Development

I began with the construction of my closing disco ball and some 80’s feeling type to sit over it. I experimented with a few different styles—some that were fully illustrated and then some that were mixed media. I ultimately settled on mixed media as that is a look that I enjoy greatly but have not had many chances to work with.

From there I took the track and edited it down to an easily digestible 20 or so seconds. The short version had four clear movements in it and was therefore broken into five sort of musical sections. Counting my end card as one, I knew that I’d need four more visual moments.

I started with the rainbow heart—because that what’s its really all about, isn’t it? From there I immediately made the visual connection between that shape and that of an upside pink triangle, a symbol that was once used by nazis to persecute queer people, but has since been reclaimed by the community. That triangle lead me to another triangle, that one being the triangle found on the left of the progress pride flag. The colored stripes on the right side were a rainbow hiding in plain sight, so I gave them the arch warp they needed to get there.

After building out my basic shapes, moments, and transitions. I moved on to stylizing each vignette in a unique way. I let the heart have a simple dark colored background to start things off basic and have that color wave in the heart be the focus. The upside pink triangle immediately made me think of 80’s memphis-esque design. That paired with the style of the music sent me on my merry little way to a tron-like digital grid. I wanted to give the progress flag a papery type edge to begin with and that made me think of a sticker, which is how I arrived at a ruled paper backdrop. And rainbows over peaceful rolling hills are the best kinds of rainbows which is how I arrived at that background—pushing the saturation over the top to sell the aesthetic even more.

References & Inspiration