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.

Draft Digipak Cover Ideas

These are my first mock up ideas for my final cover idea, working through and making improvements I have created my final idea for my draft digipak. In the first mock-up I have used a 'stained paper' style background to give the cover a vintage feel. I have used the font 'Scarlet Ribbons' from my research for the artist's name, I have also added an outer glow to create a 'bubble' feel around the word, which adds a fun and pop element to the overall appearance of the cover. The main image used within the cover is a 'retro' style milkshake which ties in with my idea to incorporate the america diner style to reinforce the 1950's era of influence. I feel the prop itself and the high contrast and saturation used in editing makes it represent this idea well. The text used at the bottom for the album title 'Ghosts' is in the font 'Air Conditioner' which also works really well with the 1950's retro american diner theme as it reflects this perfectly. However, I felt that this album cover could be improved because, although all the elements work they way I intended and well represent the ideas behind it, I felt the overall look could be altered as the texts used don't balance well.

In the second mock-up I have used all the same elements, however I changed the text used for the artist's name. I really liked the font and the editing so I decided to change the placement of the text to try and better balance it with the title, 'Ghosts'. I did this by removing the arc layout, making the text straight and in line with the text at the bottom. I felt this worked much better as the layout made it easily broken up using the rule of thirds. It also meant the text was straight and better matched the straight line at the bottom. However, I still felt that the feel of the appearance was not right and it could still be improved and better balanced. Within the third cover mock-up I removed the editing on the title, so it was just a simple title that let the font stand out better. I made the colour of the font match with that used for the album title as this helps to balance our the two texts. However, at this point, I did not like how different the two fonts I used were, as I felt this was the reason they were not balancing and so at this point I started considering what other fonts I could use. Looking back at the fonts I found whilst researching, I experimented with various fonts for the artist's name, as I felt the font I was using up until this point, 'Scarlet Ribbons' was too bold and didn't fit the elegant and simple appearance I had created. After trying several fonts, I decided the font 'Channel' was the best option, as it was thinner but also still bold enough to make the artist's name stand out. I also felt that this font was better balanced with the image of the milkshake, as after changing the font and looking back at the previous font, I felt that the 'Scarlet Ribbons' font had taken too much attention away from this main image. Although I much prefer this font, I felt that it was still unbalanced as this font didn't have such a 'straight line' appearance. I then started to consider what I could change to improve this, and so I decided to add in the line either side of the text so that it appeared more in balance as the album title as the also had the line either side of it.
Therefore, this was one of the key changes made for my fourth mock-up. I also decided to experiment with changing the bottom font used for the album title 'Ghosts'. I had refrained from this previously as I felt that 'Air Conditioner' font really well reflected the ear and the 1950's retro american dinner theme. However, at this point, I felt that using the same font for both text elements on the cover would help to balance the appearance of the overall cover. I first decided to try using the 'Air Conditioner' font for both the artist's name 'Lexi and the Spectrum' and the album title 'Ghosts'. I really liked the use of this font because it best fits the era, however, when using it for both text elements on the page it became lost and make the main image more of a statement than I intended. For this reason I felt the font 'Air Conditioner' would not work for my cover. I then decided to use the font 'Channel' for both text element; I feel this works much better and gives the cover a really balanced look. At this point, I also decided that perhaps a photo of the artist would work better on the cover than an object such as this milkshake, as this is a prop that could be used elsewhere within the digipak, such as the back cover with the track listings. I experimented with these ideas and created my final first draft digipak cover and back as shown here:

Digipak Cover:

Digipak Back:

Digipak Research: Cover Layout

I really like the idea of using a simple layout for the cover, I intend to achieve this by using an object as a focal point picture for the cover and the artist's 'logo' and album name to appear above and below this respectively.  I want the main object to be a prop that relates to the 1950's era, props used within the music video and/or the american diner theme of the logo. Here are some examples of the type of appearance I would like:

I really like the use of the old retro monitor on this album cover as I think it has a statement appearance that makes it stand out to the consumer and it also has a really strong retro feel to it. However, I would like to incorporate more colours into my cover to emphasise the pop, fun and modern side to the artist and her music. I would also use bolder font to emphasise the artists name and the album title. I would also prefer to have a sepia, more vintage background as opposed to the grey used here as I think it would help it to look warmer and friendlier rather than the cold, harsher feel of this one.

I like the idea of using an object, such as this 1950's telephone, on the album cover. I think this type of prop could make a really clear connection to the 1950's as well as a link between the music video and the album as this is one of the props we're using within the video.

These sorts of props are also easy to draw, giving the option to either draw or photograph props for my digipak.

Digipak Reaseach: Cover Ideas

Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend

This is the album cover of Vampire Weekend's self named album. I like the simplicity of this cover and the basic sepia colour scheme; these factors give the album a statement cover with a unique and retro/vintage feel. I think this style, and simple layout would work well with the artists style and album theme.
The colour scheme and vintage feel would also match the retro/vintage 1950's style of the video and artist within the video, therefore clearly showing the style of the artist and music.Here I have created a mock up of a cover idea, copying the Vampire Weekend album for our my artist 'Lexi and the Spectrum'. I have used the same colour scheme and basic layout with the artist name and album name in block capitals and the centre of the cover. The image I have used for this mock-up was one I found on the internet. 

I have also created my own version which takes the idea of a photo of a basic object; in this case a 1950's phone, which relates to a prop used within our music video as well as the era we have based our video on and the era from which the artist is inspired. The picture used for this was also one I found on the internet, but also one that could be easily re-created. I like the brighter appearance of this cover idea and the fact there is more relevance to the object.

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Pink Floyd - Dark Side of The Moon

I also like the simplicity of this album cover for Pink Floyd's 'Dark Side of the Moon'. This album was one of the influences of our artist from the 1950's. I therefore think a reference to this album/artist would be relevant and representational of the artist influences . I also like the idea of the 'spectrum' as this ties in with the name of my artist; therefore I could take this element and incorporate it into my cover and digipak designs.

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Arcade Fire - The Suburbs

I really like the ideas used within all eight of the varied Arcade Fire cover artwork for 'The Suburbs' album. The theme of vintage effect, film photographs with a gain effect works really well and gives the album a unique look that reflects the music of the artist. This also matches the vintage feel within out music video and would therefore work for my artist 'Lexi and the Spectrum'.
I have created a mock-up cover taking inspiration from both of these Arcade Fire covers. I took the idea of a car and found an image on the internet of a 1950's mercedes benz. As I really like the simplicity of the black and white 'The Suburbs' album cover, I used a black and white image of the car. I also used the idea of plain white text over the top of the image from the second Arcade Fire cover, however I added in shadowing on the text to reflect the album title 'Ghosts'. 

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Katy Perry - Teenage Dream and One of the Boys

I really like the style of Katy Perry's album covers, I think they have a really fun and pop feel that reflect both the music and the artist herself. This is the kind of feel I want my digipak and advert to have. I want to achieve this by combining the bright colours and fun feel with retro and vintage elements, such as props, costume or colours. I intend to use the idea of a 'logo' for the artist's name. Here, I have created a basic mock-up of the kind of logo I intend to make for my artist, this one was created using a font I found that is very similar to the one used here in Katy Perry's logo. I like the colourful and fun appearance that this logo has, however I think it could better fit the 1950's retro and vintage theme with some alterations.

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Marina and the Diamonds - Electra Heart, The Family Jewels and Singles

Marina and the Diamonds' albums all have a really unique look. They have a theme of using one main image of the artist herself and an interesting and unique text.