What's the point of having an album cover?
Album covers are not just part of the overall packaging to help protect the CD inside but it also helps the promote the singer and attract buyers. Although more people are buying their music from the internet, there is still a need for an album cover to help identify the singer and the album as a whole. The future of CD's and thus the need for album packaging are uncertain due to people evolving to the online age but as of 2008, physical album covers continue to outsell digital downloads. Often when people download their music, the album cover becomes downloaded as well, which appears on the screen whenever they play a song from the album which therefore shows it is still a vital component needed.
An example of an album cover is The Weeknd's Beauty Behind the Madness
This is the front of the album cover for The Weeknd's 2015 album. It features the singer's face distorted to look as though it is cut in two. The main colors are yellow and black which are shown constantly throughout the album. An explicit content warning is shown in the bottom corner to warn the audience and potential buyers that the content on the CD may not be suitable for young listeners.
This is the back of the album cover. It features the track list which is used to cover the singers face. It tells the potential buyers and listeners what the songs are called and also of any other singers who featured in the song such as Ed Sheeran and Lana Del Ray which could potentially influence their decision when buying the album.
Inside the case, a booklet ,several pages long with each song having a page each, is featured. This is where information such as the writers and singers are credited. The background features pictures of women as well as the singer and the color scheme matches throughout the whole album, to tie everything together.
Kate Nash- House of Bricks album cover
This is the original album cover for Kate Nash's House of Bricks. We are using one of her songs for our production this year and so we can use this album cover to help produce our own. It features the singer next to a house with animals made out of hedges surrounding her. She is also Photoshopped into some of the windows in the house which tells the audience that she is imaginative and quirky.
The back of the cover features the track list for the album. The song we are going to use for our production is number ten on the track list (Skeleton Song). The songs featured contain swear words however there is no explicit lyrics warning on the actual cover which suggests it may have been on the clear film that would have wrapped the CD case to help protect it.
The inside of the album features a 'Thank you' message. It also has information as to where the listeners could research more into Kate Nash and her music by providing a website address and MySpace page.
This is my own attempt at her album 'Made of Bricks':
This is my version of her 'Made of Bricks' album which features the 'Skeleton Song'. I decided to brand Kate Nash by using pictures of her to make a brick like structure therefore she is 'made of bricks' herself. I then placed a image of her lying on her stomach on the top brick ( in the middle) as it shows she is the most important person on the cover. I had to edit out the original background so she was clear over the background that I chose. The background I chose is blue and has an added brick pattern to link with the album title.I decided to make the font look curly and fun because it links with the type of singer Kate Nash is and then I arched it over the image of her to make it interesting to look at.
The back of my design includes the track list for her album. Some of her song titles do contain swear words which shows that she uses explicit language in her songs. Although I never added an explicit warning sign on my version, it would most likely be on the clear film that wraps the CD case. I added the music company's logo to show which company she is signed with and a bar code to make it look authentic. Then I added another image of Kate and some illustrations that were released with some of her songs as singles.
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