CD Cover Designs

I will be researching 5 different CD cover designs in order to find out more about how an arist/band promotes themselves and their CD using the cover. This will also help me research how to put a CD cover together in case I choose to do that for one of my ancillary tasks.

As the album is the main thing that an artist is promoting it has follow certain conventions, such as creating a brand for the artist. This usually consists of relating the album cover to all different forms of promotion for that artist, such as using the same colours on the album that are used on the artist's website, posters, adverts, etc. The typography used should also be the same as what is used on those other forms of promotion, in order to create a brand for the artist. As the cover is the forefront of what the artist is selling, this (in theory) should tell the audience a bit about the artist, sometimes showing the artist's face, however this is not always the case.

I have chosen to analyse album covers for different genres of music, I believe this will give me broader knowledge of what CD covers are like across genres.

Adult Pop Music: Britney Spears - Circus





Teen Pop Music: Selena Gomez and the Scene - Kiss & Tell






Rap Music: Eminem - Recovery





Rock Music: The Used - In Love and Death




Pop Rock Music: 3OH!3 - Want

I noticed whilst analysing these that although aesthetically they may look different because of their different genres, most of these album covers hold the same conventions. They all seem to share the same typography and colours as they do with their other forms of promotion (websites, posters, TV adverts), so that is something I will think about when designing my CD cover. Two of the album covers I analysed do not have the artists on the front, so this again is something I will have to consider (whether or not to put my artist on the front cover).