Album Covers

As well as producing a promoting music video I have also been asked to produce an album cover for a DVD release and also a magazine advertisement to support the release. The brief has recently changed, asking me to produce a digipak which would include both a CD and DVD. As this is an unfamiliar product to me I am going to look into a few album covers, allowing me to discover typical codes and conventions. I am going to look at both CD and DVD covers, basing my research around similar styles of music to my music video.

This album ‘In Rainbows’ is Radiohead’s latest album and has become very popular since its release. Radiohead is a band that has always produced interesting album covers, with most of them being considered artwork. Here we see a very vibrant and bold album cover which immediately grabs our attention. Having heard this particular album it seems to me that the cover reflects the music that the band has made, with the colours emphasising the energy and raw power of the songs inside. It could also be suggested that the different colours represented different people who may enjoy Radiohead’s music. This opens up the audience and doesn’t isolate one certain target audience. We are also drawn the red substance behind the writing, which appears almost lava like. This once again could reflect the music, with its energy and explosive sounds. That the volcano has erupted and is being sprayed towards us. The red lava almost draws us to the centre of the cover, and is a bold contrast with the writing. Another thing that I have noticed on the cover is that the bold block writing aligned all the way down until it reaches the bottom line, in which the bands name is out of position. From this it could be said that the band are something different than the norm. Overall I think the cover is very effective as you would go straight to it if you saw it in the shops just because the cover is so attractive and bright.