Research : The History Of The Album Cover
In the early 1920's retailers started gathering many of these cardboard sleeves and binding them together with heavy paperboard or leather covers. These looked similar to large photo albums and, borrowing the name, were sold as record albums. These albums offered much greater protection for the discs than the original packaging and were seen as indispensible to disc owners that had seen too many of their fragile records broken.
Beginning in the 1930s the record companies started using these record albums to distribute bundles of records from one performer or a collection of performers with similar musical styles. Some of the first cover designs can be traced to these albums and the record company’s desire to graphically communicate the music each album held.
Alex Steinweiss the art director for Columbia Records is given credit for the concept of modern cover art. He experimented with different concepts and images through the late 1930s and into the early 1940s. During this time Columbia Records rebounded from the terrible years they had suffered during the depression to become one of the most prominent record companies in the United States. Much of this was due to their ground breaking use of graphical design. By the close of the decade all major recording companies had graphic design professionals on staff.
The golden era of cover art design began in the early to mid 1960s and lasted into the early 1980s. During this time the major format for music was the 12 inch, long play disc or LP. Cover art became a part of the musical culture of the time. Often used to express graphically the musician’s artistic intent, it helped connect and communicate to listeners the message or underlying theme of the album.
Designers, photographers, and illustrators sometimes became famous for their cover art creations. Such notables as Andy Warhol and Frank Frazetta were taken from being known in their industry to becoming household names due to their cover art graphic design work. So respected and desired are the designs and illustrations found in cover art that there are numerous art galleries that specialize in helping collectors find rare album covers.
As the medium for recording transitioned from the LP to the compact disc many graphic designers failed to transition with it. Having worked for so long with the much larger canvas of the LP cover, switching to the smaller CD case left most designers dissatisfied with their results. Often artist and record companies simply tried to shrink the LP size art to fit the CD.
Album cover art, now almost exclusively CD and CD packaging artwork, went through a period of change and rebirth in the 1990s. Designers learned to capture snapshots and portions of the artist’s musical intent rather than trying to convey the entire message. Also designers started conveying the emotion of the music rather than the musical intent.
In the late 90s computer design programs started to overcome the physical limitations of the smaller CD packaging. With the ability to draw much tighter, finer lines and have even small details look crisp and sharp, once again designers were free to explore a larger variety of design options. As the technology continued to improve graphic designers adapted and were once again producing world class artwork.
In the present, CD design is undergoing a true renaissance. Rather than becoming obsolete in the digital age as many thought it would, graphic design is once again proving itself as the difference maker. The internet is now the largest record store imaginable. Now rather than browsing a few hundred albums or songs at a time you may be exposed to thousands and thousands. Since it would be impossible to listen to portions of all those thousands of songs the design of the accompanying artwork must cause potential listeners to stop and take notice and give this album a try.
CLICK HERE to watch a video which provides an interesting take on the implications of album artwork in relation to marketing.
Research : DigipakCLICK HERE to watch a video which provides an interesting take on the implications of album artwork in relation to marketing.
These are 2 artist that I have researched into
Ed sheeran
Shawn Mendes
Planning: Ideas
For our CD digipack we have decided to have pictures that relate to the scene within our music video on all 4 sides. The pictures used will be the same as the ones we have decided to use for our ideas on our Music Magazine ad.
We have made sure that our designs for our music magazine ad also tie in nicely with our CD Digipack so that they bounce off of each other main a clear connection between the artists CD and magazine ad. We have taken various ideas from our research of current CD Digipacks, we have found out that they all have barcodes on them so that they can be scanned in a shop when being purchased. They also all have their record label on them to promote that company and they also have the album title name and the artists name very clearly on the front of the digipack. The track list is also featured on the back of the CD Digipack so that customers can see what the CD contents is which may persuade them to buy it or not to buy it. We have also designed the CD Digipack to have the same font as our music magazine ad to make sure that connection, again, is very clear to our target audience.
Production:
This was our original front cover for our CD Digipack, we used a different font to our music magazine ad which we then realised wouldn't tie in well and there wouldn't be a clear connection between the two. We used this particular picture as it illustrates what the songs emotions are and how the artists is feeling while singing.
We used a template in order to get the measurements right for our CD Digipack which made it easer for us when adjusting the pictures that we were using and what font size to use for the typography. You can also see half of the font on the front cover in this image which we changed to match the music magazine ad to create a clear connection.
This is an image of when we applied the track list to the back of the CD Digipack, the album contains the single, which our music video is on, but in all different versions with different remixes. We also added more images to our digipack to I've the customer a feel of what type of music the album was offering.
We added writing around where the CD would go on the Digipack, we made it follow the shape of the CD in order to get more of a quirky look. We applied a quote from Q Magazine on this particular bit that is also featured on the bottom of our music magazine. We changed our begin from our original plan as we adjusted the colours in order to fit in with the music magazine ad, however, after playing around with different trials, we came to a decision that this was the most clean and professional look and also our target audience approved.
Final Design
This is our final design.
We have carried on the theme of black and white for our CD Digipack to match our music magazine ad. We have used this colours as we shown our music magazine plan to our target audience and they said that the colours appealed to them. Our target audience also liked this idea as they believed that the design stood out to them an caught their eye.
