Daft Punk Album Cover

This is a conceptual project.

My album cover is inspired by Daft Punk's 'Technologic.' The initial step in my process involved analyzing the song to grasp its design context. The lyrics only consist of common computer commands (copy, print, format) that are typically, but not always, followed by the word “it.” The song features an electronically transposed voice that chants these commands, enhancing the titular ambiance of being “technologic.” This song was created in 2003 which coincides with the early technology boom that gave us PCs, iPods, and camera phones. 

With these considerations in mind, technology firmly established its presence in the modern age through digital devices essential to society. It can be argued that humans became dependent on technology, automating once tedious tasks with the touch of a button. As a matter of fact, these tasks are performed a multitude of times throughout the day without the mental strain. These computer commands aren’t tangible, but they make a powerful, invisible entity that feeds into our consumerist society that is dependent on technology. 

These findings narrowed my decision to design a cover that demonstrated a domineering and retro (connotative) aesthetic while also sticking with the old technology and simple commands (denotative) style that is representative of when the song was released.

I opted for the CF LCD 521 typeface, commonly used in digital displays, due to its association with technology. The characters did not have the same width, and because I wanted the composition to have a modular appearance, I manually adjusted the width to make it monospaced. Each row had 22 characters (including spaces).

In the lyrics, verbs are paired together, with the 'second' verb always having 'it' appended. The first verb of the pair is left-aligned, while the second verb is right-aligned. However, the 'it' from the second verb column drew attention away from the lyrics. To address this, I allowed it to 'bleed' to the other side, creating a design that can be tiled.

The final touch to this was using colors that are representative of early technology. To evoke the early technology aesthetic, I used 'pure' red, green, and blue hexadecimal values. The background simulates dark green computer screens with horizontal bars, enhanced by a noise filter.