Album Art Research

Here is a few album art covers which I like.

This album cover is from the artist: Randolph, and this was his first album, called Ignorance. I liked this album cover because the background is dark and mysterious, whereas the pink triangle gives off a glow and stands out against the dark background. There is also a moon in the distance which makes the background have more of a dimension, and it also shows a few tree leaves on it, which also gives the impression of loneliness, which I believe the artist was trying to achieve to match his album: Ignorance. I think that there is a good choice of font, as it looks professional. They have also filled up the triangle with the letters, which I think is a creative idea, however, what I would have done differently is have the word Randolph and Ignorance be a bit more distinguished, so maybe change the colour of one of the words, as I think it looks a bit messy. However I also like the shadow of the letters behind the texr as once again it adds dimension to the picture and makes the triangle look more powerful.
This is Randolph's second album, called Fame. When you first look at the picture it is unsure what you should look at, as there are lots of background images in this picture behind the triangles. However there is a big bold black text saying FAME, followed by the artists name Randolph underneath.  I think the white/grey background was a good choice in colours as it makes the green triangles look more significant. There is a zebra behind the triangles wearing a crown, to resemble his album songs, about fame, which I thought was interesting as usually people choose a lion as the animal to have a crown, whereas Randolph has chosen a Zebra, which usually gets chased/eaten by a lion, so I think there may be a hidden message here that he has a harder task to reach fame than other people.

This album cover, is for Kanye West's 2007 album called Graduation, the artwork was completed by Takashi Murakami. The visual art is characterised by cartoonish creatures that appear friendly and cheerful at first glance, but possess dark and twisted undertones. The cover is based on Kanye's theme of student life, showing its a place of dreams and a place to have fun, but can also be a scary and terrible place. The bear you see in the top left, is known as Drop Out Bear, and is known to be Kanye's mascot. Overall I think this is a very creative album colour which would grab your attention if you saw it in a store, and I think there is a lot of meaning to it, however I also think that it doesn't resemble him as a hip hop artist. There are also some music videos which use the same animated effect. 

This is Jay-Z's album called Magna Carta Holy Grail. At first, I thought the album cover looked awful, and not appealing to pick up, however upon further research I have found that the statues above are from a museum called the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the sculpture is called Alpheus and Arethusa. They are from a Greek myth where Arethusa is pursued by the river god Alpheus. In attempt to escape her pursuer, Arethusa transforms into a stream. So I believe that maybe Jay-Z is referencing his own transformation from hustler to rapper to performance artist, or maybe he just spotted the sculpture and thought it would look good as an album cover. 

This is the album cover for Pink Floyd's "Dark Side Of The Moon" which is the 3rd best selling album of all time. At first glance it doesn't look like much at all. There is no sense of normality or convention. One thing I find interesting is that there isn't a name here, and one of the main purposes of the album cover is to attract attention to it, and promote the band/artist, however there isn't anything on here, but I it may be seen as a more effective way of having people be intrigued by the album cover and want to find out more. The symbol in the middle is something recognised by scientist and is to do with the refraction of light through a prism. This denotes that the band are actually quite well educated if they know scientific symbols but then at the same time connotes what the album is actual about; conflict, greed, ageing, and mental illness.

This album cover is for the Artist called David Bowie, and his album called The Next Day. The background image, behind the Title: The Next Day is from an old album of him called Heroes. Some people think what he done here is genius, whereas others believe it was a stupid thing to do. In my opinion, it was a clever idea which had some interesting meanings to it, but judging the album covers art, it is boring to look at. Upon research, I have found that the meaning it has, is that he is still the same person as he was before, and that he hasn't changed, I have also heard that it is suppose to mean that we have to leave the past behind us and move onto the next day, because we have no other choice. The reason I think this is clever is because it can create a lot of speculation, which can help promote the album, furthermore, it may generate interest in his older album called Heroes, so this album cover may have lead to an increase in sales. However if people want to buy an album that has a colourful cover, which inspiring images, then they are not going to be satisfied with this.

This album cover, is for Coldplay's album called X & Y. At first glance, I had no idea what this picture was suppose to be showing, but it was intriguing, so I have done further research for it. The blocks on the picture are arranged in a code developed in 1874. The code uses visual representations of 1's and 0's in a 5 digit sequence corresponding with particular letters of the alphabet and typographic symbols. It is considered by many to be the first truly digital form of communication and was a primary language used for telegraphy until it was replaced by the Morse Code. Reading down, the code in the first column is 10111 which represents the letter X. The far right column reads 10101, the code for the letter Y. The columns in the middle represent the "&" portion of the album title. The colours do not mean anything, but are used for visual pleasure.