'22' is an original song made in memory of the Manchester terror attack in 2017. It was written and produced by myself, and recorded by many musicians across Greater Manchester. I also took all of the photos and also took control of the art direction plus official artwork for the single release...
For the art direction with this project, I chose to use monochrome imagery as it best represents the loss felt in relation to the lives taken during the attack and all of those affected by the tragic events. I also used dark imagery as it more accurately shows the darkness felt directly after the events and in reflection. All of the promotional images have just instruments above a black background; this highlights the importance of music to Manchester's culture and how it was used to help the city recover.
When I created the artwork for the song, I made sure that it represented the song as I knew it would be the most important part of the photography or this project.
This led me to using a piano for the background. I thought this fit the song well, as most of it is led by a piano. I kept to the monochrome imagery used throughout the project, however this artwork is brighter than most of the other imagery. This best reflects the togetherness of the city after the events.
As the song is quite raw in its approach to remembering the events, I wanted to expose the piano. This artwork shows the strings and hammers inside the piano, which is a rather 'naked' look appropriate to the situation.
Finally, the text added is much simpler than most of the other creative decisions. The song title is prominently featured above the image of the piano, which was blurred to make the text easier to read.