Analysing CD covers

In this first CD cover, I can see from researching the album that the exact same picture is used on the magazine advertisement.  This dennotes continuity and relationship between the two media products.  This is done usually to show the correspondence so that the target audience can easily recognise what product is being sold and advertised.  I like the simplicity of this album cover as it is not clutted with different text apart from the artist and album name itself.  This picture used is of the artist so that the target audience can easily recognise the artist and that the album was created by him.  I particularly like the colours used as they make the character stand out from the background and the text.  The simple clear and white font makes it easy for the audience to read.  Out of the artist name and the album name, the creators of this design have chosen to make the name of the artist have a larger font than the album name.  This is usually done for new artists as they want to advertise their name first over the name of the album so that they gain recognition.  The image of the artist itself relates to the title of the album which I think is important in establishing continuity and relationship when designing media products.  The word 'chaser' in the album can be shown in the picture due to the blurred edit of another picture of the artist behind another fixed picture, connoting the 'straight' part to the title of the album. It is significant that both the text and the artist are centralised on the cover to make it stand out to the audience.

This second picture has used a similar approach to the first cover that I have analysed.  The text of the artist is larger than the name of the album title.  As this is a debut album for the artist, this could support the idea that it has been done due to wanting to advertise the new artist in to the music industry.  Again, an image of the artist has been use an takes up the majority of the album artwork showing who the artist his. The colour used for the artist text uses a similar colour to the image of the background which connotes a relationship between the image and the artist.The positioning of the album and artist name together is usually a convention of a CD cover so that the audience will fixate on looking at that part of the album cover. Having the text on the upper part of the cover is significant as it is next to a mid shot of the artist which draws the eye of the audience to both of these elements.

This final album cover is somewhat different in the type of images used.  The picture for the album cover is of a baby which does not connote a direct relation to the album itself.  However, it could dennote the idea of what the music of the album includes. Like the previous analysed CD cover, the text of the artist and album name are positioned together and in the corner of the album.  However, it differs from the previous album as it does not have a direct correlation to the image itself.