Album Artwok

Final Album Cover and inlays

This is the final front cover for our album digi pack, continuing below in order in front inlay, back inlay and back cover and CD

Album cover initial ideas

This is our first edit for a album cover it is only rough hence the lack of content on the back cover

The back cover is pretty much black but there is glow off of the newspaper and takeaway which gives a nice effect, most of the left side will be covered in things such as the track list and at the bottom it will have the age rating/barcode etc

CD Analysis and Conventions

This is my CD artwork analysis and the conventions of the front and back of the slipknot album - Wait and Bleed all of the of the conventions are explained in the picture tomorrow and below that are 2 images of an analysis of the front and back cover.

Album Cover Types

This document was made on Issuu and it is a E-Magazine for album cover types, this explains what the common conventions are in a certain types of album covers and it also has a small analysis of each cover

Codes and conventions of our chosen genre

Album Cover: Creation Equipment

For the photo shoot we will have to take equipment to the set of our music video, this equipment will contain a Cannon EOS 550D Camera mounted onto a Manfrotto Tripod, to find the correct lighting for the photo shoot we will be using a broken lamp which will use be in the shot, the editing software we will be using when we've taken the photos will be Adobe Elements and Photoshop.

 

Album Cover Textual Analysis

Biffy Clyro – Only Revolutions

Biffy Clyro’s ‘Only Revolutions’ album cover predominantly uses the image to suggest themes of diversity within culture. The image shows a man facing a seemingly robotic female. This not only suggests cultural differences but sexual diversity as well. The fact the female figure is shown to be robotic suggests a controlled civilisation whereas the human male figure could connote freedom. It is clear the two subjects in the image have no civil relation, as each of them carries a large coloured cape (women with red and man with blue). The red suggests a typical genre of evil and can be related to the idea of conforming to political views and social stereotypes (becoming a robot), whereas the contrasting blue colour carried by the human male suggests a sense of calm and rebellion. Although the size of the capes attached to the two characters are of similar size it would appear that the civilisation that relates themselves with the red flag could be more powerful. The fact the robotic female stands in the way of the fire, suggests citizens must conform to social stereotypes to make any kind of advances.

The back cover for the album ‘Only Revolutions’ shows all typical codes and conventions a back cover should have, with a bar code and copyright/ distribution information and the list of songs on the album. 

The imagery shows a green cape with the person it is attached to out of shot. This suggests a third party to the two rivals previously seen on the front cover and could in fact represent a society that is a balance between the two, although you can see a corner of the red cape on the right hand side. This suggests that the green civilisation has surpassed the rivalry and is advancing beyond the point of fire being seen in the picture.

Nirvana - Nevermind

The front cover of Nirvana’s album ‘Never mind ’ predominantly uses imagery to display ideas of consumerism. The cover also uses elongated text for the bands name, which allows it to be more visual. The “NEVERMIND” text underneath has been edited to appear wave like. The imagery shows a baby completely submerged in the ocean alone, this idea represents the world that younger generations will be raised in (easy for the picking). The fact the baby’s focus is completely revolved around the money on the fishing line shows that consumerism is already luring him in, and as he has not yet developed intuitive thinking skills he has no other choice but to ‘take the bait’. 

The back cover for the album ‘NEVERMIND’ shows all typical codes and conventions a back cover should have, with a bar code and copyright/ distribution information and the list of songs on the album. 

It also displays the image of a baby with a rat’s body surrounded by burning coals. This has religious meaning and suggests that if children are raised to do nothing but consume they could end up in hell or be seen as nothing more than a rat in the eyes of society.

Adele - 21

Adel’s album “21” uses a black and white portrait style of imagery to establish a tiring and emotional mood within the artist. The fact her eyes are seemingly closed with her head rested on her hand could connote not only tiredness but also disappointment. These two moods go well with the artist in general as her songs usually display these two emotions. The font of the text is thin and large, making it appealing to look at and associate with the artist. The 21 is the only thing in colour within the image. The vibrant green of the 21 contrasts with the mood of the rest of the cover, and could be trying to state that no one as young as 21 should typically feel this way.

The back of Adele’s album contains barcode / songs list / copyright and production information. This is typical of all professional and legitimately made album covers. The back cover is also in black and white, which once more sets the mood for the person buying the album. This time Adele is looking into the camera, as if looking at the customer. Noticeably you can still see the tiredness and disappointment as she glares.



What Makes an Album Cover?

An album is unique in every way, in which you will probably never find two that are exactly the same. This means that there are various things that contain differences.

•      Firstly the actual cover (front). The front of the album cover is the artists’ sale point. Any logo or symbolic figure that can be associated with the artist will be there, possibly even an edited picture/drawing of themselves.

• Secondly the back cover will often contain information about song listings that are on the actual CD and possibly another relevant picture to the band or album name.

• Thirdly the spine that connects the back and front (if there is one) will often have the name of the band and the album name.

• Fourth is the small book most albums have clipped onto the inside of the case. These often contain anything from lyrics, personal messages to fans, artwork and future gig line-ups/contact information.

• Finally is the most important thing, the disk. The disk will often have the band name and album name on it, followed by general copyright information and possibly some graphological features.

 As you can see these albums cleverly either use a bright or creative scheme to attract attention. But nonetheless, the things that come with the album must conform to the bands style and genre.


The designs examples I have chosen show a mixture of complicated and non-complicated but as it stands I feel we will go for something less colorful than the album to the left. This will be to link the genre of the band and music with the design of the album.

 

For the booklet we will need to think of not only the writing and structure but also if we want it to have any folds, or even make the booklet contrast with album cover colors to make it stand out.

The booklet contains lyrics. This is important for the artists fan base to help them learn and sing along with the songs. This allows fans to be acquired faster because the public will be able to read and understand the general message the band is trying to put forward.

This is the average size of a regular album cover and will be what we are aiming to make. We have to be considerate of these minor details as they can be the difference between a good looking final cover and a bad one.

Album cover questionnaire

We've created a questionnaire for the audience that we surveyed previously about the music video, this survey will contain information on album covers and album artwork, along with an in depth analysis of the entire survey.

This question is important and key to the questionnaire because if no one that we surveyed actually bought albums,then the rest of the the questions wouldn't be necessary and it would waste time.

This question isn't as important compared to the others, mainly because it doesn't directly help us, all it tells us is how many people buy from their favourite artist and the only help that would be to us is we would know roughly how motivated people are to buy albums instead of downloading them.

This question is also very important to us because if an album cover isn't interesting enough people could possibly not look twice at our album and in turn not buy the music or watch the music video.

  For this question we showed each person four album covers by different artists with different album artwork cover styles, the example and the album are Example - Playing in the Shadows, 

Foo Fighters - One by One, The Script - Science & Faith and finally Paolo Nutini - Sunny Side Up, these four are different styles, Portrait, Black and White, Text and Illustrative.