Final album cover

Miss Lecointe

We created the album cover on Photoshop. We took the pictures separately behind a green screen, then we used Photoshop to cut the band members out and put them in the background of a theatre. We decided to use simple colours such as black and white to make the album cover look professional and clear to understand.

For our final product we decided to add notion of looking from Goodwin’s theory. The lead singer at the front is looking at the camera. This may make the audience feel connected with the singer from the eye contact. Therefore the audience may be attracted to buy the album as they feel close to the band. The drummer is looking at the popcorn. Because he is looking at the popcorn, we too will look at the popcorn. By the guitarist looking away suggests there isn’t much connection with the audience as much as the lead singer.

The title of the band is at the top of the album cover as it’s the most important feature of an album cover. The band name is larger than the album name because this is more important; through their career, the album names will change but their band name will stay the same. As it’s at the top, people will notice this first.

In the end we decided to use this font for the album cover because we thought this gave an original/ creative edgy look overall. These are some of the values of music stardom according to Dyer’s Star Theory. I chose to use a bold font for the band name because I want our audience to be able to read it clearly. As this is an important piece of an album cover, I want the audience to easily recognize the name so they will remember it more. We thought by using the same font in the band name and the album name would make the album look more professional as different fonts would make the album look cheap. We decided not to use the hand-written font for the album name because we thought this would be too feminine and as most of our target audience are male from our research, we want them to be attracted to buy our album.

We decided to chose the colour white for the band name and the title of the album because it contrasts with the black background making it more noticeable and clear to read.

The location of our final album cover is in a theatre. We chose this location because it fits the name of the album. This location complies with Dyer star theory. The ‘stars’ are ordinary as they are wearing common clothing within the Indie subculture. On the other hand the stars are extraordinary in the sense that they are on an album cover; most of the target audience won’t have the opportunity to be on the cover of an album.Also as there are actually cigarettes in the theatre, its a visual for the album name ‘cigarettes in the theatre’. We thought by adding cigarette people in the album cover, it would be more interesting for the target audience to see as its unusual and may attract them into buying the album.

This is a long shot, although you can’t see what the band is wearing from head to toe due to the chairs in the theatre, you can see part of it. We choose this shot because it shows the band and the outfits they’re wearing. Without people knowing them, they will know straight away this is an Indie band from the way they dress. The Indie target audience will therefore feel connected with this because the band is wearing similar clothing. As voyeurism isn’t a main part within Indie genre music, we made sure the female in the band wears a shirt which isn’t low cut. Although we made her wear a skirt so male audiences may be attracted to her causing them to buy the album. Also this long shot allows the audience to see the actions each member is doing. This shows their different personalities; the lead singer is smiling at the camera while the drummer is looking at his popcorn. As they’re sitting together, it shows they’re a band who sticks together.

We added the instruments because we thought it would be more understandable for the target audience; we can know who does what within the band.

We added white text on a black background as this was the same theme as the front of the album cover. Using the same theme would make the album overall look more professional.

The information underneath the track list is copyright information. This is conventional to all albums as it prevents other people making money of an album they didn’t create. This text isn’t the same as the text used in the album name because it would be difficult for the audience to read that text if it was small; so we decided to use a simple Arial font which is clear to read.

We decided to add a barcode and the record label logo. The barcode is conventional to album covers so when being purchased, the shop can scan the item. The record label logo is also printed at the back so the target audience know who supports the band.

The name of the band is at an angle because it gives the layout an edgy look. This text is large so the target audience can notice it more to remember the band.

The font of the track list is the same as the name of the band and album name because we want the same theme to go across the album cover. This will make our album look more professional. We added a track list at the back of our album because this is a convention of an album cover and it’s useful for the audiences to know the name of the songs within the album.