AURENE
So yes, I put out another album. October 26th 2016, my 21st birthday, I released AURENE. I basically started the project around February, and it turned out to be 9 tracks long plus one bonus. Keep reading to see how the branding went down.
So here’s the album art for AURENE. In terms of the inspiration for both it and the album as a whole, I looked at aurora borealis photography, neon signage, infrared imaging, and iridescent materials, namely, the aurene glass used for a series of vases. Inspirations will be shown later on in the gallery.
AURENE, album cover.
I took the photo of myself with my brother’s camera - placed it on some table outside, and posed in my backyard... Photoshop’s great.
Then there’s the AURENE logo itself. I went threw I few ideas, but I ultimately wanted something readable, simple to create, and still symbolic.
Let’s move on to the individual song cover art. For the intro track on the album, Silhouette, I wanted to do a variety of things:
immediately show how dark and lonely the album feels.
reflect the light/color theme shown in the album
hint at the elusive girl mentioned in the song (there’s a reason, not just because I think Kelsey Calemine is cute)
This was also one of the first images i made after I decided that the album was going to have light/color inspired themes.
Silhouette, track 1.
Even before I had decided any of the branding for AURENE, I made the cover for Umbra. In a way, it kind of informed the direction I was going to go with the album - I knew it’d be darker, for sure. I really enjoy the semi-infrared look it has.
Umbra, track 2.
The image came from a series of webcam shots.
For Infrarojo, I wanted to go for the same loneliness and darkness the Silhouette cover had, but while also, of course referring to the time theme. I ultimately went a clock with the AURENE logo over it. Of course, I had to feature Kelsey Calemine once more, this time, with a color gradient that in my head is reminiscent of infrared imaging.
Infrarojo, track 3.
Now for 1, since it’s a song about being alone (in part) and greatness (in part), I wanted to kind of show “company,” except, it’s a room full of me. Maybe I’m so great, I fill up the room... and there’s room for no one else.
1, track 4.
Alright, so, Eigengrau was AURENE’s single, and I honestly kind of just threw the cover together because I was bored. In terms of the “feel,” I wanted it to invoke the sense that it’s some old album artwork.
Eigengrau, track 5.
You’d never guess how I got Chiaroschuro’s cover art to look like this. Sure, the color wind/distortion seems simple, but the background, lol; it’s actually a water texture. I really liked this effect I saw, I reproduced it, and knew how I’d fit in. I feel it makes me look pretty lonely.
Chiaroscuro, track 6.
Here’s the original image.
For Ultravioleta, I originally wanted to go for the infrared look, but ended up in favor of showing elements of the rainbow. It all really came from seeing a great picture of Perrie Edwards and loving her shades - I just went from there.
Ultravioleta, track 7.
Here’s the original image.
Now for Advesperascit, I did end up doing the infrared look, and got a little experimental with how the letters in the title were arranged.
Advesperascit, track 8.
As you can probably tell, I was just posing my a set of stairs in my house.
Iridescent was another one of those covers that I had actually started way before I knew I wanted to make another album. I was inspired by a beautiful Instagram post of Bryana Holly - I knew I just had to make a song that captured the happiness it gave my eyes.
Iridescent, track 9.
Finally, the bonus track: END/AREA. I’m a big Mega Man fan, and one of my favorite games is Mega Man Battle Network 5. I was a Team Colonel guy, so when I first heard the SSBeats/Stylez-T produced beat, I knew the cover had to feature Colonel in some way.
END/AREA, track 10.
I based off some alternate concept artwork and simply made it look more like what the actual form turned out to look like.
Now that we’re done with the tracks, let’s take look at the tracklist!
I actually made the tracklist image before I had an idea for the album's cover art. I took an iridescent cloth texture and added some light leaks
Here’s the SoundCloud banner for the album’s launch.
I wanted to make sure the album’s logo would work in a variety of settings.
It’s crazy to think how something so celestial matches with something as...
...man-made as this aurene glass vase. Yes, this is the major inspiration for my album - a friggin’ vase.
Anyway, let’s focus on some of the promotional material now:
For the album’s teaser trailer, I worked on creating a special animation for the AURENE logo. It creates the triangle in the A first, like a prism, which emits a light on the right side which creates the circle around it. Reason being, I was extremely inspired by the Dark Side of The Moon cover art.
I also originally wanted to release END/AREA as the album’s single, so when advertising that a single was on the way, I themed it after that song.
Here, I used in game map sprites for the actual End Area.
And here I took some Mega Man Battle Network 5 promotional art and heavily distorted it.
But way before I was even ready to announce any singles, before I really knew what the album would “look” like, I was playing around with different art styles.
Neon signage A.
Infrared A.
Chiaroscuro A.
And lastly, the first promotional piece I made - banner for the song Umbra, which took the colors from the cover art and used them sparingly. Thanks for reading! Make sure to check out the album below!