Common The Light

"The Light" is the Grammy-nominated second single from the neo soul artist Common's 2000 album Like Water for Chocolate. It samples "Open Your Eyes" as performed by Bobby Caldwell. Creating this design I wanted to play on earthy colors like green and shades of brown with some grit. Since The Light is a love letter I wanted to set the typography of the lyrics to the song in script. The Light is sampled from Bobby Caldwell’s “Open Your Eyes”. I wanted to design a cassette tape with the sample title and place the tape in the design frame, along with a microphone and also adding the swinging light just as a play on the title of the song. Common’s Like Water For Chocolate album cover photo is 1956 Alabama by Gordon Parks, which is a photo of a young black woman in Alabama, dressed for church, and drinking from a "Colored Only" drinking fountain. Toward the end of this motion graphic video I wanted to use that black and white photo and then have it transition into color.