Secret 7; John Lennon

John Lennon

Intention

Communicate peaceful and purity of track

Reference either Lennon or time era in some way

'peace' // 'hippie' vibes

Initial Sketches

I began sketching out some 70s inspired patterns and motifs given that was the decade the song was released. Found it felt very stale and obvious quite early on, tried moving onto some more landscape // nature based imagery but felt it was very distanced from the song. All felt too hectic for the purity that makes the song work so well so decided to narrow things down.

Most clear common conscious image attached to the song is one of Lennon. While researching found the photo of Lennon's glasses after his death, thought about how iconic the glasses were; how about turning them into a symbol of peace and hope that Lennon himself stood for.

Tried just the glasses motif but felt a little lost on their own so drew a simplified down version of Lennon's face with the peace glasses. This would be the focal point of the album sleeve but what about a background?

Drew out variations with 70's patterns and shapes. Looked at old Beatles covers for inspiration however felt this was over complicating the image; less is more! The song works because of it's simple purity and the artwork should reflect that.

Toyed around with adding the word 'peace' to finish off the image, sums up what both Lennon and Imagine is about but is it needed?

Development

Once I knew I wanted a pure image of Lennon on the front cover I began a process of redrawing his face to find the perfect expression//hair//glasses ect. This process of repetitive drawing also helped me find the best boarder and later in photoshop decide whether or not to include the word 'peace'.

Final & Mock Up

The text works with the image to make a statement; nothing else was needed visually as I feel it would have taken away from the image. The subtlety of hairstyle and rounded glasses gives the piece a 70's vibe without being overly floral and pattern based which would have conflicted too much with the feeling of the track.