Secret 7" // Initial ideas

From listening to the song and studying the lyrics and the music video that accompanies it, I did some sketches to get the ideas flowing.

• Red, blue and yellow are the main colours used in the video - using these colours could give the design more context.
• there is a clear theme of a gorilla, bananas and basketball - how could these be used?
• 3D type that spells out his name is used on the basketball shirt of 'Trevor' (the new guy) the gorilla, I thought it looked cool and could possibly lead to something.
• one of the lyrics is 'wait 10 years we'll be together' - could something come from this?
• 'the less I know the better' - a locked box with a padlock could signify that the details need to be locked away from his sight.

I started creating thumbnail sketches based off of my own interpretations that are not to do with the video.

1. hands covering the face signifies blocking out the details about his ex lover with her new interest. How could this be done creatively? This idea could be done well if the medium was colourful and individual.
2. (across) the skeleton is a symbol for waiting '10 years' for her to become available, as is mentioned in the song. This is a humorous idea that depicts how ludicrous and long it would be to wait for someone for so long. 
3. The eyes are the singer and the stairs depict how the girl is flaunting her new found happiness; this shows she is surrounding him and stepping around and over him.
4. Similar idea; the new couple are being flaunted and he is sinking lower out of sadness and jealousy. He is powerless.
5. -
6. Teardrops slowly turning into a basketball - his sadness and 'Trevor' are intertwined - Trevor is a basketball player in the video.
7. Similar to the previous ideas - She is walking away from him, moving upwards in her happiness while he is stuck in the same place.
8. Out of the eye sketches, I think number 7 - The rest don't have great composition.

I have gone on to come up with some more thumbnails - with a focus on themes from the music video. All through the video there are themes of basketballs and round shapes:

I wanted to take inspiration from this and create something based off these findings. In the video, Trevor the gorilla who takes his girlfriend is a basketball player and the basketballs are used throughout as a symbol of jealousy.

2. The basketball is centre, with flickers surrounding it. I was thinking about the concept of the basketball being the world, meaning that the girl being with Trevor has taken over his thoughts, and it seems like his whole world. Trevor has a power over him.
In this thumbnail, it's not clear that the basketball is meant to be a planet, so it is a little unclear what the basketball is representing by floating in the middle of the sleeve.

3. I have taken this concept further by creating a solar system around the largest ball - making it a sun, as in the solar system the planets orbit the sun. This steps up the concept by making Trevor and the girl his whole world and more. He can't get away from them or get her back.

4. I changed the layout of the solar system and made it central - which makes it clear and bolder.

I have also experimented with the use of bananas, which are used in relation to Trevor in the video - using the three main colours. I think it makes for a cool visual, but it lacks a little context.