CD Cover analysis 3

The Chemical Brothers - Surrender

This album cover features a long wide shot with focus of a man throwing his arms up in the sky. The image has been filtered and saturated. It has an effect to make only block colours show up and almost cartoon-like, I feel this works very well and looks good on an album cover. The image is shot at the Olympia arena in London, it features the crowd in the background and a mainly focused person in the foreground, which is the icon of the cover. While the original picture may have been a bit blander, with a basic, darker colour-scheme - the use of filtering and enhancing the photo has made it very bright and colourful. The band name and album title are in the top corners of the cover in contrasting white. The font used for 'The Chemical Brothers' is the signature font for the band, while 'Surrender' is in a basic text, but works well on this cover. 

On this inside cover the only thing featured are the credits to the album written in blue text on a plain white background. The font is basic and does not need to be decorative or artistic in anyway as it is not aimed to be eye-catching. 

The CD is very basic, again featuring the signature font for the band name and some legal information including the record label etc.

The back cover opposes the bright and colourful front cover with a mainly black back cover. There are close up facial shots of the members of the band, with low lighting to match the colour of the background. The track listing is written very basically in a smart font, which appears very formal. The Chemical Brothers logo is shown at the top of the page and the spine of the album. 

CD Cover analysis 2

Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend

This album cover is very simple, but I feel it's also very effective. It features a polaroid image, which has been filtered slightly and the bands name is contrasting bold white letters. The image has been taken at a house party of some sort. The image was taken by Annie Fields. Here are the original pictures, the left one featuring a couple of the band members. 

The image of the chandelier for the front cover has been taken from a low angle. It could seem to be taken with little artistic intent, but either way it has worked affectively for the band's album cover. The bands name, also being the album title, is centred in a basic font across the cover. 

The colour scheme is again effective, the image has been filtered with a orange/pink overlay and gives the image a darker look from the original and the white text contrasts it well. The scheme through the cover, back, CD etc. is fairly unattached. The CD is a bright yellow and features the band name in the same font as the cover in blue text. The CD also features abbreviations of the track listings, which is relatively unconventional. 

The inside cover features plain black text with two columns with acknowledgements to people involved with the band and a list of band members.  

 The back cover is again non-matching to any colour scheme and is the only dark part of the digipack. The text used is very different to the block-basic text used on the cover and CD but is quite formal, in a serif font. 

I think this album, the cover in particular is quite basic, but eye-catching. I think to design an album cover like this would be fairly simple but the image would have to be right and also eye-catching and work well with the text. However if I could take an image good enough it would be fairly straightforward to replicate this type of cover, as shown with this mock up that I did in about 5 minutes. But this also illustrates the difficulties of making an album cover look professional.  

CD Cover analysis 1

Bombay Bicycle Club - I Had The Blues But I shook Them Loose

This album cover features a long wide shot photo of a man being thrown in the air, as if being praised. The image has been filtered to highlight the black and white in the photo and is slightly washed out. This filtering, while gives some emphasis on the title font does not make the image completely abstract an the image still has some importance to the cover.

The image seems like it has no real relevance to the band and may be used to show joy and indicate the genre or style of the band and/or their music. It may also be a reflection of the album name. The band's logo which features their name is central, while the title of the album is underneath in a smaller text. The font of the band's logo, which is featured on tour posters etc. also, is a fairly basic font but is effective in standing out in this example, while the text below is very basic, in capitals but doesn't stand out as much except for the contrasting sky blue. With the band's name being in larger text, it may show that they aim to get the bend name more recognised or is more recognisable and want people who are going to buy the album to recognise this easily.

The CD itself features the man in the image as a sort of motif which is also used on the 'bonus' website from the album as shown below.

The back cover feature a simple left-sided list of the album tracks in the same font as the album name on the front. The image features appears to be a spray paint tag on someone's skin, again in black and white.

The digipack seems to feature a lot of close up shots of body parts, like the inside with someones hand and back cover with someone chest. These images seem slightly washed out and almost dirty, this could be conveying a suggestion of the band. The images are also quite low lit, again this may be a suggestion of the band.

The colour scheme is fairly basic, an element of this cover that I enjoy. A black and white image with contrasting sky blue text, which works very effectively I feel. This colour scheme is used throughout the digipack This is an element that could be replicated in my own work that I may consider using, with it giving a cover a good look and being relatively easy to make.

Bonus website

Inside Cover

CD

Back Cover

CD Cover analysis 3

The use of image on the self-titled SBTRKT album is something that I look to take inspiration on for my digipak. Having just the simple image of the mask he wears on stage, works well and fits in with the slow tempo electronic music he and Sampha play. There is also a white sticker on the album, with the SBTRKT font, which is quite unique and stands out from the page. Within the digipak there was a poster which again had an image of SBTRKT's mask and on the back, had the rights and composers of each song. Also, there is a an image of the side profile of SBTRKT aka Aaron Jerome, where you can just see the front of his mask and part of his face.

The layout is very simplistic, with a black and panels and yellow back grounds on the digipak. On the front other than just the image on the front. On the back of the digipak there is just the track list in-between two lines, with record label Young Turks badge in the bottom left hand corner. The poster, which comes with the digipak, has a very similar design to on the back of the digipak, with just the plain white font split up by a thin line.

As said earlier, the colour scheme is mainly black, with white typography. There is some splashes of yellow inside the digipak and the CD is black, with grey stripes. This, like the other digipaks I have analysed, is very simplistic with a neutral colour scheme. 

As said earlier, there is a close-up headshot of SBTRKT's mask and also included is a close up shot from Jerome's side. The same close-up shot used on the CD cover is also used on the poster that comes with the digipak.

The main font used is very simple, with all letters being in upper case. However, for SBTRKT the same trademark font is used, which could almost be classed as a band logo.

Overall, I feel that the design if effective but could almost be classed too simple if I did something like this. Nothing stands out and is quite discreet but this fits in with SBTRKT's style. Again, the consistency is brilliant throughout and the font is something I am interested in using.

CD Cover Analysis 2

The second album I have chosen to analyse is the The Beatles "White Album". Like Jamie xx and other covers I am inspired by, it's incredibly simple. Designed by artist Richard Hamilton and it was the bands next album after Sgt Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club. So the thinking was to obviously make it more simplistic and to be more about the music. 

There is no image on the cover and the only thing present is that of just "The Beatles" in a basic font. The cover is all white, with no changes anywhere. This runs through the digipak although there are some posters which come with it which have black and white photos on. Also on the back of the digipak there is black and white close-up pictures of the band members and label and distributors badges.


The layout is very simple. The Beatles is positioned centre right on the cover which seems to work well, with the first letter starting dead centre. This is consistent throughout the digipak and on the back the same is seen with the dead centre being the starting point for the song names. The CD's also have a very simple layout, with white background and plain black font which does not stand out.


The colour scheme throughout is black and white, with white background and a black font. Other than the apple logo on the back of the digipak, everything you will see is black and white. The shots are in blakc and white, all of these being close-up shots of the band members faces. However, coming with the digipak was a poster, with many different small designs on, ranging from artwork to band photo, all being in black and white.


Like the rest of the album, the font used does not stand out at all. It is easy to read and is very simplistic, fitting in with the consistency of the digipak.


Overal, I feel that the digipak works really well. I'm a big believer in keeping it all simple so the neutrality of the digipak works really well. However, I feel when I am making my digipak, I will be looking to add some bold colour, like on the Jamie xx albums, as this fits in with my bands genre and is modern.

CD Cover analysis

For Jamie xx's and Gil Scott-Heron's collaborative LP, "We're New Here", the cover is the perfect example of how bold colours and simplicity can be used to create an eye-catching CD cover. This simplicity is something I would like to incorporate into my digipak. Having the simple image of just a different coloured rectangle, on what looks like a 45 degree tilt, just works. Although to some, having just this image may seem lazy, in my opinion it's near perfect. It also fits in with Jamie xx's style of music, which is quite funky and summery but chilled and simple at the same time. The bright colours, representing the funky house sounds and the steel drums used.

As said early, the layout is incredibly simple and the same with the colour scheme. On both the front and back, the layout is exactly the same, apart from the rectangle is mirrored onto the other side. The colour scheme for this record varies on the edition you buy. Green with a pink/red rectangle if you buy the normal edition but pink/red with a green rectangle if you buy the special edition.

The actual CD is green in the normal edition and pink in the red edition, all being very simply with no writing on the CD. Also, in the digipak it is all just green and pink, with no other graphical elements, this all fitting in with the style.

Only a small amount of typography is on the album. A sticker on the front of the cover just saying "Gil Scott-heron & Jamie xx - "We're New Here" in a very plain font, something like helvetica. This again fits in with the simplicity theme keeping the cover and overall digipak consistent.

Overal, I feel that everything really works on the cover and digipak. One thing I will definitely take from this design to use in mine is that of consistency, as it helps to make the cover and digipak look realistic. Also, on Jamie xx's other releases and posters, the design is the same, this being another element that I have taken into account.

Poster for Jamie xx gig.

Jamie xx - "Far Nearer". CD/Vinyl/mp3 artwork.