By Martin Ward, Lewis Parkinson and Josh van Tonder

1. Album Cover’s Codes and Conventions

2. Artist’s Name
There will always be the Artist’s name on the front of the album cover, this is key
to creating the stars image and allows their target audience to see their name
along with an eye catching main image on the front of the album. This is very
clear on Example’s latest album, with the bold black font and bright yellow
background it is the most eye catching thing on the album, fulfilling the
designers vision of engaging the audience from a far.

3. Album Title
There will always be the Album’s Title on the front of the album for the obvious
reason, but it is also to give the audience a feel of what the Artist was thinking
while creating the Album but also what the album might contain, song wise. For
example the name of Eminem’s album, The Eminem Show, is an insight into his
current life, he believes that the life he is currently leading is like something you
would expect to see on a television show and a lot of the things that he portrays
aren’t possibly the real Eminem and he is putting on somewhat of an act.

4. Main Image
There is always going to be a main image on the front of the album and possibly
on the back aswell, it could be in the form of a Portrait, Text or black and white
image, this is to get a message across to the audience about the artist’s or band’s
unique interests/styles. Different genres would normally have different images,
for example a pop act such as Rhianna would have herself on the album, but a
more alternative act such as Foo Fighters would have a logo or image which
would be putting a message across.

5. Age Restrictions
You sometimes will see Age Restrictions on albums telling you that you must be
a certain age to purchase the album, a lot of album’s nowadays contain age
ratings, but they can be used it different ways, for example an age rating on an
album by an artist such as Rihanna would be placed on the back to somewhat
hide it, where as on someone like 50 Cent or Eminem it would be placed on the
front because these artists are somewhat known for their ‘badboy’ appeal in the
industry with them not conforming to rules and regulations in there music with
the song being about violence or containing certain swear words.