Hand Drawn Album Covers

After making the decision to use drawn images within my final digipak and advert, I have done some research into other album artwork that is hand draw. Hand drawn images is not something conventionally found within pop genre album campaigns, this is therefore challenging conventions, which I feel will help to give my campaign a more unique and distinctive look. As drawn images are more conventionally used with the indie music genre, I have done research into album artwork from both the indie and pop genres to give me some inspiration. 

The Foals - Antidotes

Mika - Life in Cartoon Motion

Kreayshawn - Somethin bout Kreay

 I really like this hand drawn album cover for the The Foals 'Antidotes' album, as I think the simplicity works really well, having small elements of colour helps to create added interest and gives the overall cover a really intriguing appearance. As this album is from the indie music genre, it conforms to more indie conventions than pop genre conventions. For example it has a very simplistic and individual appearance. The cover also has a casual feel due to the use of cream and black as the main colours for the majority of the image. To take an idea like this and use it within the pop genre would definitely challenge the pop genre conventions, for this reason I don't think it would work if i used a very indie inspired image for my drawings. However, I think that it could work really well if i developed this idea to create a drawn image, inspired by an indie cover, but adapted to conform to more of the pop genre conventions. For example, I think that a more cartoon like appearance would fit to more pop genre conventions as it would have a funner and more lighthearted appearance. A good example I have found is Mika's 'Life in Cartoon Motion' album cover, this is an example of a hand drawn album cover from the pop genre, although it challenges many pop conventions, I feel that it still has a really strong pop appearance due to the use of fun, cartoon style drawings and bright, vibrant colours. This also gives the album a conventional lighthearted look which appeals to the younger audience of the pop genre. Another album cover with a similar style to this is Kreayshawn's 'Somethin bout Kreay' album cover. Again, this album cover does not conform to many of the pop genre conventions, however, it does have a strong pop look about it due to the use of bright colours and a fun cartoon style. Both of these hand drawn pop genre album covers are great examples of how and indie style can be adapted for the pop genre. These also show that challenging conventions can work really well and still create a pop genre appearance. However, although attention is focused on the drawn elements in both cases, both of these two pop genre examples still feature images of the artist, something I plan to not do. This could make it harder to create a pop genre appearance for my digipak and advertisement as I have found that using an image of the artist is a very strong convention within pop genre campaigns. I will have to experiment with the overall look of my media products in order to create the right balance of bright colour and indie influences in order to create an effective pop genre appearance with a fun and lighthearted feel.