This document analyzes and summarizes the key elements and intended messages communicated through the CD cover designs of four different artists: Ke$ha, Spice Girls, Sex Pistols, and Jack Penate. For each cover, it identifies visual cues that indicate the artist/album name, genre of music, and themes or qualities the artist aims to represent through the cover design. Overall, the document examines how CD cover art can clearly identify the artist and aim to promote recognition, while also conveying messages about the music through symbolic colors, imagery and design elements.

1. Promotion through...CD Cover DesignBy Amy Dinsey

2. Ke$haThis CD cover clearly identifies the artist name (Ke$sha) and the name of the album (Animal). It makes the name of the artist clear by having it in a very similar colour to the colour of her lips, linking them together to try and erase any confusion the consumer may have with which word is the name/album title.By having the main image as a close up of the female audience, it helps the audience to gain recognition of the artist, especially useful as this is her debut album. It shows that she’s a solo artist, and wants to be known as this as she’s got the gold lipstick directing the audience to her lips. I think this could be to either aesthetically please the audience or to show that she sings. The damaged effect on the edges of the cover could signify that she has been inspired by older music, but has brought her own edge to make it new again, or even that she knows what’s been done before so is able to do something completely diverse. The gold/yellow colour on the text and lips of the artist connote that there’s something different and new about this artist. This ties in with the name of the album ‘Animal’ as it represents something fierce and crazy about the artist. The way that the text has designed to look like glitter gives the audience a hint that this artist is probably in the pop genre.

3. Spice GirlsThe way that the background is white, make the text and image of the group stand out more, showing that their main focus from this album is to promote themselves through their image. This cover focuses on the different characteristics of the members of the girl group, through the colours of the letters in ‘Spice’ as well the way that each member has been dressed. This relates to which ‘spice’ they are, e.g. scary spice is dressed in black to match her name. The spice world logo also gives the group brand identity, as this can then be used over and over again on merchandise and other publications representing the band. It’s also used as the title of their film, linking the band and the film together instantly in the audience’s minds. As they are a girl band, they follow suit by dressing slightly provocatively, interesting the reader either by inspirational motives or just for aesthetic qualities.

4. Sex PistolsThe bright yellow background of this CD cover of Sex Pistol’s album automatically draw the attention of the audience due to it’s brightness, making it interesting to the eye. The bright colours completely clash, and this symbolises the band’s controversy through their music and lyrics, for example singing sarcastically about ‘God Save The Queen’. The fact that the title of the album is explicit also represents this, showing their rebellion against what’s supposed to be correct, and just doing what they want with their music, without caring what anyone else thinks. The fact that the band themselves aren’t physically on the cover may represent that their image isn’t the most important thing about the band, instead it’s the music and the meaning behind the music, as shown by the cover just representing the title and band name. The word’s ‘bollocks’ and ‘sex’ symbolise straight away to the audience that this band are within the punk rock genre, as this is usually a very explicit genre, along with sex being one of popular topics for songs.The way that the text and pink highlight of the band’s name is at a slant and not a dead straight line also symbolises punk rock, as the genre is much more edgy and not so neatly put together as most mainstream genre’s like pop.

5. Jack PenateThis cover for Jack Penate shows his genre of music through the design in a number of ways. The actual image of him playing shows his style of dress which is quite indie due to the chequered shirt, skinny jeans and big trainers. This represents the indie genre well as it fits in with the stereotypical dress code for the genre. The image itself is blurry due to movement, showing the audience that the music on the album is probably mostly at quite a fast pace. The guitar he’s playing also represents the indie genre, especially due to the positioning of the guitar on his body as it’s above his hip. If the guitar was lower and below the hip it could connote that he is more within the punk genre. The white outline behind the image makes it look like a Polaroid picture, giving the cover a slightly vintage edge, also linking back to the indie genre. The background behind the image is a mixture of different drawings, from a window frame to a boat, with a mustard yellow background. This connotes that this album is quite different from anything else in the genre, and maybe that it’s a mixture of lots of different bits of inspiration that’s he’s put together into this one album.