Album Artwork Moodboard

In preparation for creating my digipak, I decided to look at existing album covers by musicians whose sound fits the genres I am focusing on. The differences in them all are important because I think this gives me a wider option of how to design the cover for my album when it comes to it. It'll be very important to the overall task because covers are sometimes used in a person's sole decision to listen to the music or to ignore it. Essentially, the cover can define a musician or an album. Here, I have chosen 12 album covers by different musicians to look at. Each musician falls under the same general umbrella term of a music genre but each sounds very different and in turn will tend to have different types of people as their fans, so each has its differences to the next.

MGMT - Oracular Spectacular | Kodaline - In a Perfect World | Modest Mouse - The Moon & Antarctica
The National - Trouble Will Find Me | Bon Iver, Bon Iver - Bon Iver | Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
Iron & Wine - Such Great Heights | Oasis - Dig Out Your Soul | First Aid Kit - The Lion's Roar
Peace - In Love | Death Cab For Cutie - Plans | The Paper Kites - States

What first stands out to me is that 3/4 of these covers (and the majority for all existing album covers by artists like this) don't feature the musician on the cover. This contrasts completely album artwork for music released by pop artists - usually a musician of that genre will have their face plastered on every piece of artwork that's made to accompany their music releases. This is part of the 'star' image element in music. I feel that musicians in the indie music side of the industry are more likely to have their artwork reflect something in the music or mean something to them rather than having their face on it. This is because for them, it's more just about the release of their music than obtaining an identity as a musician.

One of the albums in this selection that does feature the faces of the musicians is MGMT's Oracular Spectacular. I think this reflects the success they had in 2008; their songs 'Kids' and 'Time to Pretend' were hugely popular at the time this album was released. Also, the music video for 'Time to Pretend' is greatly linked to that of the whole album digipak as they're shown with the same appearance. This would make them interchangeable when it came to linking one with the other as most people will have seen either the video or the album in a shop somewhere. This is a great use of promotional integration. I don't think displaying the album name on this artwork was important because it was as if they're selling the artist by throwing the name of the band at the audience. The colours and costumes are also quite vivid so it would certainly catch someone's eye. 

Another thing I find significant is that all bar two album artworks in this group feature the artist's name on the cover. The National are almost hiding their name and the album title in the top right hand corner as this artwork is very focused on the image, but it's still there. Two albums here that don't show the musician's name: they are the albums by Oasis and Bon Iver. However, versions of 'Dig Out Your Soul' exist with the Oasis logo stuck on the left hand side. The digipak for 'Bon Iver, Bon Iver' and every single released from the album features landscape art by Gregory Euclide, a contemporary artist. This was a collaboration between the artist and the sole voice of Bon Iver, singer Justin Vernon. It's all based on one of the concepts of the album, namely transformation. Concept is important because a sole idea can help a musician or an artist create something whole around it. While it may not mean anything to someone who isn't a fan of the band, the artwork will be understood by fans from a previous time or by anyone who can listen to a few sound waves and suddenly understand what it means. Making the album artwork reflect the album is like adding another piece of meaning to it. Furthermore, Bon Iver was popular prior to the release of this meaning that a fanbase had already been established, therefore people will have known about the cover before the actual release. 

Generally, the words and fonts used on the covers is minimal. Kodaline have their name appear bigger than the album title, whereas Death Cab For Cutie does the reverse and Peace have both their name and the album title the same size. Some have dignified logos but generally the musician's name is in a simple font. This means they don't necessarily stand out but they are still there and make themselves known.