cd cover analysis

Lily Allen- Alright, Still

This album cover looks as though it has been created using photoshop there is a lot of different little pictures included in it that wouldn't have been necessarily in a picture set up, so might have been art worked in. There still looks to be some handmade or doodle pieces involved that are in black and white that are arrows and clouds. 

The images around the main picture of Lily Allen don't seem to be relevant to the album title, they are a bit random but they might have a relevance to song titles included on the album which would make them make sense. The actual album cover as a whole looks to be quite fun and imaginative its not taken very seriously and it looks retro as there is bold colours and the chequered print. 

Lily Allen is featured on the front of the album cover she looks quite relaxed she's wearing trainers and a dressed so its not too over the top, she's sitting on a bike which shows she didn't want it to be taken too seriously. 

The main focus of the cover is clearly Lily Allen because everything else all the other pictures and doodles seem to be layered behind her. There is quite a lot of black and white but i think this just makes the album cover stand out a bit more and makes the colour that has been used more noticeable. 

The typography of the artists name is in a kind of speech bubble that looks like a cartoon lightening strike, it is in black and white which stand out against the grey colour checkered pattern. I think the positioning of the title works quite well as it is not interfering with any of the images underneath the whole top 1/4 of the album cover is kept reasonably clear of any other images.

The title of the album has been worked in with all the other images it has been written in bright red and has been created in a bold 3D looking font, this is quite hidden but can still be seen due to the colour it has been designed in. 

Jay-z- The Blueprint 3 

I think the album cover is based on a large collection of white instruments stacked on top of each other in a corner of a white room or set up. The 3 red lines look like they have been photoshopped into the picture but were infact also painted onto the instruments. The whole thing was the photographed and placed on the front cover. 

I think the 3 red lines represent the 3 in 'Blueprint 3' but the actual use of red isn't obvious, although i do think the red does look very effective and eye catching against all of the white. I think the white instruments and white background are quite calming and then the red from the 3 lines give the impression of danger or anger. 

The use of instruments certainly gives the impression that jay-z is very musical but there may be an undying message of their use that may be explained again by some of the songs on the album itself. 

You can tell that the album is a photograph because it looks very realistic and 3D i don't think you would have got the same effect if you recreated the same thing on photoshop, you can see all the shadows from the positioning of the instruments and you can tell that the room itself was lit from the top because the bottom is quite dark compared to the top. 

The typography on this album cover is quite simple the artists name and album title does not interfere with the design they are placed on both top hand corners of the album and are written in black. The black was a good colour to use as it stands out against the white background, but the font itself isn't very bold so it doesn't stand out too much. Also the font is quite small, but Jay-Z has been written in a different font to the album title and also is bolder and bigger which may show that his name is more important. 

Mika- Life in cartoon motion

This album artwork is totally different to the first 2, it looks as though it has been created using more handmade techniques, the images look hand drawn, there could even be different textures that have been scanned into it. It looks very doodly and the pictures look very random although the title is 'life in cartoon motion' and the drawings do look very animated to a certain extent, they look like illustrations but maybe not as cartoony. 

I think the way the album cover has been designed to look fun and childlike, its clearly not been designed to be taken too seriously so maybe has been aimed at a younger audience. 

The colours that have been used are very bright and stand out a lot, there seems to be different layers to the composition of this piece and has been tried to be made to look a bit 3D. In some parts of the artwork it loos like the colour has been added using watercolours, but then other parts look very bold like they have been coloured using marker pens. There is still some laments of shading even if this was made by hand and there is a mixture of tonal contrasts. 

The typography of the artists name has been worked into the actual design and looks 3D as it looks as if it is coming off of the page, the font that has been used makes it look like a stencil has been used to create the main letters. The writing has not been written straight and has been titled slightly up at the right, but the fact the main letters are white makes it stand out against the rest of the artwork as it is just full of colour. The name of the album has also been worked into the artwork in quite a swirly writing, it looks as though it could have been hand written in black ink, but stands out against the browny colour strips, but the title is again quite small compared to the size of the artist name.

sketchnoting

We placed items on large pieces of paper we then had to draw things around it that it reminded us of or that we could link it too. We also had to think about if we could link it to anything else on the page and how we would do it. I think this technique was quite hard to do as you could write words although it would have been much easier to explain what you were talking about if you could. The pages did look really effective after we had finished as it was nearly filled with loads of little doodles explaining the objects, the pictures from birdseye view show best the effect it had. 

egg packaging experiments

The first 3 pictures are of my egg packaging before and after the test we had to go through which consisted of having a heavy text book dropped on the our packaging and seeing how long the egg took too break my egg lasted 5 drops. 

These were other picture of people in the classes egg packaging and how they ended up looking, some of the designs didnt work aswell as others did, I think the more box looking packaging worked better for the eggs as they were the packaging that lasted longer. 

Record Label Logo Analysis

Def Jam 

Def Jam Recordings is an American record label, focusing predominantly on hip hop and urban music. Def Jam is owned by Universal Music Group and operates as a part of The Island Def Jam Music Group.

In 2012 Def Jam recordings became the number-one rhythmic label, for having 7 #1's, from Rihanna, Kanye West, Jay Z, Neyo and Justin Bieber

Def Jam was founded by Isaac Rowlatt-Harrod in his dorm room at New York University and its first release was a single by his punk-rock group Hose.

I like the Def Jam logo because it gives off the urban feel that the label focuses its music on, this is done by the spray paint effect. It looks like the logo has been created using a stencil and then spray painted quite roughly as there is drips coming from it and there is sprays around the edges. Although the logo does give the impression that the technique that they used was handmade but in actual fact it does look like it has been done digitally, maybe using Photoshop.

I think the logo has been created in black and white because the black bold writing stands out against the white back ground. I think because the font is bold also helps the writing stand out, you would be able to see what it says from a distance. I like the fact that the D & the J are bigger than the other letters, i think that if you were to take the other letters away the record label would be able to use the DJ as a simple version of their logo.

Ministry Of Sound

Ministry Of Sound London, referred to as simply Ministry Of Sound or MoS is a record label but also as a nightclub based in London. Ministry Of Sound has a network of international offices in Australia, Germany and the United States. 

Its record label was first established in 1995 with the release of 'The Annual'. The Annual went onto sell over 160,000 copies and paved the way for a now-global label with over 50 million dance albums and singles sold to date. 

Ministry Of Sound remains an independent label, and continues to deliver albums and singles. In January 2006, the company purchased record label Hed Kandi from The Guardian Media Group and plans to continue maintaining the group. 

The logo for Ministry Of Sound gives of a British vibe because of the crown on the top, this also gives the logo a more official and governmental effect. The way the logo is set up is very modern, i like the way the 3D gate looking feature in the middle is the main focus of the logo. The writing around the outside is in a black background to make the white text stand out against it, the text is in capital letters which makes it stand out more. The logo has been created in many different colour schemes, each album has been had a different logo on it, they change the effects and the colours, i think this is a good way to ensure each album they release looks more interesting and appealing to the target audience. That idea would definitely be good if you were a record label who has an artists that brings out a lot of albums so would be something i would consider using in my CD packaging.