Jordan Kierans was planning the cover for his debut solo album "Cloud Nine". His initial designs were too simple and lacked artistic flair. After reviewing conventions from Atlantic Records albums and the needs of his target audience, he created a psychedelic front cover with a graffiti-style font and a wood pattern on the back. A promotion poster advertised the album and upcoming tour dates using the same fonts and record label branding for recognition.

1. Album Cover Planning
Mike Turner

2. As a diverse music fan, I was able to
Inspiration: generate ideas for my album cover over a
wide sample source. My passion for R n B,
Classic Rock, Hip Hop and Indie gave me the
perfect platform in which to brainstorm
what would make a successful album cover.
I was determined to mix the simplicity
of past music albums with the artistic
style/flare of a modern day cover.

3. Conventions:
Similar,
interesting font
Artist/Band Name on front and
back covers Tracklist
Album title
Record
label/barcode
Artistic background –
relates to previous genre
albums i.e. Rock and
Roll, hippie

4. Atlantic Records
• Ed Sheeran – the writer of ‘Drunk’, which is the chosen
song for my music video, is signed to the record label
Atlantic.
• Atlantic are known mainly for their signings of R n B, Rock
and Roll and Jazz musicians. Ed Sheeran is an acoustic/R
n B artist therefore fits into this category.
• Other artists that are/have been signed to this label are
Led Zeppelin, Wiz Khalifa, B.O.B., Bruno Mars and Cream.

5. 2 very unexciting/non
First Attempts
eye catching fonts. Do
not relate to audience
needs.
Jordan Kierans
This was my first Cloud Nine
attempt at an album
cover. I captured the
simplicity I wanted
when I first set out to
make the cover, but
the lighting and the
background colour is
not as eye catching
as I first hoped. I
therefore decided
not to use this cover
as it did not have the
artistic style that I
first hoped for.

6. First Attempts
Again, for the back
cover, I wanted
more from the
image. This did not
achieve the model I
was going for and
did not work well
as an album
feature. This 1. I am Who I am
basically is just a
2. Picture Perfect
picture of a
musician on a 3. Drunk
bench and does not 4. Stroke of Luck
say much about the 5.KK
style of music. It 6.High
lacks any real detail 7. Jaeger For The Room
which is why it was 8. 1 Euro
not successful. 9. Cloud 9

7. Fonts/Colours
I tried to follow the conventions of
a music album when creating my
product. I asked myself ‘are the
fonts/colours significant to the
music genre of my star?’
This is something I tried to incorporate
in my media product. I thought the
use of a tint for the album cover
would be appropriate and a
phsychedelic rear cover. This would
enable it to be eye catching to the
audience. Also, with it is a trend
with Atlantic Records’ albums the
have an artistic influence e.g. Led
Zeppelin III pictured here.
I realised that my first drafts did not account for
the needs/uses of my target audience. If I was
to pull off a successful album cover, I would
have to up my game and make some drastic
design changes...

8. Jack Daniels and converse/
typically consumed products
by teenage/young adults
audiences. This is good for Psychedelic wood pattern
the needs/uses of audience. design.
Front Cover: Back Cover/tracklist:
Simplistic design with artistic influence. Record Label – promotion/brand recognition.
The main tree itself stands alone, much Tracklist in yellow – two colours
like the artist who is a solo performer. purple and yellow compliment
each other as they both make a
statement on the piece by
Graffiti style font – find common
catching the attention of the
ground with audience. Stereotypically,
audience.
younger generation tend to be the ones
who find graffiti design interesting.

9. Promotion Poster:
I tried to follow the
conventions of most Graffiti fonts from album
promotion posters in cover – brand recognition.
magazines.
In music magazines such as Q,
they promote both the album
and (if there is one) a tour of
the artist so fans can watch
them perform live. This was
something I tried to include in
my piece in order to tailor to
the needs and uses of
audience. Praise from an independent
organisation – this was something I
used to try and ‘big up’ the artist.
Record label, also
brand recognition and
the fact that other Advertisement of album
popular artists are ‘Cloud 9’ to help create a
signed to that label brand.
could help promote
Jordan Kierans as a
star.