Album Cover Planning

Mike Turner

Inspiration:As a diverse music fan, I was able to generate ideas for my album cover over a wide sample source. My passion for R n B, Classic Rock, Hip Hop and Indie gave me the perfect platform in which to brainstorm what would make a successful album cover.

I was determined to mix the simplicity of past music albums with the artistic style/flare of a modern day cover.

Conventions:

Artist/Band Name

Artistic background – relates to previous genre albums i.e. Rock and Roll, hippie

Album title

Tracklist

Similar, interesting font on front and back covers

Record label/barcode

Atlantic Records

• Ed Sheeran – the writer of ‘Drunk’, which is the chosen song for my music video, is signed to the record label Atlantic.

• Atlantic are known mainly for their signings of R n B, Rock and Roll and Jazz musicians. Ed Sheeran is an acoustic/R n B artist therefore fits into this category.

• Other artists that are/have been signed to this label are Led Zeppelin, Wiz Khalifa, B.O.B., Bruno Mars and Cream.

First AttemptsJordan KieransCloud NineThis was my first

attempt at an album cover. I captured the simplicity I wanted when I first set out to make the cover, but the lighting and the background colour is not as eye catching as I first hoped. I therefore decided not to use this cover as it did not have the artistic style that I first hoped for.

2 very unexciting/non eye catching fonts. Do not relate to audience needs.

First Attempts

1. I am Who I am2. Picture Perfect3. Drunk4. Stroke of Luck5.KK6.High7. Jaeger For The Room8. 1 Euro9. Cloud 9

Again, for the back cover, I wanted more from the image. This did not achieve the model I was going for and did not work well as an album feature. This basically is just a picture of a musician on a bench and does not say much about the style of music. It lacks any real detail which is why it was not successful.

Fonts/Colours I tried to follow the conventions of

a music album when creating my product. I asked myself ‘are the fonts/colours significant to the music genre of my star?’

This is something I tried to incorporate in my media product. I thought the use of a tint for the album cover would be appropriate and a phsychedelic rear cover. This would enable it to be eye catching to the audience. Also, with it is a trend with Atlantic Records’ albums the have an artistic influence e.g. Led Zeppelin III pictured here.

I realised that my first drafts did not account for the needs/uses of my target audience. If I was to pull off a successful album cover, I would have to up my game and make some drastic design changes...

Front Cover: Back Cover/tracklist:

Simplistic design with artistic influence. The main tree itself stands alone, much like the artist who is a solo performer.

Graffiti style font – find common ground with audience. Stereotypically, younger generation tend to be the ones who find graffiti design interesting.

Psychedelic wood pattern design.

Record Label – promotion/brand recognition.

Tracklist in yellow – two colours purple and yellow compliment each other as they both make a statement on the piece by catching the attention of the audience.

Jack Daniels and converse/ typically consumed products by teenage/young adults audiences. This is good for the needs/uses of audience.

Promotion Poster:I tried to follow the conventions of most promotion posters in magazines.

In music magazines such as Q, they promote both the album and (if there is one) a tour of the artist so fans can watch them perform live. This was something I tried to include in my piece in order to tailor to the needs and uses of audience.

Advertisement of album ‘Cloud 9’ to help create a brand.

Praise from an independent organisation – this was something I used to try and ‘big up’ the artist.

Graffiti fonts from album cover – brand recognition.

Record label, also brand recognition and the fact that other popular artists are signed to that label could help promote Jordan Kierans as a star.