Singer/Songwriter

Album Covers

Chloe Killin

Simple colour scheme;White, black, brown and blue.

Text is simple and thin, very common with this genre, doesn’t overpower the image of the artist.

The handwritten style for his name is to make it seem as if he has signed the cover making it more personal to each individual that buys it.

The photo has been taken from a low angle which is uncommon for this genre, but is effective here as it emphasises the fact that he is a solo artist that writes for himself/plays instruments himself. This idea is accentuated by the lack of props in the shot easily keeping the focus on him.

The windows here are very over-exposed to create essentially a white backdrop. This helps keep the attention on the artist by not having anything to look at elsewhere, but also the colour white has connotations with positivity and perfection.

The clothing choice is quite casual which is something his audience can relate to.

The typical Singer/Songwriter album cover features the artist in a fairly simple manner, often having their face central, sometimes with their main instrument or some sort of alteration; For instance, with the famous Ed Sheeran album “+”, it is just his face, but it has

been altered to white and an orange overlay, to make the image more striking and eye catching but still putting the emphasis on the artist to get the public familiar with them as much as possible to increase their popularity and record sales.

Some album covers focus more on catching the eye of the public and have illustrations relevant to the albums’ title, or have interesting bold pictures sometimes with some photo manipulation. One manipulated photo is the cover for “English Rain” by Gabrielle Aplin, where

she is running across a beach which is entirely back and white bar the umbrella she is holding onto, which has been altered to be multi coloured.

The text placement does vary but is rarely seen across the centre of the cover as this tends to be reserved for an image of the artist or avoiding ruining the artwork.

The most common placing for the artist name and album title appears to be central across the top or in a bottom corner depending on the image used. The text placement and font must complement the image or it will seem unbalanced and poorly constructed.

The colour schemes appear to be quite simple with quite a limited range of colours and shades. Blues and greens are fairly common as are pale and pastel colours. This gives them a soft and calm appearance, mirroring the genre of music and thus drawing in the appropriate audience.