Final Version Of C.D Cover And Poster

Final Version Of C.D Cover And Poster

This is my final version of my C.D cover and poster. I decided to fill in the lettrers with blue on the poster that were difficult to read in the end, but left the rest as it was. As for the C.D cover, I used the shared image of the sun for both the first panel on my C.D cover and poster, but it was adjusted from the draft to a lighter colour, so that it all fitted in better. I also changed the production information, using some real examples as help.

First Draft Completed Version

For the first draft, Mark and I went and created our own album poster and album cover. This is my version, where the main image is based on the heart which we made out of wood chippings. (See other posts).

On the album cover I have used the same sky background for the three panels. The text on it is easy to read and it gives a consistent look. I used the blinding sun picture because it refers to the album name, 'The Blinding Truth'.

The poster is based on my original idea for the album cover with additional information. I like it because it is a simple layout and all the text is clear and easy to read.

I like the visual impact that this will have.

We have to decide between Marks and mine for the final draft. We might ask other peoples opinions which poster and cover they think would be a better fit for our genre.

First Draft Completed Version

For the first draft, Catherine and I went our seperate ways and created our own album covers and posters. This is my version, which the main image is based around the picture of the sun on the horizon.

Band Posters Mock Up Two

This is an example of a band poster. I like this because it is quite simple but i think it could have a few more things such as a website or ratings.

This is the updated version with the ratings and a website. I found the stars on google and chose the middle bottom one because it is clearer. I then put it on photoshop and coloured the black part in white so it would just be all white on the poster because it matches the text. I then went on myfonts.com and got the website in the font type I wanted.

Digipack Mock Up Three

This is the third attempt at a mock for up the album cover. I much prefer this version, even though there is still work to do on it, because it just looks like a much tidier effort. I certainly think that the 3 shots used for the bottom 3 panels work perfectly, but its the top 3 panels where I'm struggling to fill.

Digi Pack Mock Up Two

I liked the top one at first but then afterwards I thought it looked a bit plain and boring. We want something simple but not too simple. So I decided to change the inside parts to the sun picture. I like this one better than the one above because it is simple but not too much. One problem is not knowing what to write on the inside parts.

Digipack Mock Up One

This is a very rough version mock up for the C.D Pack. The first thing I can pick up from doing it is that we need more photos to work with, because I found myself having to use the same photos over and over. So we need to get out with a camera and take some more photos. I like the background being used for this version, because it focuses on the light-heartedness of the brand image, but I don't like the fact that there isn't much image variety on it. I would still like it to be simple, but it needs more to it than this version.

Songs To Put On Our Album

These are all the songs we have decided to name for our album. All of them have been made up, so no copyright issues are applicable. The durations are indicated by [-.--].

1) Afternoon Breakfast [3.37]
2) Circumstances [4.03]
3) Somebody's Hero [2.55]
4) Rain On A Sunny Day [3.15]
5) Photoframe [3.28]
6) Happy Tuesday [3.45]
7) Don't Understand The Words [3.06]
8) Ready Set Stop [4.11]
9) Based On A Fake Story [3.41]
10) Tales Of Two Dreamers [3.23]
11) Why Not [3.52]
12) Accidentally In Love [3.08]

Whilst creating this list, I tried to keep in line with various album related conventions. Using the duration of Accidentally In Love, I tried to keep all the durations to a similar length, also considering that this genre rarely has songs over the length of 4.30 minutes. The amount of songs on average on an album like this is normally around the 12-13 mark.

In terms of the actual song titles themselves, the reoccuring theme is of doing things a bit differently. It's about finding your place in the world, and being happy with who you are as a person.

Album Names Considerations

These are the albums names used by the Counting Crows over the years. All of them have a rather abstract sound to them, and could also be described as alternative and thoughtful. The common themes seem to be of hardships and working through them.

-August and Everything After
-Recovering the Satellites
-This Desert Life
-Hard Candy
-Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings

This is obviously a route that it would make sense for us to go down when naming the album our video is part of. Here are some ideas for the name that we thought of:

- The Fantastic Sunrise
- Going Up
- Tales Of Two Dreamers
- The Blinding Truth
- Carry Me Away

Overall, people we asked for their opinions seemed to prefer "Tales Of Two Dreamers" and "The Blinding Truth". The other titles, whilst fitting to the song itself, don't follow the conventions of the rest of the genre. "The Blinding Truth" eventually won out, due to the fact it has a relevance to our song, and follows the pattern set by the previous Counting Crows albums. Whilst we understand we aren't just copying the original band, it makes sense to follow a similar band image.

Album Cover Mock-Up Version

This is another idea of a front cover that we liked. I like the heart made of wood chipping on the bright background of sky because it makes it stand out. I also like the font type because it stands out.

Here is another variation of this album cover. This one includes the album title that we decided on (see other post).


I like both fonts which I picked out when browsing through MyFonts. com.

Both of these ideas are the simple styles that we are looking for. There are lots of examples of album covers with this style. For example, Tubularbells by Mike Oldfield and Folie à deux by Fall Out Boy.

Ideas For Our C.D Cover

These are a variety of shot types that we thought would be good for our CD cover.

Here we decided to take a picture of Marks shadow because we thought it could be a good C.D front cover. We were messing about trying to find unusual images because the counting crows album covers have unusual images on them and so we were trying to use those images as inspiration for our C.D cover. When I took the picture I thought that it was a good idea but on reflection, having looked at it again, it doesn't quite fit the style that we wanted.

This is Mark making the heart shaped sculpture. We first made the sculpture out of dark wood chippings but when we took a picture it didn't really stand out. So then we put some lighter wood chippings round the outside as a border. This made the whole sculpture really stand out.

Here's one of the pictures that we took to see if it looked alright or not. We decided we really liked the picture. We chose the heart sign because it connotes love. I think this is ideal becasue it goes with the song title 'Accidentally in Love'. Our target audience will relate to the heart as a sign of love because it is a familiar connotation. 


We were experimenting with taking shots of the sky and the sun. We took a lot of pictures but these four were the ones that we thought looked the best. We thought that these could be the background on the album cover or the actual cover itself. Again we were trying to get unusual images as per the counting crows album covers.

  

The above image was spoilt by the climbing frame at the bottom. Just the sun, the trees and the sky would have made a better image.

This image is one that we might mess about with in photoshop. I like the effect that the camera has come up with.

I quite like the idea of using this as the background for our album cover.

I took this photo when I was on holiday and I thought it would be a good picture for our digi pack. I like the way the camera has made the sun look different and the way it has made the image look grey instead of the usual blue.

Experimenting C.D Covers

These are some ideas for the front cover of our cd. We can't use pictures from the internet though so we have to take our own photos. These are the types of special effects we might use.  

Counting Crows Album Covers

These are various different album covers that the Counting Crows have used. For our digipak, we have to create an album cover ourselves, so it is a good place to start by looking at the common features of the original albums.

A fairly easy feature to pick out is the consistent use of the colour orange. It is a colour that goes well in with the indie genre, and relates to the light heartedness of the majoriyt of the songs the band does. Obviously there are a few exceptions where the band has gone for a slightly darker approach, but that isn't relevant to us.

Generally, the album covers are fairly simplistic. This is something we would like to try and emulate ourselves. Indie is a fairly simplistic genre in terms of the sounds and styles, so it is appropiate to do that again.

Thinking Ahead

Over the next week we should be starting our digi pack seeing as we are quite far ahead on our music video. Our main focus is still the music video however, but we are starting to consider ideas for our ancillary products.