CD Covers: Personal Analysis

Question 10 of my questionnaire I sent round to gather audience research, related to the design of 3 CD album covers and which design those questioned preferred. To guide them, I instructed them to focus on aspects such as color, layout and use of props. The 3 covers were chosen very carefully, as I wanted 3 very different designs that people could choose from, so I could have a clear idea of which design style most people prefer.

Cover A comes from Muse album "Black Holes and Revelations." My audience research showed this as the 2nd most popular CD cover. The main feature of this cover relates to the use of props, colour and where it looks like it is located. The idea of 4 men sitting round a table playing cards (?) in a location very similar to the Grand Canyon is very "out there" and random - thus leading us to the "concept" based design element.

A comment I had from 1 of the people I questioned called Pippa was that the use of the images were "unusual but relevant" and that it "thinks outside the box" which is an element of design I hope to deal with in my design. The contrasting colours of the blue sky against the orange canyon also suit well, as well as the simplistic and sleek black Muse logo and album name in capitals. I personally would rate this as my 2nd favorite out of the 3 covers, mainly due to colour contrasts, and the random concept portrayed in the design.

Cover B comes from a Calvin Harris album called "Ready For The Weekend". My audience research showed this was the least popular CD cover. Obviously, the striking aspect of the cover here is the picture of the female, with "swishy" hair and the rather uniquely stylish glasses.

Now, I chose this design to see of my audience would like to see attractive females that connote a sense of style and pride in appearance (tieing in with Laura Mulvey's male gaze theory) as well as if they appreciated the use of close up images of the human face on a CD cover. Again, my personal view on this one, is that it works well due to the simplicity of it's construction. It is just one carefully choreographed image of a female's face, with the artist and album name running from bottom to top alongside the left hand edge. 

Cover C comes from a Hard Fi album called "Stars of CCTV". My audience research showed this was the most popular CD cover. The popularity (and the majority of the comments) relating to this cover involves the use of the two contrasting colours of black and yellow. I personally think it works really well (even if it does make me think of a taxi...) as the colours are at totally different ends of the colour spectrum - light vs. dark.

The use of the computer generated CCTV camera also ties in with the album's name, and thus is also another clever feature to link between the name, and the imagery on the CD cover - something I shall look into incorporating in my design where possible. The typeface of the artist and album name is also easy to read, which is imperative to have when placed in the context of a record store shelf - as hundreds of CD's fight for our attention!