Album Art Research

By Chloe Glencross S9

Gary Barlow & The Commonwealth Band - Sing

This piece of text is Aegean Blue colour and in the Times font. Gary Barlow is bolded whereas the title of the album, Sing, is in italics.

Gary Barlow’s name is bolded to grab the attention of potential consumers better as he is famous and some people would buy it because it has him in it. It should also be noted that Barlow is an English singer so it also creates a sense of pride towards being British.

The Times family of fonts are typically associated with “olden English” and “gentlemanly” text which further reinforces the patriotic tone towards Britain.

The shapes of red, blue and white form a cut diamond shape from above (which is called a crown) as well as a rough image of the Union Jack (The name for the flag of the United Kingdom). While the colour scheme of red, white and blue automatically creates a sense of patriotism, uniformity and professionalism, the usage of this diamond shape helped to reinforce the fact that the album was released for Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee.

The overall connotation of these elements used for the front cover image suggests a sense of pride for Britain’s monarchy.

The background is Stone Blue which not only blends in well with the colour scheme, but also aids in bringing attention to the album because it is duller (in contrast) than the colours used on the diamond.

Imprints of small diamond shapes around the bigger design which reinforces the importance of the diamond shape.

Watermark of the Royal Coat of Arms which appears to be faded white and printed on the bottom right hand corner – this shows the consumers that the album has been approved by the Royal family thus furthering the patriotic tone induced.

Barcode is located on the bottom centre of the back cover.

The fine print specifying terms and conditions is a much smaller font size than the rest of the text on the cover. This may be to avoid overcrowding the vision of the viewer but it also prevents the viewers from reading it immediately which takes advantage of the viewer’s impatience as it will say specific conditions which will prevent them from getting sued.

Logos of the production companies located in the centre at the bottom of the fine print mainly to advertise the companies in hopes of people recognizing the companies from other products and to reinforce the rights of the companies.

The back cover and spine has the same Stone Blue background with the Aegean Blue Times font text which overall creates a sense of uniformity and professionalism. Since the presence of the bold and bright red, white and blue are absent, the overall impression created is that the album is soulful or meaningful.

All of the text on the back cover is centred. While “Gary Barlow & The Commonwealth Band” is bolded, the track listing’s play order and names of the songs are in italics – the names of each singer or group is plain.

While the font does match the font on the Front cover and therefore creates a sense of professional uniformity, it lacks the “Pop” genre feel and instead creates a solemn tone.

The inside covers resembles the crown of the diamond on the front cover but is enlarged to display the United Kingdom flag i.e. the red and white cross shapes against the blue background.

Not only does this help to reinforce the theme of the Diamond Jubilee reign of the Queen but it also helps to enforce the patriotic tone towards the United Kingdom.

The inside of this album is different from other album cases as it uses sleeves to keep its contents in place rather than the conventional “jewel case” technique of using “teeth”.

The red, white and blue reinforces the theme of Britain and therefore enforces the patriotic tone created. This also helps to recapture the attention of the consumer by appearing bolder by contrasting the outside covers, which are largely eggshell blue.

I also noticed that unlike the typical CD album cases, this CD case appeared to be made of a thick paper or thin cardboard and didn’t have a toothed CD place-holder – it instead used sleeves to hold the CD in place.

Spine remains majorly red in colour in order to connect both inside covers to each other due to the design taking up both sides.

Lily Allen - It’s Not Me, It’s You The background is an Rosepetal-cream coloured gradient which overall creates a light-hearted, feminine tone when combined with the hot pink writing and ballet-slipper pink of the dress but contrasts the darkness of the black used in the title and on the L which creates a visual clash.

This helps to suggest the mood of the songs, which are known for creating a light-hearted and rhythmic tone yet slightly satirical and critical around some socially political themes.

Lily Allen is wearing a pink dress with a black veil like headpiece. She is posed to lean against the shape of the inside of the “L” shaped block. This colour scheme is also similar to the text colour scheme which poses a sense of uniformity which overall creates a professional tone.

On the other hand, Allen’s pose creates a sense of coquettishness despite her distant but serious expression which also helps to suggest the themes of the songs.

The singer’s name, Lily Allen, is bolded and has the colour scheme of black and outlined with pink - it is in the Cooper Black font. The title of the album is in a rougher font of Mistral, smaller, located underneath the Lily Allen text and is purely pink.

Spine is black with Watermelon Pink text. The main fonts are Cooper Black and Mistral for the artist name and album name while the Century font is used for the numbers.

Beige gradient background with Black text

Barcode is located on the bottom right-hand corner of the back cover

Song track includes number order and name – recently it has become the norm to not include the running time of the songs.

The main fonts are Cooper Black and Times.

Logos of the production companies located in the left hand corner of the back cover and is printed on in black.

This images shows more blocks of letters with the same black body and different coloured outlines. While this connotes a relatively friendly and juvenile tone, the black creates a sense of for

Production Notes are much smaller than the song track though it is on the same line as the song track.

The front of the album contrasts the back of the album where there are random blocks of letter and numbers with different coloured outlines. This is because the front cover of the album will be the first thing a potential buyer will see, so overcrowding their vision with too much text or too many main muses will cause disinterest. This is why there is a title on the front cover as the title is supposed to summarize what kind of songs the album will contain as well as to represent what the artist’s beliefs or own themes about the album.

The backgrounds are a similar shade of cream and gradient which shows uniformity and creates a light-hearted tone which contrasts the boldness of the dark blacks.

Hot Pink is used for the text. The bolded Cooper Black is used to grab the attention of the consumer whereas Times is used for the finer text about the instructions to access exclusive content. This not only creates a link to the front cover and therefore creating a sense of unity and professionalism, but also helps to

Similarly to the front cover, Lily Allen is featured sitting on a block letter. It is not the same letter as the front cover which is why Lily Allen is sat differently. This composition implies a sense of playfulness and while keeping a professional tone and linking back to the front cover creating a sense of uniformity.

The spine is black background with white text. While together they create a classic but simple and professionally uniformed tone, they look too bold and out of place while next to the cream-shaded background and creates a visual clash which is slightly garish for the viewer. This could represent the nature of the songs which touch on socially political subjects with a satirical but relatively good-humored tone.

Bruno Mars – Unorthodox Jukebox The font being used for Bruno Mars appears to be unique to this particular album as it has not appeared on any of his other albums and is in the colour Blush Red. Although the colour Red is connoted with passion or danger, the faded look it has from the tone of the background along with the black of the title underneath it, gives it a more classical appearance.

The image on the front of the album features a gorilla trying to work the jukebox. This may be related to the song “Gorilla” that features in this album but is also very effective without this relation as the Gorilla suggests a primitive sense.

The background is a slightly gradient Bone White colour with darkened faded edges. Interestingly, everything printed on top of it looks as if it has blended and faded into it which gives the impression of being from the past – therefore giving it a classical tone.

The font of the title of the album, “Unorthodox Jukebox”, looks similar to Balloons and is angled in such a way that makes it look as if it were handwritten on. This gives the album a more personalized tone.

Barcode is located in the bottom right hand corner of the back cover

Song track includes names and number order but not the running time for the song. The font is bolded Arial typeface and uses is also the same shade of red as the one used on the front cover.

The spine is the same Bone White as the front cover which helps to unify the front and back covers as part of the same album and therefore creating a professional tone.

Company logo is located to the right of the barcode in order to communicate to the viewer what company produced the album in order to spread their prominence among the potential consumers further.

Production Note is in a fine small text and is located at the bottom of the back album cover. While this does prevent overcrowding the vision of the viewer, it also prevents immediate reading which takes advantage of saying specific conditions which will prevent them from getting sued.

Background is textured in such a way that makes it look like cardboard underneath corrugated cardboard lined with some form of silk.

This helps to further increase the “old-school” tone that the album appears to aim for.

Name of the production company note is bolded

The back cover doesn’t resemble the front cover at all – only the colour scheme links it to relating to each other but the texture does help to emphasize the “old-school” tone connoted by the ”Unorthodox Jukebox”

A gorilla is sitting on a bed and beside him is a woman whose waist downwards is exposed except for her buttocks which is covered with a black pair of underwear. This is a direct hint to the song “Gorilla” which makes reference to sexual themes.

The inside cover containing the CD does not display an image for the album art, but instead displays some text about the Bonus tracks that can be found on the CD.

While it is an effective merchandising method, it is ruined by the fact that the CD lies on top of it so that you have to move the CD to see what it says.

The background of both covers are a similar beige colour to each other despite the fact that the left cover is an image while the right cover is mainly text.

The text on the right has used the same fonts as the back covers and the same black and red.

Both of these aspects create an overall sense of uniformity and professionalism.

While the text stays the same as the real album cover, it is positioned differently so that “Bruno Mars” is to the left of the sleeve while the title is set to the right of it.

One thing that stood out about this album was the fact that it was contained in a thick paper or thin cardboard sleeve. The sleeve itself had a different artwork and style to the actual album case which included Bruno Mars on its front. This is an interesting marketing technique as Mars does not usually use images of himself for his album artwork and therefore evokes interest in the viewer – the reason this is done is because the real album cover hints at one of his songs (“Gorilla”) which contains explicit content. Therefore it could be said that this is done as an act of censorship in order to avoid the exposure of explicit content to young children who may want to buy the album because they like Mars’s style.

Bruno Mars is depicted here with a concentrated expression while looking straight at the camera. The shot is a close-up.

This creates a connection between the viewer and Mats by introducing a sense of intimacy.

The background is Hazel Wood yellowish brown which connotes a sense of reliability and sensibility.

The song track . The only major difference between the real album back cover and the sleeve is that there isn’t any textures used.

The barcode is located on the bottom left hand corner of the sleeve.

The spine is the same colour as the rest of the sleeve. The text is in the same fonts and colours as the one’s used on the front which creates a sense of uniformity and professionalism.

The name of the company is located below the track-listing and the logo of the companies are found to the right of the production note.

Bibliography

• http://www.musicbizacademy.com/knab/articles/cdcover.htm