f(x)’s “4 Walls” Album, Reimagined

f(x) is a Kpop group known for their electronic sound and unique visuals. Even for them, “4 Walls” was an interesting departure from their usual bright, energetic, and playful look / feel. The vague but also industrial feel, plus the color combo of orange and blue made me really excited to see what I could do with this art direction from one of my favorite girl groups.

I was heavily inspired by an image with a similar fold-out design online, and from there the ideas kept coming! Because of the music video and album / title song name, I felt like utilizing 4 walls / 4 rooms would be perfectly on-the-nose. I drew all of the rooms inspired by the kitchen, hallway, bedroom, and bathroom that are present in the music video.

I loved the logo and elements from the original album so much that I kept them in! I had them prominently displayed on the CD, and more discreetly on the bottom of the fully-unfolded album.

This project really challenged my creativity when coming up with the structure of how this album would fold out. It took a lot of trial and error (and with many, many mockups), but I’m so proud of the end result!

I created teaser images to build anticipation for the next project I was going to post on my Instagram, releasing them one at a time 3 days before. The strong orange and blue CD paired with the clean photoshoot concept hinted at the minimalist design style I chose for the album.

In 3 of the 4 walls I made pockets to house the CD and 12 leaflets that displayed the lyrics, credits, thanks, and concept photos.

I broke up the first 6 leaflets into having the clean, stylized photoshoot concept, like how the beginning of the music video is very light and almost sterile in comparison to the latter half. The second batch of 6 show the forest / outdoor concept to mirror the music video and the almost dream-like state it depicts.

You can watch the original music video on YouTube