The document analyzes the album cover design for Kings of Leon's "Only by the Night". It uses Photoshop editing techniques to create an effective look and feel. Conventions like the artist's face are used, along with symbolic imagery like owls at night relating to the album title. Bright primary colors and a vintage yellow wash give it a retro style appealing to the target 20-35 male audience. The layout is basic with minimal text to portray a rough, niche rock style different from polished pop music covers.

1. Analysis of Digipak:Kings of Leon‘only
by the night’.
For this advert there has been a large use of
Photoshop/editing to make sure that they have
created an effective look/feel. This advert
includes conventions such as the use of the
artists face, in a more unique way for this advert
in particular, with relation between the image
and words, for example ‘only by the night’
relating to owls which are famously known to be
around at night. The advert has also used a more
digital effect, more masculine and effects that
are used online/gaming to add a more
professional effect to attract a certain target
audience. The font is not specific when it comes
to the name of the artist, which shows how they
have not got the same signature font for every
album cover, but interchange depending on the
style of the album cover itself.
The colours used include red, blue, green, black
and a yellow wash to the image. These colours
work well together with the yellow wash adding a more vintage feel to the advert, with it
appearing to have been made in the 70s etc. The bright blue, red and green are used as the
contrast colours to brighten up the cover, with them all being primary colours it shows how
they are trying to look slightly more amateur in comparison to some artists covers. The blue
and red are very bright and balance out the attention of the audience from the photo to the
writing. The red has connotations of danger and the blue has connotations of a virtual world,
which can relate to video games using intertextuality. The wording is extremely simple with
their being very minimal writing. Only the names of their most well-known songs are on the
front, with the information of ‘out now’ to tell the audience their album is now on sale, their
name and also the name of the album. The artists name is always at the top of the album
because the brain reads from above, working its way down. There is not much use of
punctuation to add a more masculine and relaxed feel to the rocky and rough style of the
pop/rock genre. The font that is used is straight and rather plane, but with sharp edges and
very little curves when circular. The font matches and uses the style of gaming and the virtual
world/internet, this relates to the target audience being male and of an older average age
who will remember old-school video games etc.
The choice of images has been very well planned with the design wanting to aim/create the
feel of one face from lots of portraits put together. The portraits include those of band
members and owls with four different sections making up one large image. If focused on in
real depth the photo shows to have small crosses in each corner and in the middle edges,
these crosses create a feel of amateur camera skills and as though the photo has just been

2. taken or so the audience is looking through the camera lens as the photo is going to be taken.
The wash of colour adds a vintage feel which will appeal to the older target audience (20-35)
that will be more interested/ educated around the earlier year of the 60s/70s. The layout of
the advert is fairly basic, with the font being each end of the photo without any overlapping
which takes more time in Photoshop. This shows how they are a more rough and ready and
targeting a more niche market of people who do not want the glitzand glamour of pop music.