Analysing Album Covers

Within the Indie genre.

This example of an album cover is from a popular indie band with a fairly large fan base. The image on the front is quite ambiguous because no one really knows who the girl is. This is quite unusual for most album covers, but seems quite conventional for an indie artist. The effect on the image is quite unfocused and faded drawing the attention to the centre point, which is the girl and the text on the album cover. The straightforward font is basic and whilst it stands out against the background there is a simplistic style to the album cover. In general it seems to be quite obscure and unusual. The title of the album seems to have no relevance to the cover and, however it clearly conveys all the information it needs to for the alubm cover; the artist name and the album title making it successful as it grabs your attention due to the obscurity of it.

Unlike the other album covers this one does not have an existing image and is one that has been drawn for the purpose of the album cover. I am looking into this because this is something we may be wanting to replicate for our album cover. Although there is no photograph like other album covers I’ve seen the artists name is very clearly displayed and they even use their logo in a drawn style to keep the album cover consistent. Although it is only small they have also incorporated the album title within the drawing. This is a convention we will be sticking to and we will be using the album title and the artists name in our album cover.

This example is probably the most obscure and least like the album title. The image and the text don’t really seem to have any connection at all. The image looks as if it is there for humour purposes as opposed to hint at the type of album it is. It is ambiguous as it doesn’t reveal much about the album, but does suggest to the audience what the artist is like, character wise. The colours are quite bright, but again the font and design is simple. The artists name and album title is in capital letters making it seem bolder and more important.

This is a very simple design and of all the album covers I have looked at is the most popular indie artist. The artists ‘XX’ have clearly chosen to not use an image or an album title to display on the cover. Therefore they have simply put the letter X in a contrasting colour. The black background against the white font is very striking and bold. Although the majority of the album covers I have looked at have been ones that have challenged conventions it may be the most unlike a conventional album cover. This is because of the lack of album title or any image or photo on the cover. If you were not to know the artist being called ‘The XX’ then you may not realise this is their album so it is quite risky to not have an artist name or album title.

In conclusionBy looking at all of these different album covers by artists of the same genre although they are all quite different in way, there are a clear set of conventions:• Ambiguity• Little connection between the album title and the

drawing• Very basic design• Simple font