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. 

Magazine Advert analysis 3

MGMT - Congratulations

This advert features the original album cover with some text underneath in a simple layout. 

The image is a colourful cartoon from the album cover. The black box with white text contrasts this quiet well and gives the information about the album. 

The layout almost showcases the album and the text is a caption to it. The text is in an effective font which is simple yet eye catching. There is not much to say about the actual advert itself a lot of the focus is on the album cover. Personally I think the artwork should be stretched or cropped to fit the whole page, that way it is more eye catching, this particular advert is too much of a contrast from the cover to the text at the bottom. 

Magazine Advert analysis 2

Enter Shikari - Tribalism

This magazine advert is for a compilation album by Enter Shikari. It has a simple layout with the title text over a grey background which features some text.

The signature Enter Shikari band motif is used, this will make it recognisable to people who are familiar with the band. Another motif used is the lion, which is made using different coloured text in the background, this works well as it is quiet subtle but almost a bit hard to notice.

The colour scheme is fairly dark except from the band moto 'We won't stay silent' which is in a light blue so that it stands out. The band name has some slight scratches on it for effect and to give the idea of the band being a bit 'rough' which is typical of their character and genre.

The layout is pretty simple, all text is centred and in a similar serif font.

Overall I think this magazine advert works well, it's quiet simple with only text featured. Although this would be different to an album cover as I think that should feature an image, in my opinion.

Magazine Advert Analysis 3

The 3rd magazine advert I have chose to analyse is The Chemical Brothers "Further". The image used in the magazine advert in very unique, with an eye-catching image of a woman breaking the surface of the water in a blue dress, almost looking like a mermaid. She is seen to be diving down into the see, thus fitting in with the album title "Further. Also, the colour is spread down the page and gets darker and darker, as if the woman is going further into darkness.

The layout is all based on the image, with the top two thirds consisting of the main image, with the bottom third having information about the album. The shot used is low angle under the sea to capture the moment the person breaks the surface and this is done to perfection.

The colour scheme is black, white and blue, all coming from the image. The typography, like most magazine adverts I'm simplistic but their is the trademark Chemical Brothers font used for their band name. Overall, I feel that this is the most eye-catching poster, due to the image used.

Magazine Advert analysis 1

Coldplay - Mylo Xyloto

This magazine advert for Coldplay's album 'Mylo Xyloto' features the album artwork but sightly extended from a square to an A4. It features the signature custom font used in the promotion of this album, also the release date is in this so it stands out as much as the album name. 

The image used is a mixture of colourful graffiti and bright blotches of colour. The white text works well with it as it keeps up quiet a bright colour scheme. 

Overall this is a very loud and eye-catching advert and would not be easy to replicate as the image or mixture of images seems to be very complicated and artistic and may cost a lot to produce something similar. 

Magazine Advert analysis 2

For LCD Soundsystem's album "This Is Happening" it is all kept fairly simple. There is a basic image of James Murphy, the creator of LCD Soundsytem, in motion, as if he was dancing on stage. He is dressed in a trademark suit and the photo has been rotated. The shot will have been taken as a mid shot of Murphy , from a fairly long distance as his arms are spread.

The layout is simplistic, with a large image in the top two thirds with the information about the album in the bottom third. The colour scheme is quite understated, with a black and white photo/background with a blue font.

The typography is in italics and all in capitals. The font is basic and there is large spaces between letters. Overall The design is made to look a bit blurred and this fits in with their sort of electronic music. I do quite like the idea of using just one image on my band poster/digipak, as it looks quite effective.

Inspirational covers

These are some of the covers I really like the design of, some of these will be the inspiration of the style I want to do my cover in as I like this style and I believe that they are all effective. I like the use of black and white and simple text. I also definitely think that in my own work I will use real images instead of using shapes, text, graphic etc. to create a cover, I think this will allow me to create a more effective digipak with my own skills.

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

Magazine Advert Analysis

The first magazine advert I have chosen to analyse is for The Stone Roses, "The Stone Roses - remastered". The background image is a birds-eye view of a map, with what looks like a paint-splat where the information about the album is. There is also some images of oranges, representing the letter 'o' and then red, white and blue. There are also badges with ratings from Q, Mojo and NME magazine.


The layout is fairly simple, with the band name top centre, with the information below this. The red, white and blue is again used, representing Great Britain. Also, the ratings are dotted about like badges, which makes the layout less structured.


The colour scheme contains mainly red, white, blue and yellow font. The Stone Roses looks like its meant to look like cardboard. The shot is a birds-eye view with "The Stone Roses" planted on top.


The typography is all fairly basic, all in capital letters, so it looks clear. Overall I feel the design looks simple and effective, although when I create mine I want it to have a clearer colour scheme and to try to make it look more simplistic.

Album Cover

For my album cover, I have definitely decided upon using a very simple design. At the moment, I am trying to decide whether to use a photo of a person/band, or whether to create a design on photoshop.
The problem with trying to create a design, for me, is that I don't know if I can make it look professional enough.

The xx are a band that inspire me with their covers. As earlier analysed, Jamie xx keeps it simple and it's the same with his band. For every single they released the same cover, just with a different background within the "X. This consistency is something I definitely want to incorporate into my digipak. The element of using a band logo with an image behind it is something I'm going to experiment with when creating my digipak mock up.

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.

Digipak research

One thing I look for in a CD digipak is that of simplicity. I'm a big believer in the old saying that less is more and I feel doing too much on a cover can ruin the album and would stop people from buying it, so it is vital to get it right. These are few Digipaks/CD covers that inspire me...