THE TEMPTATIONS: THROUGH THE DECADES

As someone whose childhood was underscored by the soulful melodies of the Temptations and their Motown counterparts, I thought I knew every song produced by these guys. I was wrong.

The Temptations have an overwhelmingly large number of albums. A staggering amount of music has their name on it. Rightfully so, considering they have been producing music for over five decades. However, the majority of people know only a minuscule amount of their music. So, I embarked on a design project with the mission of educating people on the greatness of the Temptations.

GEARING UP, PAIRING DOWN.

Like I said before, the Temptations have produced a huge amount of music. Obviously, creating an album set of all of their music would be a massive, and an undertaking that I did not have a timeframe large enough to complete. So, pairing down was essential.

After listening to The Temptations on repeat (for a longer amount of time than I’d like to admit) and taking note of when their chart toppers topped the charts, I decided to create a set of three albums highlighting their hits from their most influential decades: the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s.

DESIGN CHALLENGES

The unification of three distinctive visual decades under one design style proved to be more of a challenge than I originally thought. It was important to the concept for each vinyl to represent the decade it features. I attempted representing the each decade through pattern. Way too busy. I tried using the typography specific to the decade. Not cohesive enough. Then I tried using imagery and things started to fall into place.

DESIGN STRENGTHING CONCEPT

Not only did imagery usage solve the visual design problem, it also strengthened the overall concept. The allure of The Temptations during the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s can be contributed to their stage presence: their fashion-forward identical suits, their precise yet understated choreography, their clean formations. All of these intentional performance choices heightened them to a superior level. Therefore, using their images from each decade gives the albums a weighty, almost biographical quality.

DESIGN SOLUTIONS

Image and type needed to interact and not just live on two different layers. It was important for the type to be bold enough to unify the albums, but it was also just as essential for the images to be unobstructed. Therefore, image filters and layer blending modes. Working with near complimentary color palettes, the type was able to be bold, graphic, and modern like I wanted. It also allowed for the type to contrast the images for easy readability while providing an unobstructed form of which the images filtered through.