The Final CD Artwork

Here is the final artwork for Front, Back, Inside and CD. We changed the colour on audience feedback to something more plain, since people suggested that bright pink didn't really suit the Indie genre or our band, but hopefully still original. The colour we've used suits the informal, "home" feel of our video and uses the plain convention that we found in our CD research, but avoids the stereotypical black/white.

On the inside sections we've used the same conventions and tried to capture the spirit of our video and band in the photos on the left - a mixture of fun and more serious.

CD cover

The Cd cover is almost complete the only thing we need now is photos of the band to fit inside the photo frames.

CD cover

This images are closer to our final design because these are actual photo Hannah has taken of her own fireplace so we'll have to worry less about adding shadows etc. These still aren't the final product however as these were taken on a phone so the quality isn't that good. for the design of the inside of the CD we a wanted a wall full of photo frames with different images of the band and shots from the music video but these would require more editing because this will almost all be done entirely on photoshop.

CD cover

Today we made a mock of our CD cover which you can see below

We edited these images together on photoshop and added a blur on the bit of the fireplace under the mantle as well as just behind the frame to create a shadow to make it look more real.

This will probably not be our final background but we used this floral wallpaper because we thought it fitted our band's indie image and the idea that kitsch is cool.

Because it's just a mock we added a photo of the Temper Trap in the frame to give us idea of how it will look. we also added a slight blur on the inside of the frame to make it look like that photo is rally in there. in reality Hannah is going to take a photo of her fireplace but this is just a mock p to give us idea on the final product.

Over the weekend we are going to take our own photos of a fireplace, photo frame and our band and make a replica of this. Our original design was slightly different to this but we found that it was too simple and dark to fit with our music video. This version has the photo in a house, as our music video is, and the text has been made smaller and more delicate so that it doesn't look out of place.

CD Cover ideas, part 2

In this rough ideas we have built on our initial mock-up and gone with the simple approach that we found in our research. There is also a link to the video/song through the photo frame (in our video the girl is searching for a photo), though inside is a picture of the band. If we were to use this as the final idea, however, the photo would be of the actors playing the band in our video, rather than the actual band as it is here.

The main problem of this design is the text, which is dull and unprofessional. For a final idea we would have to design a more interesting logo and text to use throughout the artwork. Though the background is plain and simple, like our research, it is not wholely successful here either. This is probably as there is simply too much of it, the image is very small and does not command enough attention. A better idea could be to have the entire cover in photoframe style, so there would be no digital background at all.

CD Cover Research: The Boxer Rebellion - Union

In some ways the artwork for "Union" is even more simplistic than for the others we have researched. Aside from the front cover and behind the CD (bottom right in the photos) it is entirely black, with track titles and logos. Perhaps this is a step too far as it suggests the album is more grim and minimalist than it actually is. However, the front cover art is excellent (simple once again) and though it does not clearly link with the title it works. It is mysterious and suggests different emotions than "Union" might initially make you think of, even making the title sound ironic. Here again the same font is used throughout, so we should definitely make sure we follow that convention.

As our video is not ironic and links strongly to the song it would be unwise for us to follow these themes in our artwork, however interesting they are. While not being overly happy, "Love Lost" is not a grim song either, so we will avoid using as much black emptiness as this design does too.

CD Cover Research: Bombay Bicycle Club - I Had the Blues But I Shook Them Loose

"I Had the Blues But I Shook Them Loose" differs from the other albums we have researched so far in that there are images on each part of the artwork: front/back covers, CD and insert (though the picture on the CD is just a detail from the front cover). However, Bombay Bicycle Club have made this work by linking them all through the black-and-white style and none grab all the attention from the others. The cover image could have been too chaotic but for the clever removing of colour, which lets it keep focus and still reflect the more upbeat music that it accompanies. Because of this the artwork sells the band well, by reflecting their image and hinting at the musical style without giving too much away. If we choose to use multiple images like this we will have to find our own way of linking them and keeping the artwork as one coherent package.

CD Cover Research: Snow Patrol - Eyes Open

Again, on this Snow Patrol album, the font is kept the same throughout the artwork, as is the distorted (nearly picasso-esque) visual style of the front cover. Simplicity is the word here as well, using only blacks, greys and whites. The two lovers in the image fit the album's running theme of love and relationships and the mise-en-scene fits the tone, which is not often happy.

It's becoming clear that colour and complexity are things for us to avoid in our own design and that a successful cover should link to the lyrical and musical themes of the album. In our case this will be theme of something lost, whether that is achieved through an image of someone searching or the object they are searching for (as we have already tested).

CD Cover Research: Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz!

Here the predominate colour is white, rather than black, but the front and back covers are still quite plain and simple. What is odd here is that the artwork for the insert and CD do not really match the covers. Visually they are very different, using new colours and the CD, far from being plain, is quite busy and bright. The effect of this is quite jarring and, though the overall moods are relatively similar, it is confusing.

As our song is quite simple and down-beat I doubt we will design anything like the more cheery insides seen here. The lack of logo/title on the front cover is puzzling as well, they only appear on a sticker, not the actual design. Perhaps with a more abstract band this would make sense but neither Yeah Yeah Yeahs or The Temper Trap fit that description so we won't go down that route.

CD Cover Research: The Temper Trap - Conditions

This is the CD cover for The Temper Trap's "Conditions", that our song is taken from. It is a very simple design, made up of mostly black with one image. On the back cover there is no image, just record company logos, a barcode and the track listing in the same font as the band's logo and album title on the front cover. This font is repeated on the CD itself as well. This simple design is effective, it conveys well the mood general mood of the album and the image is appropriate: it interprets "Conditions" as human conditions, and visualises that.

Linking the music with the artwork can be a powerful technique that we will emulate with our own cover. We will probably go with a simple design as well, partly for practical reasons but it also helps focus on the music, something that The Temper Trap themselves try and do.

Reasoning Behind 'Conditions' Cover

    The Temper Trap’s album cover for their 2009 debut, Conditions, which has spawned the hit single, Sweet Dispositon, is a striking picture of a little girl, who it turns out is an Afghani refugee.
Turns, out it wasn’t the Melbourne-spawned, London-based band’s first choice.
“The original photo that we wanted to take I think it was a photo of a girl who had just witnessed the twin towers collapsing on television,” lead singer-lyricist Dougy Mandagi told QMI Agency recently.
‘So she had quite a horrified, kind of stunned look on her face and our label at the time thought, ‘That’s not the kind of message we want to be putting out. Like imagine if that was on a billboard in the middle of a highway in the U.K. somewhere and people look at that – Temper Trap, album out now, girl petrified –  They’re not going to want to buy that.’
“I didn’t agree,” said Mandagi.  ”I just thought it was a really powerful photograph. But anyways, it’s all about compromise. So we ended it up going with (an alternative photo). Do you know that really famous National Geographic photo of the Afghani girl with the piercing green eyes? It’s world famous. Well, the same photographer that took that, took this one as well.

CD Cover Research: Ideas

One of our ideas for a cd cover is to have the item that the girl is looking for in the video (which we have decided will be a photo) on the cover in the middle with the title 'Love Lost' either side and the band's name under the photo.

obviously there would be in a picture in the middle this is just a mock up idea that will propbrably be different from the final cd, this was just one of our ideas.

CD Cover research: Bombay Bicylce Club

Here is an example of a much better single cover that is individual from the album art and more in tune with the mood of the single. However, it still has subtle links to the album cover through the black-and-white photography and the band's logo.

The relative simplicity of it and plainness of the photography is something we might try to emulate as well, as this is a band and single with a similar sound and image to The Temper Trap.

CD Cover research: The Temper Trap

As well as making our music video we have to design a cd cover and packaging for the song. To start the research we've looked at some of The Temper Trap's other singles and the artwork for them:

I don't particularly like these single covers. Essentially they are just variations on The Temper Trap's album cover which, while this links them to the album in a clear way, is quite unimaginative and says little about the individual songs. Neither are very appealing to look at either and I think the lined/grainy effect looks unprofessional and hasty.

For our CD Cover then we will probably try and design something more relevant to the actual song and with more polished graphics, though some link to the album artwork could be good too.