Stages of making back of album cover:

In designing the back of my album cover, i have decided to show the different stages and the decisions that i have made during the process of the album leading to the final product. So far, you can see that i have made the start of doing a unique pattern with the use of hearts. I wish to make a design with the hearts such as a large flower to cover the back of the cover.

Stage 1:

I decided to chose a heart for the design as this links to the theme of love which is a typical theme found on pop albums. I felt that this would also show the creativity of the artist whilst also showing the simplicity of the design. Below, i am experimenting with the design by changing the size of the heart and the positioning of text in order to copy conventions of an album cover.

Stage 2:

In the second stage of making the back of the album, i have added more conventions and made more decisions in the design. I have decided to enlarge the hearts in order to fill the large white space and overlap the hearts over one another to make the flower effect. In this stage, i have also made an album name, "The Revolter" which links to the artist and her personality. I have started thinking of different song names for the album.

Stage 3:

This is near the final deign of the back of the album cover. i have finished making the design with the hearts into a flower, taking up most of the white space. Also, i have added colour to the font to make sure that it is colour coordinated. I have also added in a barcode and text with the music company's name to follow conventions. I am still in the process of adding a few more songs to the list. It is also evident that the font is not clear in contrast to the background, so i may have to fiddle with the effects of the text and try and make the colour darker for instance.

Evaluation on how effective the artwork is:

I feel that my final album cover piece is effective in many ways:

Design:

Firstly, I feel that the simple but unique design I have used successfully targets my target audience. The feminine features of the artist, such as her lips, the large flower and her eyes are highlighted. Through media language, i felt that this would symbolize uniqueness about the artist, reflecting the message that she is a care free person.

This would therefore give the album some differentiation from most other album covers, as it is a unique design, so when it is being sold in shops, it would stand out from amongst the other album covers.

Audience:

I feel that this album cover targets the audience of young girls from 14 - 19 year olds as it allows them to see the artist as a role model as she is fashionable and is being portraying a stereotypical pop artist. This is targeted through her pose and and facial expression which gives gives the portrayal that she is a role model for the young target audience.

Thus, the psychographic of the audience would be mainly surrounded with fashion, magazines, social sites or anything that happens to be popular which many people find popular. Maybe not as significantly, but it will also appeal to young boys of the same age as it they may find the artist attractive with her feminine features being focused on from the cover.

Conventions:

I also feel that this album cover follows all of the typical conventions for most album covers. The main image is focused on the artist, which is typical of a pop album, with her posing in a trendy and stylish way toward the camera. The font is energetic and makes the album cover stand out with the bright colour juxtaposing the faded image colour.

I have also included the album name and artist name on the front cover. From the back of the album cover, i have enlisted all the different songs that are to be included in the album and i have included a spine of the album cover that contains the name of the album and the artists name as expected with any real album cover.

Reflection on process of making artwork:

I am currently still piecing together my final album cover idea. I feel that out of my other ideas, this is the most effective as it conveys the pop genre well.

Whilst creating this album cover, I found that the program "Photoshop" had its difficulties at times. I have found it hard to work my way around and to understand how to use it effectively such as making the two layers for the colour/black and white effect of the image of the artist. Apart from that, I have found it interesting and fulfilling in being able to create a good album cover.

However, i did not expect that making an album cover would not take so much time and effort. It has taken me lots of time to take the images, to find suitable locations, to portray the right pose from the artist to making the final piece on Photoshop whilst trying to make a unique style for the cover.

Picking the suitable album cover idea:

I have decided that idea 3 of my album cover designs would be the most effective. This is because I feel that the conventions used are effective and that they all link together specifically. With this design, I felt that it gave the album cover and artist an odd feel to it and a design which would not be found on ordinary pop album covers.

I have made sure there are typical album conventions such as

- Logo of the artist

- Main image that is focused on the artist

- Name of the artist/album

- Theme of the album (colour)

Overall, the colour scheme links well, with the colours being mainly pink, purple and white to give it a feminine feel, which will appeal to the audience of young girls from the age of 14 - 19 years old. Also, the album is typical of the genre of pop as the image is greyscale and the layout is simple in order to revolve around the artist and the single. Other artists that use the grey scale image and focuses on their face is "Diana Vickers", Lady Gaga" and "Pixie Lott".

My album cover:

Preliminary album cover ideas:

Having already a keen idea of the type of layout i want for my album cover, as one of the images of the artist has a lot of potential to be experimented with. However, I have still made three different album cover ideas that I will use for my artist. I felt that making preliminary album covers, i would be able to show how effective my album cover idea i have is effective. Below are the different ideas where I have made sure that i have used the typical conventions of what would be found on the front of an album cover. I experimented with different photos that were taken at the groups photo shoot, have the ability to capture an array of locations and positions.

Idea 1:

Idea 2:

Idea 3:

Artwork choices made:

In making my final album cover, I made sure that i used the conventions of a typical pop album from my research. I used the program "Photoshop" in order to design my album cover. I decided to chose this program as it allowed me to edit the image of the artist and add text in order to use similar conventions.

I took many different poses of the artist. I chose this particular image of the artist as the background of where the artist is standing is white. Therefore, this would allow me to change the image as much as i like. Also, this pose of the artist shows her personality of being full of attitude and fashionable, which is reflected through her music.

This is also emphasised through the font of the artists name, which i chose to be in a bold, slanted font in to give the impression of it being the artists signature. This would give the album a personal feel to it whilst the colour is in a bright purple colour to link to the light, girly colours.

I chose to desaturate the image so that the full image is black and white, giving the album a simple and allowing the audience to recognise the album to be in the genre of pop (as below). The program also allowed me to make another layer of the image, which would allow me to delete the black and white layer, allowing the colour of the colour image to come through.

I felt that these choices were important in giving the message of the artist wanting to be solely focused on by the audience and that there is a sense of uniqueness from this particular music artist.

Choices made during the artwork construction:

Having picked the design that i am going to use for the front of my album cover, i am starting to configure the layout of the album cover. I have already started the first draft of my album cover idea that i feel the most happiest about.

Choices:

I decided to make the picture black and white instead of leaving it in colour. This is because i felt that i could make the features of the artist stand out, such as her flower, lips, the glitter on her face and her eyes. I felt that by doing this, it would appeal to the audience's psychography where young girls are going to be interested in fashion and unusual things in music, through representation of the artist in order to reflect the social group that the genre is aiming to appeal to. Also, the pink and the glitter of the artists image also links closely to the colour theme of dark purple.

Decisions in the future:

I have asked lots of people in the age category of 14 - 19 year olds of their opinion of the first draft and they have suggested that i make the image of the artist bigger than it is now. They suggested that by making it bigger, the audience will be able to focus on the artist and it also gets rid of the grey background.

Second draft:

As you can see, i have enlarged the image of the artist considerably, from the decision from the last draft. I have also decided to also change the font of the artists and album name into a more distinctive font. I have gone through an array of different fonts and i felt that this one i have used in this draft is the most distinctive and eye catching for the audience to spot. Also, i felt that the dark purple ties in with font nicely.

Decisions in the future:

Once again, i have shown people of the similar target audience the second draft. They have suggested that i make the name of the artist darker or bolder with the effects. They said that they felt that the text was not very clear when put against the image. Therefore, i have made sure that in my final draft, i will make the writing bolder and more defined.

Final draft:

Below, i have made this album design my final draft for the front of my album cover. However, a considerable change that i have made is making the album a full album instead of just an EP album with only a few songs. I felt that this would allow me to advertise the main single "Kiss N Tell" and it would also allow me to show the audience the other songs that the artist has made, reflecting how the theme of her feistiness and no nonsense attitude is portrayed in her songs. Therefore, i have made an album name and have also included an exclusivity icon at the top, advertising the single "Kiss N Tell".

Change in idea:

Previously, i decided to do the album as an EP album cover, resulting in just using the song "Kiss N Tell" and one other song from the artist. However, in designing my album cover, i have decided to change the album to a full album cover with at least six songs on the album cover instead.

This decision has came from my decision to make the artists album to have more than one song as i have found that doing a full album would be much better for the album in terms of sales. I also found that doing a full album cover with songs helps my design idea, as the list of songs will make the album cover look fuller at the back.

Font suggestions for album artwork:

I decided to research different and suitable fonts that I could use for my album cover. I wanted to have a font that would make the album cover stand out and would represent a form of signature that the artist could have done, as a means of showing how the album is personal to the artist and she is passionate about her music. Also, this is similar to many other pop albums who have a italic font in order to represent them being care free and trendy at the same time. Below are four of my font suggestions:

Quid Pro Quo:

This was the font style that i finally picked for my album cover. I felt that this font with the dark purple colour i was to use made the album really stand out with the contrast of the black and white image. The font portrays a laid back an

d trendy feel which i felt was to be very suitable

.

Dearjoe4:

This font is very similar to the above but i felt that it had a much more professional feel to it. However, i decided not to use this typical font be

cause it did not give the right feel to the album cover as it is not feminine enough and does not link to idea of being able to use it as a signature of the artist.

Scriptina Pro:

This font was also a suggestion that i was going to use on my album cover. This is because the font looks light and much more feminine. However, as i am trying to appeal to both young girls and boys, this would not so much attract boys as i think the font is a bit too feminine. Also, the font is to orderly and does not portray that sense of carelessness, therefore, i did not chose it.

Billy Argel font:

This font gives the idea of the album cover being fierce and rebellious. However, i feel that it did not fit in with the genre of pop that the artist was and was more suitable for a rock or alternative music genre. Therefore, this was also not chosen for my album cover as it did not convey the right ideology or genre.

Planning the layout of my album cover:

I am currently planning the layout of the album cover that I need to design for my artist, Violet Rowe. As I am planning how to structure my album cover, I am looking back at the album covers that I have researched previously in order to follow conventions and codes that would be expected. As I am advertising a whole song from the artist, I have decided to make the album an LP so that the album have lots of different songs, but the song "Kiss n Tell" will be the exclusive song of the album.

I will design the front cover, the back cover and the spine of the cover:

Front Cover:

- Artist name

- Album name

- Main image of artist/symbol of some sort to make the audience recognise the artist

Back Cover:

- The names of the different songs on the album

- Another image/design of the back similar to the front

- Name of the producers of the album - production team, members of the band/artist

Spine:

- Contains the name of the artist

- Name of the album

- Allows the audience to identify the artist quickly

Photo Response:

Our photo shoot was successful I am starting to design different ideas for my album cover for the artist Violet Rowe. The group has currently done a photo shoot of the artist allowing the group to start doing our album cover. I feel that i will be able to design a variety of different album covers using the photos of the artist.

In picking which photo to use for my album cover, i want to make sure that the background is white so that if i need to edit the image background in any way, i will be able to change the colour without too much trouble as it will be a white canvas originally. Also, i want to pick the image of the artist which focuses on her solely, whilst she is looking at the camera in a trendy pose, lots of bizarre makeup and hair frequently used by other pop artists in the music industry.