CD Cover Design Ideas

Hand drawn designs


Draft 1

I decided to use an unstructured, bold font for the band name in the style of graffiti. Its messy, graffiti style appeals to the target demographic as it reinforces the rebellious stereotype of youth. I have also chosen to use bold, primary colours such as red, blue and yellow as they grab attention and target the young audience by creating a light-hearted mood. The outside setting connotes freedom, which is further enforced by the smashed brick wall, connoting the originality of music and creating an anarchic mood. The central image of the band is conventional to the pop rock genre. The main singer has a direct mode of address with the audience as he grins straight at the camera, which pulls the audience in. By positioning the female members more in towards the side of the frame, and giving them less extroverted body language, their position in the band is connoted and makes the main singer the focal point of the cover. A feminist analysis could read that this reinforces the ideology of male independence and power, which would target male members of the audience, however by framing all three members tightly in a long shot I am connoting them as equal and as a unit, which reinforces a the stereotypical 'teen' issue of friendship, targeting the demographic.

Draft 2

This idea plays on the use of parody which is found in many pop rock album covers, specifically the parody of a comic strip. By using comic strip codes such as comic-strip style borders, a caption and comic-strip style capital lettering, and an image of the band shooting off into the air, this cover clearly parodies the conventions of a comic strip which connotes a fun, light-hearted mood. It is conventional to pop rock album covers such as Green Day's 'Kerplunk', and connotes that the band have a sense of humour, appealing and selling the artist to the fun-seeking target demographic, making them more likable. The use of the large, bold, capitalised red and yellow font parodies the 'Superman' font; this intertextual reference would be recognisable to the audience so grabs their attention effectively. The main singer again is the focal point of the cover and has a directly addresses the audience with his cheeky grin. The use of including the instruments- guitar, bass and drumsticks- on the cover anchors the pop rock genre.

Mock ups

Mock up 1

Our first CD Cover mock up presents a positive image of the band through the use of bright lighting, a green, outside setting with trees and grass in the background, and happy, smiling facial expressions. This communicates to the audience that the band are young and fresh, whilst also having connotations of the conventional laid-back, fun attitude of pop rock music. It challenges stereotypical representations of youth being anti-social and rebellious, and connotes instead that they are 'salt-of-the-earth' types. However, our audience can still identify with the artist through use of costume: bright trainers that stand out against the bark, hoodies and denim jakcets, which are all conventional casual costume of youth, and the laid back body language. The font we have chosen is scratchy and uneven, giving connotations of rebellion and anarchy, and the slanted album title looks as though it is scratched on the tree. This and the album title itself creates a playful, daring mood that would appeal to the target demographic. However, we decided not to choose this CD Cover as the band name is hard to read so does not grab the audience's attention, the band are positioned to the left of the frame, and so do not follow the conventions of a pop rock album cover in that they are not the focal point of the cover, most of them do not look at the camera so do not establish a connection with the audience, and overall the cover looks too naturalistic and so does not fit with the conventional quirky feel of a pop rock album cover.

Mock up 2

We changed the colouring of this image on photoshop.com to make it look like a cartoon, which is conventional to pop rock album covers. The bright, cartoon-like image immediately grabs the audience's attention and connotes that the band are fun, bright and quirky. The graffiti in the background creates an anarchic mood to the cover, yet the band members stand out through bright costume which would appeal to the fun-seeking nature of the target demographic. We felt that an effective way to include the album title was if we used the slogan on Amy's t-shirt, as it stands out against the white and is eye-catching and original. The central image of the band is the focal point of the cover, and the main singer has a direct mode of address with the audience by looking straight at the camera, which pulls the audience in. Also, the personality of all three members is connoted through their body language, for example the drummer leans against the wall and looks out into the distance, connoting the stereotypical 'I-don't-care' attitude of youth. This allows the audience to be more interactive with the text by being able to pick a favourite. We chose a bold, scratchy font which looks like graffiti for the band name, however still felt it did not stand out enough.

Mock up 3

This time, we used the same image but changed the image to black and white, whilst making the colour green 'pop', on photoshop.com. This effectively made the album title stand out on Amy's t-shirt. We then chose a bright pink, bold, slanted font to grab the audience's attention. We felt the clash of green and pink on the cover was eye-catching and gave the band a fresh, unique image.

We have chosen this album cover because we feel we are targeting our teenage audience effectively, through constructing a stereotypical representation of youth. The use of the skatepark setting and the graffiti background, combined with the central image of the band members having their hoods up and hands in their pockets, connotes a stereotypical laid back, rebellious attitude with which the audience can relate.