Milton Glaser is a huge figure in both the history and world of graphic design. He is well-known for his illustrated posters and album covers. Among his most prominent works were his stylistic interpretations of public figures, which includes his famous 1966 Bob Dylan poster that was included in Dylan’s “Greatest Hits” album. His artwork involved creating silhouettes of public figures and using signs or symbols as a way to exemplify certain aspects of the profile. His art style has since been interpreted, replicated and parodied by artists around the world.
In my homage to one of Glaser’s most notable works, I used his stylistic technique to create my version using singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. Not only is the 31-year-old one of the most awarded songwriters of our time, she is also a political activist, feminist and supports more than 60 charities and causes combined.
Though there are millions of photos of her online, it did take a while before I was able to find an exact profile of her so I could create her silhouette. Once I found it, my next step was using my knowledge and research of color theory to select a few different color schemes that I could then use for the homage. I ultimately decided that the three color palettes I chose would be representations of three of her albums.
As a way to connect the three variations, I started with the first piece and used the purple from the first as the base color for the second, then used the gold from the second piece as the tone for the third. My end-results are as follow:
My inspiration for the first variation of this piece was her Lover album. She used pastel colors and a lot of light pinks, purples and blues. It looks like what love is supposed to feel like, which is what I worked to recreate. I wanted to ensure that the color palette did the album justice and used the color scheme generator Coolors to find five colors that personified the album. I used Pink Lavender (which is a light shade of purple), Orchard Pink, Nadeshiko Pink, Uranian Blue and Baby Blue Eyes. According to the article “The Fundamentals of Understanding Color Theory,” cool colors are often identified with calm, peace and serenity, which is what this color palette conveys.
The second album I chose was Speak Now, which utilizes a variety of purples and golds. Both colors are often connected to nobility and are a mix of warm and cool tones. This is a complementary scheme, which is created by combining colors from opposite sides of the color wheel. These schemes will often consist of only two colors, but can use additional shades of the same two colors, which is what I did with this variation. In the article “Color Theory for Designers, Part 3: How To Create Your Own Color Schemes,” author Cameron Chapman offers a warning when using a complementary scheme as using colors that are exact opposites can sometimes be visually jarring, but can be avoided with transitional colors, which is why I used white as the stroke.
The final version comes as an homage to her Red (Taylor’s Version) album. This album is the epitome of the fall season, which is why I wanted to use cool tone and autumnal colors. The fall is often associated with browns, dark blues and rust colors, which is the color scheme used in this version.
This homage to Glaser was incredibly rewarding as I was able to practice my skills on Adobe Illustrator, while also using what I’ve learned about color theory to create a collection of pieces on one of my favorite artists. Selecting these palettes involved a significant amount of time to ensure they were each able to evoke a certain emotion, which is the power color has in the art world.
References
Chapman, C. (2010, February 8). Color theory for designers, part 3: How to create your own color schemes. Smashing Magazine. Retrieved February 13, 2022, from https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/02/color-theory-for-designer-part-3-creating-your-own-color-palettes/
Decker, K. (2020, July 7). The bold, bright truth about color theory. 99designs. Retrieved February 13, 2022, from https://99designs.com/blog/tips/the-7-step-guide-to-understanding-color-theory/