Ancillary Task - CD cover

Brief

As part of the music video package, there was the option to do a DVD or CD cover for our chosen artist. Our group has decided to do a CD cover for the artist as well as a webpage. I'm overseeing the CD aspect so to start I have researched and will blog a few female artist CD cover designs such as Beyonce, Cheryl Cole and Pixie Lott who generally fit our target audience of young females. By doing this it could create a picture of what we as a group should aim for.

Beyonce

First thing that is quite obviously notable is the way Beyonce poses to directly interact with the audience by making eye contact. This is fundamental as it is the artist who is the huge selling point and whos image must be shown. The way Beyonce is shown to be looking at the consumer could be used to give the audience the perception of identifying with their favourite artist and at the same time clearly meets the demands of the record label. This I found to also be extremely common amongst female artists, a lot of face-on shots that show most, if not all of the artists face.

As are the conventions of a album/artist CD cover, the name of the shown artist is always written on the front cover, as well as the name of the album. If only a single then the artists name and the name of the track. These were featured on all of the artists I have looked at and pretty much any i've known.

Something that was common in both Beyonce and Cheryl Cole's Album covers was the (implied) naked shot of the artist. This is quite frequently used in terms of a female artist, and shows the 'sex sells' idea. It could perhaps link to Laura Mulvey's idea of the male gaze, and Beyonce being seen as an object of desire. We may not look into doing a similar technique but will bear it in mind when it comes to choice of clothing and appearance.

The back of the album also in most cases features the artist, again linking to the selling point that is the artist. Though I found that a full body shot was often apparent rather than just a head and shoulders shot.

What I have especially taken from both the back of Pixie's album cover and Beyonce's was the aspect of modeling and how it has been integrated into the composition of the artist when printed. Beyonce's striking pose on the back of her album as well as on previous covers on is a good tool that is able to show off her confident personality and something that we need to consider when recreating our own version. Pixie's posing suggests her fun, girly nature which we need to portray.

Obviously the tracks featured are always printed on the back.