Studio brief 1 - Research

As the brief was about album art, I thought it would be beneficial to look into different album covers as an art and concept/message. Questions to ask is what was the concept? is it successful? what medium have they used to capture and represent the message.

This cover design is pretty much all about girls. It's for the artist Blake Allen and is called girls. The designer has summed up the word girls perfectly. Typeface is a strong fashionable serif typeface. The font also reminds me of Vogue magazine. Background is a image of a woman, her hair takes up most space, which gives strength and readability to the typeface. In my opinion the hair being so big, can represent dominance and femininity. Altogether the design is powerful and fashionable.

Title of the song along with the author does not appear on the font cover. Does the concept or song title come through with out the title? The same aspect we have to consider within secret 7, as we aren't aloud the song title or author on the cover of the vinyl.  The design is obviously very busy, loud and with a lot of energy. I get the feel of an urban based artist with the graffiti. The design looks very post-modern and experimental. The target audience is probably young adults who are into indie/rock/house music. An artistic feel to the who concept also. The figure reminds me of daft punk but it could be anyone. The design is a good example of whats needed for albums to attract attention from the shelf. It's loudness will definitely stand out among the competition.

Knowing a few of Mika's songs from back in the day. Looking at this visually stunning artwork, sums up his personality and persona in an instant. Mika is very colourful so this artwork communicates the song and himself as an artist. The title "Life in a cartoon motion" is represented very well. Cartoon are illustration based, so the obvious medium and route the design had to take would be illustrations of cartoons. Colours are visually appealing and strong. Great attractive album which would attract the users eye. Title is bold and 3D, this is important due to the overload of illustrations in the background, the title needs to stand strong and this is achieved perfectly.

Amazing artwork for The Script. Two hands holding is centre of attention, which links strongly with the title. The hand holding can mean and represent a variety of things when you read the title "Science & faith". Science and faith are two subjects which a lot of the times conflict with each other. The hand gesture can represent the two areas coming together and recognising there differences. Colour and texture is not entirely clear what it's representing but it could represent the bond between two old enemy's of science and faith.

We came as Romans artwork demands the users attention straight of the bat. The serious glance from the man/woman in the gas mask attracts the users eyes and makes you question the message and meaning of the song. At first glance the cover reminds me of an Apocalyptic scene which just makes me want to listen to the song to find out and to see if there's an ulterior motive. The typeface looks old-fashioned and Gothic. The typeface links with the colour brown and the tea stained texture.

Peter Saville album artwork. Looking through his interview about this design, he gathered the idea from a floppy disk. The design is simplistic and has a direct, obvious link to a floppy disk. However the design is timeless and represents outdated side to technology.

Another design from Peter Saville. This design is also a great way to analysis from a screen printing point of view.  The design as a whole is very vibrant and simplistic.  Overlaying around 4-3 "o" to create multiple of colours and vibrant circles. Not sure really what the effect has to do with the title or artist. However, again the cover will stand strong amongst others on the music shelf. Title could be a bit bigger as it's fighting against the collateral of colours below and does get lost. However it works and Is visually appealing within the contemporary spectrum.