to bring forward into my outcomes and experiment with. Although immensely broad to research, my investigations into Nigerian music during the 1970s brought a new and fresh output of knowledge that in turn supplied an in depth structure of source that I could explore ideas, processes and techniques further.
Before I began drafting ideas for my final outcomes I wanted to gain visual inspiration to aid my work process. I looked into four contemporary and historical designers, illustrators and artists, alongside a series of album cover designs:
Gaurab Thakali
Using the process of print, Thakali explores bright and contrasting colours to ignite an expressive, broad and highly textual image. Music heavily inspires Thakali, with influences of jazz exploding from the pages of his print. For me his eye for colour and light alongside creating depth through line and texture excites the eye and draws and fixes attraction and satisfaction.
Lemi Ghariokwu
Nigerian artist Ghariokwu is most renowned for providing many of the original cover images for the recordings of Nigerian musician Fela Kuti. Using a mixture of paint and ink, Ghariokwu turned Kuti’s powerful lyrics into visual interpretations, provoking immense meaning and questions to his album covers. His approach to creating a response through a mixed visual process was an aspect that I wanted to take forward with my explorations.
Camila Perkins
The bold, risky and energetic imagery of Perkins instantly attracts the human senses into a frenzy. Using the African cultural as an influence Perkins paints and prints portraits highlighting the vibrant and exciting representation of everyday African society. An intriguing aspect to Perkins are her works on wood, inspired by barber shop signs, her very illustrative approach beams originality and her use of painting onto physical objects bows an unusual approach that I would like to experiment with.
Mingering Mike
Mike is well known for surrounding himself in a fictitious funk and soul world, creating fake cardboard albums with accompanying album design cover and then placing them in record shops during the 1960s and 70s. Despite not officially creating music for a real record label, the artwork of Mike is something to admire, created using limited mediums such as crayons and colour pens, Mike produces very characterful and illustrative imagery. The imagination of Mike is child like, his approach to image making is humorous yet stylish and his character designs bode a for of inspiration for myself.
Album Covers
Record Cover Design
Having established enough research and inspiration to source from I began the production of my outcomes. To begin with I focused on the two seven inch album covers, I chose to not do a whole album because having two single albums enabled a avenue to express the four key musicians I selected to base my work upon, in a simple and not over shadowing context. The album Nigeria 70 is filled with an abundance of varied music that tells an important narrative to the music and culture of Nigeria during the 1970s, so in turn was a very good source to base my outcomes upon. After reviewing and analysing a series of visually stimulating album covers that I found interesting from a design point of view I began to sketch out rough drafts for mine own.
I had an initial idea to use collage, but I felt using photographic content on the album cover wasn't fresh enough as many of the design during the seventies contained this; so I opted for a more illustrative approach using inks and gouache. Using Africa’s rich content of meaning to colours, shapes and patterns alongside Nigeria’s genre’s of music to mix mediums, I played with combining different imageries together as well as balancing line, tone and colour. The final design plan I settled for resembles a sun, represented via various instruments and text laid out within its rays, the reason behind this is on hearing the album and learning the meaning and stories behind the lyrics and musicians I felt many spoke of a new Nigeria, and the songs themselves shifted not only Africa but the world into a new awaking musically, politically and culturally. With a design drafted I finalised imagery needed, scanned all the assets into Ps and proceeded to composite both covers. Building the covers up from the background I applied the edited and stretched text elements then placed the illustrated and coloured instruments to the sides of the cover. Lastly I generated imagery for the vinyl sticker, then with all components completed I finessed them by assembling them all into a mock up display, to highlight the final outcome.
On reflection of the two final covers I am very pleased with how they have evolved, I feel the subtle allude to a sun reinforces the provocative messages behind the music. A possible change I would make is playing more with the type, perhaps the end result is to squeezed and a flatter form might make it easy to reader, yet the styling of the text nodes to styling of the 1970s and the fashion of funk. I believe the experimentations into colour and pattern making, again suggest the culture of Nigeria and Africa but also supply an ascetically pleasing design.
Posters
With the two record covers designed and finalised, I turned my attention to producing the four accompanying posters. The function of the posters are to act as celebrated portrait's of Kuti, Onyeabor, Ade, and the Lijadu Sisters, the four influential musicians that I chose to feature on the records and as subjects to the posters. Within the posters I planned to subtly indicate various signs meanings and messages that I previously researched to tell the narrative of the music but also the cultural issues surrounding Nigeria in the 1970s. Playing with layout, context and shape I began drafting design ideas until I settled on four which I was satisfied with, I kept the planning process quite minimal and my sketches quite vain because I didn't want to restrict myself and let the design flow more naturally as it evolved.
I began constructing the posters by firstly drawing the portraits needed for the context of the posters, sourcing imagery of each of the four artists I then used coloured pencils for there textual use to creates final portraits. After then scanning them black and white into Ps I edited them all slightly to increase the depth and crop the composition, then printed them individually out A3, to later draw on the frames to each image. I decided to place each of the portraits within an illustrated frame because I felt it represented a hall of fame ambience, but also offered a space to experiment create the visual meaning through patterns, shapes and symbols. I completed the frames through the same process as the portraits, and with all the assets completed I went back into Ps and finalised the portraits and coloured them.
For the final stage I printed the posters out in black and white to then paint on with gouache, I chose to use paint to emphasise a more textual and tactile outcome but also to allude to the DIY way of creating that is notable within Africa and Nigeria. I am very happy with the resulting four posters, the portraits I feel are the strongest element , the depth created through expressive line and contrasting tone portrays a characterful and exciting image. The borders hold subtle meaning and narratives, for example within the Kuti poster the twenty seven circles and female emblem indicate the tent seven wives that Kuti married in one day, more subtle alludes to the cultural stories behind the music and its artists can be visible throughout the other three posters. I would like to develop the frames to be slightly more detailed just to add a more finer look and feel, additionally I want to further explore a different painting technique to increase texture. Saying that I still feel my four posters are strong and impactful illustrations that share context, narrative and meaning.
Overall I feel Nigeria 70 has been a successful project. Based on a interest and passion of mine this project has enabled myself to develop my own illustration style and approach. Through extensive research and inspiration I have learnt more about the subject of music in Nigeria during the 1970s, that in turn I feel has produced a series of strong, interesting and provoking works. I feel my outcomes work well as a set, the colours, styling and design between the posters and record covers bolsters continuity and an even flow of visually pleasing and satisfying imagery. Going forward I want to explore the content of music during Nigeria in the 1970s, perhaps evolving the subject matter into fashion and producing a garment; in addition to progressing my illustration style into something of its own. However ultimately I believe this project has progressed my working aesthetics, through exploration, experimentation and development I have built a better understanding of the impact that illustration and design can have on communicating provocative signs, meanings and messages.