My edited photographs and CD front cover art work

As i originally said in my hand drawn plans, i want something completely stripped from special effects and gimmicks as a CD cover, therefore i would just simply like to create, literally the most basic CD cover for my artist.

I feel as Damien Rice is not a pop artist, therefore does not create pop music, no bright colours such as pop art is necessary. The art work, needs to be stripped back and represent his as an artist and a musician rather than a pop artist with gimmicks, as he defiantly is not that. I think an artistic musician, this should be resembled through the art work of his CD, as a buyer in HMV for example would judge on a CD by first looking at the front cover artwork, then would continue their interest by looking on the back of the CD cover. It needs to ooze personality from the musician and needs the image to just suggest them, therefore by using an image which has been seen in their music video, people already know it's been featured in the music video therefore becomes a memorable reoccuring motif.

Here are some edited shots of what i created to make the CD front cover artwork:

This was the first edited version of a CD front cover album artwork which i did.

This first of all, isn't the correct shape for a CD cover as it's a strong rectangle rather than a square, the effect i feel is also slightly overwhelming, however it definitely puts across the artistic flare within my musician.

The font is also a big problem, as it doesn't look anything special at all, the text is the same size which mean the album title is just as important as the artists name. By analysing CD front covers, the conventional way is to make the artists name larger than the CD album title however, i have obviously just ignored that convention.

The shot of tree i feel is strong as a Long Shot lets all of the tree to be involved within the shot. However, this also is a problem as the tree is very tall therefore forcing the shape of the picture to be rectangle rather than a square which is what i need it to be to actually look like a CD cover.

My first album artwork creation was a good way to start off brainstorming, however this is atrocious, there's nothing very much positive about it apart from the artistic flare which the audience receive from it. Also it creates interest as it's not a conventional CD cover, it doesn't even look like a CD cover therefore at least it would gain some interest.

This is my second attempt in creating a CD front cover art work, which is basically a re-edit of the first attempt. All i literally did was crop the image down to a squared shape therefore to make it seem more of a CD cover rather than a poster.

I still don't feel this works as a CD cover artwork as the font isn't anything special at all, it doesn't suggest anything, and it literally looks weak and like I've spent five minutes on it. The framing of the text isn't nicely done and also i don't like the way the name of the artist is stretched along 2 lines instead of one. I also don't feel the colour for the word 'Eskimo' is anything special i feel it should at least be white to connote the idea of ice and snow, reinstated by the title of Eskimo i feel is a stronger idea.

I feel the artistic flare in the artist is still apparent however, the CD cover i feel is still too busy, one thing which is positive about the busy artwork, is the way it looks like ice and snow which connects with the connoting of the title of the album 'Eskimo.'

Overall this is a very weak piece of CD album artwork, i feel i can definitely create something stronger which actually looks like a CD album cover.

After completely scrapping the first idea of trying to replicate the effect of 'snow' within my piece, i took advantage of the winter looking weather (with no leaves on the trees) which looks a lot more realistic than trying to replicate snow.

I love the colours and contrast within this photograph and i also feel through the look of this image, looking like professional photography the artistic element is definitely there. I feel the darkness creates more depth to this album, such as the artist has really dug down into his emotions to create this album. I also love the dark lighting on earth whilst the sky is of a lot stronger brightness which reflects the meaning to the video of the characters journey of discovering the only happy and free place she can be, is in another world. It presents hope and also the reflection of religion within this photograph which i feel is strongly intriguing and interesting for the audience. I love all of the natural textures within this photograph in particular with the shrubbery being completely black, however there's still the texture of leaves and also the texture of wood and man-made brick i feel the colour, brightness and contrast allow this photograph to show the beauty of nature. I also, love the idea of how dominant the tree is within this shot, with man-made buildings and items being only small and less-dominant in the back, i feel it represents the ideology of the artistic musician of the idea of inspiration and influence is all around.

The font i feel is strongly basic however, it's bold and i feel really works within this CD artwork. I love the contrast between image and font through the album title 'Eskimo' i feel the use of white on black makes it stand out and is largely noticeable for the audience to see. I like the size of the title, as it makes the audience look closer to the product before really seeing it, as it is noticeable however not so bold such as Lady Gaga's album title. I also like the contrast of the artist's name Jonathan Brendan across the top, i purposely created that using larger text than the album title as the conventions which i found out by analysing the four album covers was the album title is in smaller font, than the artists name.

The only thing i don't like about this, is the size of the CD cover. Again, it's the wrong size for a CD front cover, it's more wide and looks like a billboard advertisement for the album. However, apart from that error i feel this is a strong piece of art-work and represents the musician as an artist and also represents his ideology as well as the creativity on the album.

This is a re-edit of the third picture which i would use for my CD cover artwork, there is only one big problem with this re-edited version: the font sizes are the same size. As i explained above i want to explain to the audience this is Jonathan Brendan's album, which i feel is part explained by the order of the font on the CD cover as it creates a status hierarchy with the album name being the least important. However, i would like the album name to be smaller text than the artists name. Apart from that the size is a lot better and looks a lot more like a CD cover, however i just feel the size of the text is the problem.

This is the final edit of the photo which i created. I'm very happy with this piece being my CD album art work, i really think it's an artistic piece, although maybe plain however, it allows the audience to take a look into what to expect the music of this artist to be like, which is artistic and creative.

I changed the text size of the title of the album as i feel it's more important to advertise the artists name more than the title of the album as hopefully the artist would become more well known by his name rather then 'the guy who created the album 'Eskimo.''