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Behind the scenes | Rachel Goodchild
The design trailer
My husband, William Goodchild, is a composer for film and television, so when I asked him if he could create for me a signature soundtrack that I could use for a design trailer, he did just this and much more! My brief was for a cool 1950/60s-style track. Will ended up presenting me with a folder containing this main track plus seven variations. Each track has a full version, a short version and a sting. Each explores a different style unified by a single idea, so that I could use them going forward for different design projects. Although sounding completely different in style, the tracks are based on a cryptogram of my business initials, RGD (Rachel Goodchild Design).
Similar to when a designer creates a pattern repeat, the musical process is both creative, mathematical and technical. I thought that Will had created my pieces in a rather unusual way, so I asked him to explain the process ...
"Stylistically, Rachel wanted a cool jazz-infused instrumental track that called to mind the film scores of Lalo Schifrin, the finger-snap attitude of Bernstein’s West Side Story and the hard bop/ soul jazz sounds of Blue Note’s golden decade.
Rachel wanted the track to have a unique and catchy musical signature, one that would establish itself in the launch movie and then evolve with subsequent videos alongside the brand. For this signature, I created a cryptogram from the letters R G D, which gave three musical pitches: D G D (see chart and manuscript below). This three-note motif became the basis for the track, which we simply named, Cool.
Cool has a jazz guitar lead accompanied by vibraphone, piano, bass and drums. There’s an array of Latin percussion in there including shakers, congas, and those distinctive finger-snaps. The full track lasts 38 seconds. Cut-downs were always going to be useful, so I created a ‘short’ at 23 seconds and a ‘sting’ at 10 seconds. A range of RGD variations in different styles will be finding their way onto the videos, as new pattern ranges are presented".
The musical signature
MUSIC CREDITS
Music composed by William Goodchild
Chimp Empire - Netflix, The Letter - YouTube Originals, Surviving Paradise - Netflix
Music produced by Dan Brown
Will Young, Skin (Skunk Anansie), Massive Attack
Rachel Goodchild | Design Blog
Creating Pattern for Textile, Product, Home & Packaging
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