Front Cover: Conventions - Research Existing Products

Front Cover : Conventions - Research Existing Products 

Front Cover: Cnventions - ResearchFirstly for my research I am going to look at the CD front cover, in order to get a clear idea of how to conventionally create a CD front cover I am looking at existing CD front covers from all different genre backgrounds. The CD front cover is the first thing the likely buyer would see, therefore it is very important in promoting and selling the artist.

From my research I have discovered certain conventions that are included on the majority of CD front covers, here is a list of the conventions.

1. Main Image - either illustrated or photograph of the artist or unique interesting style to represent the artist or band 
2. Artists name - The artists or bands name is appeared on the front cover in a specialised and eye-catching font 
3. Album name - feature used for all albums, gives the audience a feel about what the songs on the album are going to be about
4. Logo - an iconic logo which is associated with a band or artist is used so fans can recognise the artist or band.

I have also noticed from my research that certain artists like to challenge these conventions to stand out from the crowd. For example the famous Beatles album often referred to as ‘the white album’ featured a plain white CD cover just the word ‘The Beatles’ simply featured in the corner of the cover. This is an effective way to grab the audience’s attention. In todays society especially within the indie genre artists and bands will use unconventional fonts and images to attract younger audiences to engage and pick up the CD.

Conclusion

In conclusion from my research of album front cover, I have found that there is a vast diversity in album covers, especially because of all the different genres of music available. For example it have noticed generally with the pop genre the main image is always focused on the artist, however with the indie genre random images or icons associated with the band or their image is used instead. In general the design of the album cover is usually eye catching and simple, and predominantly conventions are usually followed however sometimes these conventions are broken which allows me to play around with my design and see what conventions fit well with my concept as my artist is associated with the sub-genre indie-pop.