MUKESH AMARAN
ALBUM
ARTicle
MALLIKA
IYER
Hello, a little bit about yourself and your background in arts and music?
Design is my passion that I turned into my profession but
music is my first love. Since 3 years of age, I started learning
how to sing. I have learned different genres like Carnatic
music, Indian light classical, Hindustani classical and
western light music. I am a communication designer and a
graduate from NIFT, Mumbai and am currently working as
a user interface and user experience designer in a start-up.
At this point in your career, what role did music have
to play in you getting to where you are?
Music has always exposed me to a creative dimension. I
was never a picky listener; I could appreciate any genre
of music because they are all so different. I would love to
listen to Indian gazals as well as death metal. This openness
helped me have a wider and autonomous perspective
towards my clients while designing something for them.
Tell us about your collaboration with a client from
conception to creation and the end product.
When “The Iyer Project” approached me to design the
album art for their debut album called “ The epiphany
of being sane”, I was fascinated by their genre of
music which is Alternative Carnatic rock.
If you listen to their songs it will automatically make
you move your heard with the rhythm of the songs.
This album was their great revelation as a result of them
maintaining their sanity and sticking together as a band all
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these years. When they told me this I had a fair idea of what
I wanted to design for their album cover. The use of scribble
lines that make the faces of the band members was to represent
the sanity of the band amongst the chaos of the scribbles.
Tell us a little bit about the process that is
involved in making a piece by Mallika.
I generally try and understand what the user wants to convey
and try to showcase that. I am there to communicate what
they want with my designs and the best way to do that is
to use my creative skills and step into their shoes to come
up with the end product. Empathising with the customer
generally gives me a wider perspective on what will or will not
work. Art is just visual but the design is to make something
visually appealing that simultaneously solves a problem.
How is creating an album art different from creating any other?
Honestly, it is not that different. The process is the same
but the approach might be different. While making
album art, we need to make the art synchronise with
the music. The end result of any design is to create
an impact on the user with the design, be it branding,
user interface design and even album art.
Tell us about your art style and the concepts behind your artworks.
I love working in vectors, a bit of illustration and
bold typography. But then again in a creative field,
the style keeps changing with the trends.