The document provides guidance on conventions for designing CD covers, including considering the music genre, using representative images of artists, and eye-catching fonts and imagery. It discusses using close-up or full-body shots of artists, and edited or design-focused images. Cover elements should appeal to the target audience and reflect the music's genre. The document also examines back cover layouts and includes a mock-up of a designed CD cover combining elements discussed.

1. Analysis of
CD covers

2. CD Cover Conventions
When creating our album cover it was
important to consider the generic layout
conventions of a CD cover. We used these
examples as guides to create our own...
Jessie J Cher Lloyd The Black Eyed Peas

3. Genre
Different aspects to take into account were
things such as the genre of music and the
character we used in our video. We
looked for inspiration from artists such as
Jessie J, Cher Lloyd and The Black Eyed
Peas, because they all have a similar
genre of music which is ‘pop music’. The
album covers we took inspiration from
are eye-catching and edgy.

4. Star and Icons
Jessie J uses a close up image of
her face on the front cover
of her album for easy
recognition to the audience.
Cher Lloyd uses a long shot image of
herself for the front cover of her album to
represent her image through her clothes
which portray the genre of music she
produces.
The Black Eyed Peas use an edited image
of a face close up. The editing of this
image is effective because it represents
the techno influence in their music genre.

5. Image
What does the image on the front cover
represent to our audience? Is the image a
photograph or a quirky design? Will the artist
be presented on the front cover of the album?
The image on the cover of the album is what is
going to attract the audience, so making it
eye-catching and appealing is very important.
We took a lot of different aspects into account
involving the MES (Mise en scene), such as
colour, costume, props, editing, and
positioning of the artist.

6. Font Design- Font is important on the front
cover of the album as it must
link with the genre of music
The font used for Jessie J’s album cover is
effective as it represents her as a female
artist. She is known for her soul voice
and mix of contemporary R&B with pop
music which is well portrayed through
the sofisicated font.
Again Cher Lloyd uses a girly font to
represent her femininity. However the
single title is presented in a bold
statement font which makes it eye-
catching and gives it some edge.
The black eyed peas use of font
indicates a much more electro feel to
their genre of music. Hence the
lightning bolt effect under the name
of the artist.

7. Representation
How do we want the star to be represented to
the audience? We had to consider how we
wanted to portray the star which enabled us
to relate to music genre and how the audience
would react to that. We want to give the
audience the right impression of our star, we
aimed to convey likability.

8. Audience
When creating our product we had to consider
what type of audience we aim to target. Who
exactly will want to buy this CD? We wanted
to reflect the audiences particular interest in
music, therefore conveying the popular genre
of music which appeals to the audience. How
does the audience feel when listening to this
music? Why do they like this music? Can they
relate to the music produced with their own
identity?

9. Back Cover of an CD Album
We took inspiration from these back covers of a CD album.
The soundtrack is listed in the centre of the page this looks
professional and neat because is it simple yet the lines are
effectively layout. Each of the CD back covers have a
barcode, therefore we copied an image of a barcode and
placed it on the back of our cover to create realism and make
our CD look more official.

10. Mock up idea for our CD cover
We took inspiration from Jessie J’s front cover by using an image of our
character to create familiarity and then we used the same idea as The Black
Eyed Peas front cover and edited our image into a black and white contrast
effect to give off the electro pop influence in genre.

11. How we created our album
front cover
We took a photo of our character on the
green screen so that we could edit it
onto a black background
We Used...
•An image of one side of her face, to present familiarity.
•A mid shot image so the character was positioned with
hand out with light painting in her hand.
• Photoshop to edit the image into black and white
contrast effect.
• Light painting heart shape, to give the electro pop feel.
• A sophisticated bold font to represent the character
and her genre of music.
• The album name ‘catching all the lights’ to link in with
the light painting effect