The document discusses trends in album artwork, including image-based covers that focus on a central photograph to draw attention, portrait covers that are popular for solo artists as it establishes their presence, photo manipulation covers that are bold and convey information about the artist's personality or message, type-based covers where the band or album name in large fonts makes it recognizable, and minimalistic covers that appeal to purchasers with open space but risk being too simple.

1. ALBUM ARTWORK
TRENDS

2. IMAGE BASED
An image based cover tends to centrally focus
on the photograph rather than the typography,
as its bold effectiveness is enough to draw
attention to the albums purchasers, generally
increasing cd sales in the process. Image based
album covers can be individual and quirky, but
can create a powerful response if they’re
presented dramatically, without the additional
effects such as manipulation for example. A few
photography based album covers sometimes
prefer to use the band name or album title, as
the image generally speaks for itself.

4. PORTRAIT
Portrait album covers are generally popular with
highly successful solo artists as it makes them
stand out as an isolated figure compared to
bands. It also establishes their presence, and also
draws the attention to purchasers as their face
tends the cover the whole size of the CD cover.
Extreme close up photographs tend to be
effective due to the amount of detail, lighting,
shadows that can be created from the face,
which makes them strong and bold.

6. PHOTO MANIPULATION
Photo manipulation tends to be out of the
ordinary, or a bit bizarre. This generally tells the
purchaser what the band is like, based around
their personality, the album cover normally tells us
what their music is like and what the album is
about. However sometimes its general a bold
statement which can be anything from religion to
political issues, or just something simply random.
Photo manipulation tends to be the most bold
and creative when it comes to album covers.

8. TYPE BASED
Typography can be very vital when placed on an album
cover. Its importance can be significant if the text
represents either the bands name title, or the bands logo
for example. This trend of album cover is certainly bold
and ‘in your face’ making purchasers notice the album
cover due to its large lettering, colour and style. Fonts
can vary in many sizes, but traditionally the font is usually
large as its spreads over the surface area of the front
cover, making the band title more recognisable. This
could also help a purchaser as they knew what band
they were looking for, but they simply just wanted to
listen to a different album. Alternatively it can attract
new listeners as attention is drawn when typography is
used.

10. MINIMALISTIC
The minimalistic theme is simplistic yet effective
when layed out properly and are cheap and
easy to make and reproduce. These album
covers tend to appeal more to purchasers, as
their view eye is detracted by the space
surrounding the image, as the eye is drawn to
open areas. They can be a great success when
they’re executed properly but they can also be
a hit and mess option as the simplicity is too
straightforward.