Getting the Vibe Right
So, I was just chilling, right? Had A$AP Mob radio on shuffle, and “Peso” came on. Man, that track still hits. And it got me thinking about that whole early A$AP aesthetic, especially the ‘Live. Love. A$AP’ mixtape cover. Not that I wanted to rip it off, nah, but I just felt like making something with that feel, you know? That raw, kinda grainy, cool vibe.
First Attempts – A Bit of a Mess
My first thought was, okay, black and white, easy. But just desaturating a photo? Looked flat, boring. Didn’t have that edge. I tried messing with some phone apps, slapping on filters. Some were okay-ish, but it felt… cheap. Not what I was going for. It’s like trying to make a gourmet meal with just a microwave, you get me? It just wasn’t hitting the mark. I was getting a bit frustrated, to be honest. Thought maybe I just didn’t have the eye for it today.
Digging In – The Real Work
Then I remembered I had this old scanner tucked away in a cupboard. And a whole stack of old magazines and newspapers I kept for no good reason. I thought, what if I try to build something physical first? Like a collage, but real gritty, something you could almost touch.
- I started tearing out textures – bits of concrete photos, aged paper, anything with a bit of tooth to it, you know, stuff that looked like it had lived a life.
- Then I looked for images, not necessarily of people straight up, but things that felt like the city at night. Streetlights bleeding out, a bit of motion blur, that kind of stuff.
- I wasn’t too precious about it at all, just ripping and sticking things down with some old glue stick, overlapping them without much thought. It was a proper mess on my desk for a while, papers everywhere.
I also took some new photos, real quick and dirty, just walking around my neighborhood later that day. Nothing fancy, just trying to capture a mood. It was an overcast day, which helped, gave me some stark shadows. Used my phone, didn’t even bother digging out a proper camera. The imperfections were part of it, I figured. The more raw, the better, for this project.
Bringing it to the Screen (Sort Of)
Once I had a few physical bits and pieces I vaguely liked, and those quick phone snaps, I scanned them all in. I pushed the contrast hard on the scanner settings, really trying to get deep blacks and blown-out whites. Then I started layering them in this free image editing software I have on my computer. Nothing pro, just basic stuff really, but it does the job for messing around.
This is where it got interesting. I wasn’t just placing images next to each other. I was playing with all those blending modes, you know, like ‘multiply’ and ‘overlay,’ trying to make the scanned textures really merge with the photos. Making it look like it was all one piece, even though it was a jumble of different elements. I also added some digital grain too, a lot of it, to try and get that filmic, slightly degraded look. I wanted no sharp, clean lines. Everything a bit fuzzy, a bit worn out, like an old poster.
The ‘Purple Swag’ Moment
For colors, I was thinking mostly monochrome, keeping it stark. But then I remembered how “Purple Swag” had that distinct visual, that hit of color. So I thought, maybe just a hint of color. Not a lot, nothing bright. I tried a few things, a dark blue, a deep, dirty red. But then I landed on this really muted, desaturated purple, almost grey, really. Just a tiny splash of it in one corner, or as a very faint overlay on one particular element. It just… clicked. It gave it that little something extra without overpowering the black and white feel. It was like finally finding the missing ingredient in a recipe you’ve been struggling with for ages. That little touch made a big difference to me.
Was it Perfect? Nah. Did I Dig It? Yeah.
Look, the thing I ended up with isn’t gonna win any design awards, not by a long shot. It’s not a perfect copy of anything, and it wasn’t meant to be. But it felt right, for me. It had that mood I was chasing from the start. It was a bit rough around the edges, a bit homemade, but that was the whole point, really. Sometimes you just gotta get your hands dirty and make stuff, you know? It’s more about the process of trying to capture a feeling than making something technically flawless. I spent a good few hours on it, just messing around, experimenting, and honestly, it was pretty satisfying to see it come together from a bunch of random ideas and actual paper scraps. I’d probably do a few things differently if I tried it again, but hey, that’s how you learn, right? Just glad I gave it a shot.