EVALUATION OF 2 IDEAS

When it came to deciding which album cover I wanted to use for my print productions, I created 4 ideas and in the end I was left with my 2 favourite, and in my opinion, most professional looking images.

Idea 1 is an image of a mask suspended in water and idea 2 is a picture of a koi fish in dark murky water. Both album covers feature images of water and they both have the name of the band featured, although this is bigger in the image that features the mask.

PROS OF IMAGE ONE

-       -Idea and image one related much more to my music video. This is because I used an image of a mask, which was the same mask that I had used in my video. Similarly, I chose to suspend my mask in water which to me, made reference to the title track, Tidal Wave, but also the title of the album I had created which was waves.

-       -The colour pallet of this album cover was much more de statured, which again linked to my music video as in this, I had chosen to de saturated some of the more challenging parts of my music video.

-       -I had spent a very long time researching typefaces to use in my productions and when I found the one I have used (Aliens And Cows) I decided that this would make this image seem professional but at the same time make it a bit more playful in the sense that it wasn’t just a simple type face like Bebas Nueue which I had experimented with on the inside panels of this image.

-       -The name waves for me is a pro of this idea as it allowed me to think of ideas for song names that were surrounded by the idea of water, much like Tidal Wave.

-       -By using the images I had taken of the mask suspended in water, I had taken a lot of rough images I could use on the panels of the CD cover, for example, I had images of the water that the mask had been suspended in before the mask was placed in which meant I had more images to manipulated and use of the left, right and back panels of the CD cover.

-       -Created a strong focal point by only having one element present in the image which meant I could make links between the video and the album much more strongly. This was also genre specific as research had shown me that many indie album covers only featured one element in cover art.

CONS OF IMAGE ONE

-       Although having one image is genre specific, I thought this was quite boring and not very eye catching which I felt was the opposite of my music video which contained more than just one element throughout.

-       The placing of waves isn’t quite right as it doesn’t sit directly between the letters where Tempesst is placed.

-       I don’t think using black and white type on a grey/blue background is entirely effective. I think it would have looked better if it was all white as it would have stood out more against the de saturated background.

-       The ‘eyes’ on the mask have been distorted by bubbles in the water which makes the mask look deformed or like I have edited the image badly.

-       The colour of the cheeks of the mask could have been changed to match the colour of the lips as they look a bit weak in colour, this could made the red more prominent in the album cover and could have been used other panels on the album.

PROS OF IMAGE TWO

-       Image 2 has generic links to water and the flow/movement of water.

-       It shows an image of fish would could have intertexutal references. Could also be linked to the idea of a tidal wave as there are fish in the sea.

-       Nothing is to say that this image was taken in the sea which could make an even stronger link to tidal wave as the fish could have been washed into shallow waters by a wave.

-       You can make out my reflection in the water which makes a reference to the music video as I play the female character.

-       Could use the idea of there being one big fish in the centre of the image as a focal point and the smaller fish following as a signifier of the character’s relationship with each other.

-       The picture also shows other fish swimming in the opposite which could signify the people that surround the couple’s relationship as other people may not approve of it STRONG LINKS TO THE MUSIC VIDEO.

CONS OF IMAGE TWO

-      - The image isn’t really in focus, there is no focus on one main element e.g. The fish, the bridge or the greenery that surrounds the image.

-      - The colour pallet doesn’t really match the video as it is quite bright in terms of the fish in the image.

-      - The name of the album isn’t on the picture as the negative space is hard to interpret.

-       Name of the band is far too small and almost impossible to read.

-    -   The font doesn’t particularly suit the image itself- perhaps should be more simple.

-     -  No extra corresponding images that could be used in the CD cover panels so would have to use the same image throughout which could be a bit boring as the colour of the water is an off brown and there is no focus on the fish so they wouldn’t be easy to manipulate.

-     -  Bottom left corner of the image has a weird pattern that would need to be removed if it was going to be used.

-       Low quality image that has been taken quite badly made it hard to edit on Photoshop.