John Coltrane: A Love Supreme
Front of Dust Jacket
John Coltrane — A Love Supreme
Typography Level 2 — Book Project Final
About:
The final project for Typography — Level 2 class at the School of Visual Concepts Seattle. The project's task was to design a concept book conveying the meaning/artist's vision of an album from the top 100 albums of all time.- Title: John Coltrane: A Love Supreme
- Size: 7" x 8.5"
- Designer & Illustrator : John Owens
- Date: March 2018
- Software: Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop
While listening the album multiple times, sketches were created. From these inspiration sketches, a storyboard of the book was created and refined. Particular attention was devoted to the section spreads since these represented the sections of the album and were the visual bridge of the album tracks, the illustrations and text of the liner notes.
Pagination
The storyboard shown here is the final version with edits. These were the drawings that were used to create the master pages and style sheets. Blue pencil for edits and red pencil for overlays.
Section Pages
The rough sketches of the section pages (final draft) before proceeding to digital creation. The sketches were done on tracing paper to allow for layering experimentation.
Section Page Sketches, Pre-digital
Album Info.
John Coltrane: A Love SupremeLiner notes, John Coltrane A Love Supreme, Copyright The Verve Music Group, a Division of UMG Recordings, Inc.
- 1 Part 1 - Acknowledgment 7:43
- 2 Part 2 - Resolution 7:20
- 3 Part 3 - Pursuance 10:42
- 4 Part 4 - Psalm 7:05
- John Coltrane (tenor saxophone; McCoy Tyner (piano); Jimmy Garrison (bass); Elvin Jones (drums).
- Track 1: add Coltrane (vocal).
- Recorded December 9, 1964 at Van Gelder Recording Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey
- Original-LP issue: A Love Supreme
- Original recordings produced by Bob Thiele
- Original recordings engineered by Rudy Van Gelder
- Original-LP cover photograph by Bob Thiele
- Original-LP cover design by George Gray/Viceroy
- Original-LP liner illustration by Victor Kalin
- Tracks are in their original-LP sequence.
- Master numbers show the order in which the tracks were recorded.
The illustrations were inspired by the the quote below along with the idea of having an illustration represent each track. The illustrations were created with charcoal on 100% rag translucent marker paper then scanned and duo toned in Adobe Photoshop.
There was an unoccupied area in the house where we hardly ever went; sometimes a family member would visit [and] would stay there. John would go up there, take little portions of food every now and then, spending his time pondering over the music he heard. Alice remained busy with John Jr. and Michelle, her four-year-old by her first marriage. Eventually reappearing, Coltrane - normally deep in thought, preoccupied with musical matters - was unusually light hearted. It was like Moses coming down form the mountain, it was so beautiful. He walked son and there was that joy, that peace in his face, tranquility. So I said, “Tell me everything, we didn’t see you really for for or five days.” ... He said, This is the first time that i have received all of the music for what I want to record, in a suite. This is the first time I have everything, everything ready.”
This is a storyboard of thumbnails prior to French fold conversion. The file was created in InDesign, preflighted, and exported as a PDF. The spreads were printed at Fedex and left flat and untrimmed. The cover was prepared in separate file. I then folded the pages, added the overlay pages, and stacked pages for the binder.
Spreads
One of my favorite spreads. It shows several typographical elements of the book and use of negative space.
I chose this photograph because it shows Coltrane going about his daily life and was representative of the quote. From a design point of view, the photograph draws your attention first, then Coltrane's line of sight draws your attention to quote on the left.
Pages 15-16
During class critiques, the topic of using negative space and margins as part of the design was discussed. The header on this spread was used as an introduction of the religious undertones of A Love Supreme that were discussed in this section of the book.
Pages 21-22
Another one of my favorite spreads developed out of critique feedback. This spread references the role of religion plays in A Love Supreme using the negative space of the gutter.
Pages 43-44
The Dust Jacket
The dust jacket was printed on a Canon Pro-100. The jacket was prepared in four sections, each in its own file. By running the paper through the printer four times, I was able to take advantage of the ink’s transparency rather than have the software simulate the over print.
Completed Dust Jacket
Overall, a very satisfying project that resulted in a professional level, bound book (French fold) that reflects Coltrane’s inspiration.
Came up with great ideas. Embraced ideas taught. Final project beautifully executed both hand skills and computer skills. Worked hard. Willing to take on a challenge. Good conceptual thinker.— Jeff Barlow
The Takeaway:
One of the most challenging aspects of the project were that section pages. These went through multiple revisions to find a happy medium feel coherent with the overall design. The first ideation of these sections was thrown out. The time constraints of the project limited the further exploration of these sections pages. This is one area of the project that could be explored further.
In the course of working on this project, it forced me to refine my digital workflow. The power of InDesign style sheets, master pages and linking to external assets was critical in implementing the final design changes to the book. By being STRICT in my implementation of my pagination schematic, it allowed for design changes without re-work. In previous book projects, I might have been inclined to be a bit looser in implementation increasing the possibility of re-work in the final push for project completion.
John Coltrane: A Love Supreme Photo Credits:
Page 6: RECORDMECCA FINE MUSIC COLLECTIBLES, Los Angeles, CA, Photo “John Coltrane‚ A Mono ‘A Love Supreme’ 1st Pressing Impulse LP”.
Page 15: Gelderen, Hugo van / Anefo, Dutch National Archives, The Hague, Fotocollectie Algemeen Netherlands Persbureau (ANeFo), 1945-1989.
Page 24: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs & Prints Division, The NY Public Library. “John Coltrane” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1950 - 1979.
Page 28: Historic American Buildings Survey, Creator, et al., photographer by Elliott, Joseph. John Coltrane House,North Thirty-third Street, Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, PA.
Thirty-third Street, Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, PA. Documentation Compiled After Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress.
Text: Liner notes, John Coltrane A Love Supreme, Copyright The Verve Music Group, a Division of UMG Recordings, Inc.