Vitoria S.
What makes an iconic Album cover?!
Ed Sheeran has become the master of recognision. His albums are always colour realated and he endorses this colour in all he does. The colour of his latest album is a very vibrant green which easily captures the attention of people.
His album is also very simplistic and it fits in with his style of music since he is a solo musician with only a guitar. The simple design becomes recognisable to anyone who has seen it and it also means tha the artist name doesn't always have to be present for peoplet to recognise the music.
Drake also used minimalist colour and design for this album and this is a subversion of the usual rappper albums but it remains a very effective album.
This album has the face of the artist and it helps bring attention to him because it is his image that people are looking out for.
Colour Theme
Original Monochrome covers
For a picture that spontaneously taken by the band photographer of his girlfriend who had just left the shower, this album cover is very sucssesful and popular, even today!
This is a high contrast picture and you can see shadows and detail. The picture is right side heavy leaving just the right amount of space to place the album's tittle and band.
The Strokes' and Oasis are both from around the same era (late 90s early 00s) but we can see the difference between their albums. They also produce the same style of music, Rock, So why are they so different?
Oasis had an image of breaking expectations and had a strong teen following. Where as the strokes were more popular with a slight older demographic, so they could experiment with this rather sexualised cover.
It was a risky decision for then new band, Joy Division, to have their album cover not mention their name or band. But it stuck the audience at the time as a 'cool' and original thing to have done. The image is not what we expect it to be, mountains, but instead a set of successive pulses from the first pulsar discovered.
The popularity of this cover remains high and I give it all to it's simplisity as it was not a common thing.
This cover soon became an iconic and recognised world wide. Even today the use of this logo remains very popular. The strak contrast of the simple rainbow colours adds a simple yet, important contrast.
These are some of the most recognisable and iconic monochrome album covers ever made, Why are they so effective? even without images of the artist? Are they more iconic than colour album covers?
Inspiration
I researched a variation of digipaks from different artists. It gave me a wider idea of what I wanted to pursue.
May a cover mainly in black and white, but with a pop of colour will work really well?! Like Pink Floyd's?!
I also really like Beyonce's cover. The black and white picture is not dull because the contrast is high and the picture is sharp and clean.
I love the simplicity but impact of this cover!
I love the close-up of the artist's face and the red dominance, which could symbolise love and passion since she is a pop singer...and that's usually what they're about.
Picture wise the subject is fully to the left. Leaving lots of space for the track list and other essentials on the other side of the image.
Maybe I should do something in this style?!
CD spine on both sides of back cover
Bar code
Simple numbered track list.
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Copyright tag
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Label's logo
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Produce's logo
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Production code
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Year of copyright
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Artist's site
Image ideas
This double exposure technique is really cool, and I love actully taking photos like this, so I thought I might do somethinglike this.
It sort of follows the style of the video at the moment too.
I like the idea of following a more delicate and feminine theme for this digipak. I think this flowery theme will work well with the double expose effects. Also, the water colour splashes will add texture to the images and I think that could look really cool!
How I learnt!
To work with double exposures it is prefered to have the subject in front of a plain background, so the image is crisp and clear.
My proble here was that the artist did not have any pictures in that style.
So I will have to remore the background altomatically with a lasso tool or quick select. I could also maybe use the channels and mask it somehow!?
