Album Cover Work

A: Look at a selection of album covers (minimum of ten, CD or vinyl), maybe from your own, your parents or a friends collection, or online - the more variety in genre, style, decade etc the better. Make notes in answer to the questions below:

1. What are the typical features that an album cover has? Make a list of all the elements they have in common.

• Names of Album
• Name of Artist/Band
• Picture of band or coontrasting that a picture of something really obscure and non realted.
• Most of them were colourful to help them stand out, or had a striking picture to make them memorable after all they are a marketing tool
• Track List
• Colour/font scheme - usually recognisable
• Barcode
• Legal/institutional info
• web address
  

2. How would you categorise the covers in front of you? Are there any other ways of distinguishing between them other than generically?

• The images used on the front: either band image, grapic design or completely obscure. Photos rather than designs or drawings.
• Mainstream/niche
• Group/solo artist
• Era
• Gender: Male or Female
• It's audience: old/young
• Record label

3. Album covers serve many different functions. What do you think these are (ie what is their purpose?)

• Marketing tool - selling the artist through image.
• Make them stand out on the shelves in stores
• Show a logo or graphic that is linked with the band to make it more recognisable
• Promote the image of the band
• Let the audience know what work will be on the album before they buy it
  

B:Choose one album cover out of your selection. It might be a particular favourite, or one that is particularly visually interesting. Prepare deconstruction notes of the cover (back, front, inside sleeve).

Coldplay - A Rush of Blood to the Head
A Rush of Blood to the Head was Coldplay's second studio album released on 26 August 2002 This image on the front cover is of half a 3D head and shoulders, on a plain white backgroud placed in the centre. The picture looks really eerie and creepy which shows Coldplay's unconventionality.

The cover art was designed by photographer Sølve Sundsbø and has quite an interesting story.
"Sundsbø had been hired by fashion magazine Dazed & Confused in the late 1990s to produce something with a "technological feel, something all white". As an artist, he tried to do "stuff that hasn't been done before, which is virtually impossible"; he suggested taking shots using a three-dimensional scanning machine.

The model for the shot wore an all-white makeup because it produces the "best results"; however, for the image, the model also wore a twill-coloured cape. The computer could not read the colours so it was replaced with spikes, and the head in the image was chopped because the machine only scanned 30 centimetres. The editor of the magazine liked the image and eventually featured it in one of their publications.

Martin saw the image in the magazine and approached Sundsbø for permission to use the image as the cover of A Rush of Blood to the Head. For the album's singles, Martin asked Sundsbø what he could do; the latter suggested scanning the head of each member of the band "

The red writing for the album title stands out and so highlights it to promote the new album. However the writing is down the left hand side so as not to distract from the interesting and abstract image. On the back the name of the album and the band name is down both sides of the album, with the picture and track names in the middle. I can't make any definate connections between the images and the text but you could say that it is ironic that the title is 'a rush of blood to the head' and the image has only a fraction of a head.

The band's genre is described as 'alternative rock' and so their look and branding must reflect this as well. This is why they haven't gone for a mainstream look of a picture of the band etc.