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The Outernet

Updated: Nov 21, 2020


Develop a concept for a visual Story that informs a new audience of how the heritage of Denmark Street is informing the potential of the Outernet as a cultural destination for the future.


Think beyond motion graphics/ animation and/ or film. Your story might be purely typographic. Use Data or even evolve through objects and artefacts.


You should propose how your story might be showcased utilising at least 3 different spaces within the Outernet site.


Advertising opportunities whilst entertaining the public.


Initial research on Denmark Street.


Post and share on padlet.


Melody Maker Magazine

The first such publisher to set up shop in Denmark Street was Lawrence Wright (who also composed under the name Horatio Nicholls), in 1911. He began in the basement of number 8 and after the First World War moved to 19 Denmark Street – which he named Wright House. Wright founded the Melody Maker magazine here in 1926, mainly as a vehicle to promote his own songs. https://worldradiohistory.com/Melody_Maker.htm



12 Bar Club


Save Tin Pan Alley

http://savetpa.tk/about/ The official site of the Save Denmark Street Campaign


The Bishop of Denmark Street

Sid Bishop - “There was no vintage collector’s market – that came later. So we’d buy an SG Junior for 50 quid and stick it on the wall for 95 quid. https://reader.exacteditions.com/issues/30418/page/99



Tin Pan Alley (1951)

"It's London's Tin Pan Alley - birthplace of melodies which have kept Britain singing in good times and bad."



The King of Denmark Street



Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones debut Album was recorded in Regent Sounds Denmark Street. https://www.regentsounds.com/blogs/news/the-rolling-stones-record-their-debut-album-at-regent-sounds








Melody Maker published By Lawrence Wright (& co) at Denmark St

The NME (or to give it its full title at the time ‘The Musical Express, incorporating Accordion Times’) and Melody Maker both had their early offices on the street, most of the major music publishing and management companies of the 50s and 60s were based there.

The paper was established in 1952. The Accordion Times and Musical Express was bought by London music promoter Maurice Kinn for £1,000, just 15 minutes before it was due to be officially closed. It was relaunched as the New Musical Express, and was initially published in a non-glossy tabloid format on standard newsprint. On 14 November 1952, taking its cue from the US magazine Billboard, it created the first UK Singles Chart, a list of the Top Twelve best-selling singles.

Denmark Street was used as a cultural hub for musicians to meet.

I want to use the outer net as a direct link to bring musicians together as Denmark Street Once did.

Published in Denmark Street, Melody Maker journeyed the street promoting and advertising musicians. They had pages dedicated to Bands looking for musicians, pages for advertising new and popular music and for music shops to promote their shop and new/ popular equipment.

Denmark Street was an influence of fashion trends over the years.

Being a hub for some of the most iconic musicians in the world, fashion was definitely a factor. People wanted to know what they were wearing, what was the trend, what their clothes said about them.


The Outernet




Notes from Meeting with Outernet


"If you give you will receive"

"Mass endorsement of the music heritage"

"Anyone who has talent within music"

Partnered with The Mill. Film Studios.

Broad Audience

The main canvas is designed for engagement.

LUMH Group

Relationships for all brands

Engaging videos between filling gaps for content suppliers

"Falling down and getting up again"

Largest Outdoor screen in the world.

Take Equity from History.

"Denmark Street is too important for history to keep".

Rush for positive change


"Charity is as, or more important than The Outernet"

"Success for The Outernet is making a difference to the world"

"Educate Giving"

"Purpose driven business"

"Make the World a better place"

"Platform for anyone who has talent within music"



Images from Denmark Street


I contacted as many businesses as i could find around Denmark Street to try an attain more inside information to the Street.

I also emailed around through the Save Tin Pan Alley Campaign and got no replies.

The only reply I received was from Regent Sounds.

They didn't show interest after this email, but it was interesting to get an understanding of how the people that work there feel about Denmark Street and what it has become.


Me and Jacob visited Denmark Street to talk to some people and get a stronger insight to the place.

Everyone we spoke to had a similar insight. The reoccurring theme was that it was a dirty place, full of parties, drugs and music. That it wasn't about the musicians that popularised it but the community that kept it alive.


I wanted to look more into the Melody Maker as i felt like this was a good route in terms of focusing on the community.

Using the Melody Maker's page of 'Let's Make Music' I got inspiration of using the Outernet as the central hub for Denmark Street just like Melody Maker was. Sectioning the Outernet into a physical Melody Maker opens up the opportunity to help promote music equipment, music teaching, musicians music, up and coming artists as well as hot music right now, a space for musicians to network with other musicians.


Also looking at artists such as Barbara Kruger as a potential visual identity..

The idea of using iconic Melody Maker images and Titles to tell the story of The Melody Maker Magazine.

Another Artist I am looking at is the collage style of Peter Blake, telling stories through using pieces of iconic pop art.

Also I really like the style of Elena Gayda. Who tells music stories through collage and Drawing.

1st Insight:

Melody Maker was the Musicians Mouthpiece and Bible.


Route 2:

Another route I am looking at is based on Sound.

Denmark Street is unique for the sound and feeling you got when you walked through the street at its peak.

I watched the award winning documentary film called "Tales from Tin Pan Alley".

One of the quotes that stood out to me was by Herbie Flowers, David Bowies Session Bassist. He said that "it was the street of sound, the sounds you heard and the feeling you got as you walked through Denmark Street was infectious".

In this Documentary they talked about The Beetles playing on the rooftops of Denmark Street and you could hear them doing a gig from above and every one would just stop and listen.



After speaking to some people when i visited Denmark Street they said that it wasn't just music, it was the parties, the conversations, the people, the noise.


I want to see how i can recreate the feeling of walking through Denmark street through capturing the sounds and visualising the sound in a way that would feel nostalgic or feel like you are immersed in the Street during the 70s.


Trying to understand how sound can be visualised i looked into some artists that do this and came across Martin Kilmas who visualises sound using paint. Here he visualised Sex Pistols - Anarchy.


Another Artist I have found is Page Hamilton who tells the story in art of playing the guitar.

He plays pieces of work using led gloves creating a photographic art using long exposure.



Mark Fishcher is an artist who records sounds and uses Spectrograms to visualise sounds of Aquatic animals. The series of work he did is called Aquasonic Acoustics. He takes the sound waves from animals and transforms them into a brilliant array of colors and patterns. Essentially, the series of produced mandalas configure what Fischer refers to as “the shape of sound.” He adds, “It's a kind of photography to me, with mathematics as the lens and the computer as the camera.”

Each hypnotic creation explores a visual sense of something that is meant to be an auditory experience.

Here is the sound of a White Beaked Dolphin, A Blue Whale and a Cerchio Humpback.

Looking further into spectrograms i came across The Great Animal Orchestra. At the Seoul Museum of Art, an exhibition of “Great Animal Orchestra” by Bernie Krause and United Visual Artists was showcased. It celebrates the work of Krause’s work, adding a simple but fitting and room-filling spectrogram to the recorded soundscapes, emerging the listener in sound, and being able to recognise the animals with visual cues.

I think this is an interesting way of visualising sound. Some other artists have also used spectrograms to turn images into sound which is another interesting way of looking at spectrograms, such as Aphex Twin's famous face image introduced into a visualisation of their song.


I came across an exhibition by an Artist called STANZA who introduced "Sound Cities"

Stanza encapsulated sound from the biggest Cities all over the world, placing a different sound on 300 different speakers and created visual imagery using maps and ink to showcase what the city Sounds and looks like. He placed the speakers around so people visiting the space can walk around and visualise what it is like to walk through each city.



2nd Insight:

Every Sound on Denmark Street has its own Story.


Route 3:

I found out that some of the most iconic album art ever made came out of Denmark Street such as Pink Floyd Dark Side of The Moon.

Upon looking further into this I found out about Storm Thorgerson was behind a lot of these pieces of work. I then found that in the 1970's Storm Thorgerson and his design partner Aubrey Powell opened up studios behind number 6 Denmark Street called Hipgnosis Studios. They went on to create some of the most recognisable album art. Hipgnosis Studio brought artists to Denmark Street and played a massive part in popularising the area.

I love the idea of looking at Denmark Street from a different perspective of music.


In 1968, Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell formed the design group Hipgnosis and were commissioned by their friends, Pink Floyd, to design the cover of their second LP, 'A Saucerful of Secrets'. The success of their design introduced them to more work for EMI and in 1970, they set up studio at No.6 Denmark Street. As well as being responsible for designing all of Pink Floyd's iconic album covers, including 'Dark Side of the Moon', 'Wish You Were Here' and 'Animals', Hipgnosis were highly sought after to add their own unique style to the work of others. Below is a list of their most well-known achievements:


- Led Zeppelin: Houses of the Holy, Presence, In Through the Out Door, The Song Remains the Same, Coda.

- AC/DC: Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap.

- Black Sabbath: Technical Ecstasy.

- Genesis: The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, Trick if the Tail, And Then There Were Three.

- Syd Barrett: The Madcap Laughs, Barrett

- Yes: Going For the One, Tormato.

- ELO: Electric Light Orchestra, ELO 2, On The Third Day.

- The Pretty Things: Parachute, Silk Torpedo.

- Peter Gabriel: I, II, III.

-Wishbone Ash: Argus

-10CC: Sheet Music, The Original Soundtrack, How Dare You!, Deceptive Bends.

- Paul McCartney/Wings: London Town, Venus and Mars, Wings at the Speed of Sound, Tug of War.

Researching these album covers I found artists reimagining classic album covers.








3rd Insight:

Some of the most iconic album covers of all time came out of Denmark Street.



1st Pitch:


I feel like my pitch went well. I got very positive feedback from my initial insights and ideas.


Feedback:

Marcus spent a lot of time giving me feedback discussing my ideas.

He felt that the strongest 2 ideas I had were The Melody Maker and The Hipgnosis Recreations.

As we discussed further he felt the route that was the most exciting was telling the story of Hipgnosis. Recreating the album covers with moving image and mixed media. He suggested the possibility of using the Outernets partnerships to recreate the album covers, but also having a low end on social media for everyday creatives to get involved with the project, he felt that there was an exciting campaign in the idea.


From this I decided to purchase a book to get more of an insight into the Hipgnosis project. I found a book called The Complete Hipgnosis Catalogue.

In this book I read more about hipgnosis and gained some insight into how they produced some of their album covers.


I want to make my project community based. Considering The Outernet want to give back and focus on creating a community and working for people rather than a money grab I want to try and connect people with the Outernet.


I decided to bring together some of the insights from the book that was provided. For Bad Company Straight Shooter Cover, Hipgnosis stated that Bad Company was looking for "A Western Look, Gun Slinger, Stetson Hats etc. Straight Shooter is a straight aim and a good roll of dice.

I decided to put this into a brief for myself to recreate the album cover.

So using a Western Based Font and a stock image of an old Western Revolver that tells many stories in its rotting core i thought that could encapsulate the story of a straight shooter in a Bad Company Recreation.


Another idea was to look at other definitions of straight shooter and it also means straight talker. Looking at the names of the songs they are about "Good Loving Gone Bad", "Weep No More", "Wild Fire Woman". I thought a dieing red rose could identify with both these things and tell that story. I also wanted to see if this could work with moving image.

I then wanted to try out some Cinema 4D to see if i could recreate an album in 3d.

I wanted to see if i could recreate the Dark Side of The Moon

I followed multiple tutorials to work out how to create different steps in the Dark Side of The Moon.

After making this i then added a camera movement to travel around the prism.

I then decided to put this on a loop.

I found a stem from the Pink Floyd dark side of the moon album and used the iconic heartbeat to add to the sound of the video.



This was a good trial to showcase how my idea could work.


Meeting with Derek


I showed Derek the work I had produced so far. During our discussion we spoke about how to pitch the idea the best way possible. We discussed that I could take 3 possible routes:

  1. My idea is that we have a month of Dark Side of the moon. Or a Month of Hipgnosis. What we do is send briefs out via social media. Crowd source briefs with a set of words reinterpreting using mixed media. Motion - photography. Ways to generate contact.

  2. My idea is to commission the best 3D animators to reinterprite the covers. Launch Film - brief - examples.

  3. Create a campaign film about launching Hipgnosis month. CALL TO ACTION! Series of stimulous briefs. over a month content showcased. Brief to top people launch film.

Derek also got me in touch with some Year 2's to help me with my project.

Unfortunately 2 of the guys were not available until December, but Marius said he can help me but his time is limited and has to finish a current project first. So i decided to get back to him after.


I went straight to brainstorming. I discovered i like the idea of the Hipgnosis month. I want to connect people through my project.

I want my project to have purpose and that is bringing together a community of people for creativity.

I decided that a good idea would be to have a social media campaign based on mixed media, to use a series album titles for briefs to crowd source and generate work from creatives..

I want to then top that off with a launch film about connecting Communities.

I then chose the most iconic album covers to come out of Hipgnosis Studio.

I contacted Marius and asked him if wanted to get involved with recreated one of the album titles. he said that he would be happy to if i give him a time frame so i gave him until next week Wednesday 11th November.

I then decided to choose 5 titles to reimagine.

I chose:

  1. Black Sabbath: Technical Ecstasy

  2. Pink Floyd: Dark Side of The Moon

  3. Bad Company: A Straight Shooter

  4. 10CC: Deceptive Bends

  5. Paul McCartney/ Wings: Venus and Mars

Testing:

I managed to crowd source some work out of the title Technicle Ecstasy.

Technical Ecstasy:

I then had to make more for each album cover to showcase how the idea can work using different styles.


Pink Floyd: Dark Side of the Moon:

Bad Company: A Straight Shooter:

10CC: Deceptive Bends

Paul McCartney/ Wings: Venus and Mars:



I then worked on how I could get this idea across in my pitch.

I haven't yet developed the visual language of the campaign.

I decided to write down my idea in a series of social posts to get my idea across in my pitch to Rob.


I then needed to work on how I can get the idea across further in a launch Film.

Using The Outernet's Video and the work i have produced i decided to put together a launch video.


What do people know about Denmark Street?

It is the mecca of british rock music


What do people not know about Denamrk Street?

Some of the most iconic album art was made there.


Denmark street already is doing a lot for the music industry.

I want to focus on bringing in the other communities surrounding that

whilst also showcasing a story from Denmark Street.


This will develop a mass amount of work for the Outernet to Showcase


"What distinguishes brands will be less important than what brings people together".

"Successful brands of the future care more about people, not branding".

Thierry Brunfaut, Base Design.


Every design entry can be devloped into an album sleeve, which can then be auctioned online

by the Outernet to gain money for their charity and exposure for the creator.


ACTIVATIONS:


I like the idea of having a table to showcase to passers by the original album covers and the story and listen to the music generated.


The Outernet are also big on Charity.

They said that "The Charity is as if, or more important than the Outernet".

Album Sleeves are synonymous with merchandise and the Outernet said they have T-shirt printing studio i.e he Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon is on T-shirts everywhere.

The money generated from selling t-shirts could either go to the charity or commission future work for the Outernet.

The Secret 7 did a similar piece of work, getting designers to reimagine famous songs as album sleeves to auction for charity. This is something that the Outernet could also look into.

Not only will this look amazing, we will be promoting the Outernet over a social media campaign, bring creative communities together, showcase up and coming talent and generate income for the Outernets charitable affairs or future commissions.


Pitch 2:


Script:


What do people know about Denmark Street?

It is a place that was favoured by British Musicians and is a street to

purchase musical instruments

And what people don’t know about Denmark Street?

That it was home for some of the most iconic album art of all time.

Before i go into my idea, i want to give an insight into some of the things

that the outernet talked about

They wanted to educate giving, they wanted a platform for connecting talent

and a business that was driven by purpose.

Thierry Brunfaut said what distinguishes brands will be less important

than what brings people together and this is what the Outernet want to do

they want to bring people together and how do they do that?

They have already created a platform for musicians and Denmark Street is

known for music

So I want to bring in this side of Denmark Street to celebrate the lesser-known

but consequently connecting more people.

So here is a list of some the most iconic album covers out of denmark street all

created by Hipgnosis studio

I then broke these down to 5 album covers

The big idea. A social media campaign. A whole month of hipgnosis.

5 iconic albums

Titles released once a week

For the creative community to reimagine in any way possible.

The chosen work to be showcased at the Outernet

Every design entry can be devloped into an album sleeve, which can then be

auctioned online by the Outernet to gain money for their charity and exposure

for the creator.

So the rules are simple...

And the results.... giving back to the community whilst connecting the community

lots of work for The Outernet to showcase in an Hipgnosis Takeover

and to have to feed on their screens over the course of time.

This is an idea than can be repeated once a year as their are

many hipgnosis album covers to work with.

So i took these 5 titles and gave them out for people to work with

and these where some of the results i got back "aswell as mocking some up myself"

Also work well with moving image

A physical application for people passing through to view the original album sleeves

and to listen to the albums

The Outernet also said there will be a place for printing t shirts which is a great activation

for album sleeves. Many artists drop albums then have one off designs on a t shirt,

which can also be sold at the Outernet for their charitable cause.

Which brings me on to auctioning the album sleeves for Outernets Charity. Which is something

that has deemed successful for the Secret 7 raising money for a homeless refugees charity.

And finally here is a launch film to summarise

Thank You.


Feedback from Rob:


Don't dampen the designs of the reimagined album covers. Present them in a way that you show the album cover then the reimagined cover.


Need another insight before going into idea.

Music now is so disposable

Making the art of music tangible again


Got me thinking that this amazing art has been born in this local area

and we want to keep the heritage of the art of music.

This is the branding of music

Bringing the presentation of music alive

Spotify now have brought music art to life

recognise the art

The importance and resurgence of music art

Both traditional and digital landscape


Then lead onto this area, Denmark street was a hotbed for music art talent

and we want to celebrate that with not just musicians through

the art but the artists that brought it alive as well.


Good Logic and structure

Poster on the wall.

What is the call to the action

Needs to be Super Cool


Not sure Hipgnosis Month is right, maybe base your campaign around REIMAGINE!

Language Around REIMAGINE

What is the look of that

How does that behave

What does it look like?

REIMAGINE TYPOGRAPHY

Animation that just keeps getting reimagined

Sell it in a seductive way


NEEDS A VISUAL LANGUAGE.


Notes:


Robs feedback was very helpful for me. I was struggling with how the campaign will look and taken the turn on the name of the campaign and focusing on the word reimagine rather than Hipgnosis Month should be easier to develop my visual language.


From this I went on to trialling and testing visual language around Reimagine.

I wanted to try and recapture how I would use reimagine different ways.

I went on to looking at the typography from the album covers and looking at collage styles to recreate this.








I decided to play around with some type to see how i could play around with the word reimagine.


Another Visual Language I have thought about is based on a "Blank Canvas" <Insert Art Here> approach.



Meeting with Derek:


Feedback:


The Collage style doesn't feel right.

The Blank Canvas approach works well.

Get your idea across in one image!

reimagine famous album covers through the technology of the outernet

5k crazy 500 ft album cover recreations.

for example reimagine famous album cover artwork

through the medium of the outernet

show some stuff

different themes,

different artists


hipgnosis week

themese


album artwork that has a connection to Denmark Street

Different Themes

David Bowie Month

Hipgnosis Month

Punk Month


Merchandising etc


Future Facing element - Money that is generated through merchandising funds

an artist a designer a recording artist every month - charity - creative studio - chosen

artist works for a month - first commission


Use the past to give a step up to people in the future.


Get that to finished pitch for next week.


Notes:


Really good discussion with Derek. I feel I have a good idea on how to structure my pitch.

I am going to expand on the visual language through the blank canvas approach.

I will focus on the campaign under a new name "Recreate Me..."


Started by using the words on blank album cover and turning it into a logo.

I decided to use Futura. A clean Bold San Serif Font.

I then decided to attempt a colour burst. I used ink dropping in water and played around the colours.

I then decided to use a burst of colour and iconic album sleeves bursting out of the plain album sleeve.

I really like how this one looks and i feel this gets the idea of the image across well.

I then decided to make a poster to showcase a different layout.

Moving on from here I am looking at how the social media campaign could look if i still use the 5 iconic album covers.

I'm unsure of using the 5 iconic album covers.


Instead of doing themes of different artists I am going to stick to Hipgnosis Month.

I will release an album cover of Recreate Me on one side and a list of album titles of covers on the other side. The campaign will run over a month and produce a series of large series of work.



SPACES IN THE OUTERNET.




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