Print work- Album covers and Magazine Advertisment

After looking at still images that could be suitable for the front/back album cover, we looked at the common conventions between a magazine advert and an album cover. In lesson, we looked at Ellie Goulding's album cover and magazine advert "Lights" and Oasis album "Be Here Now". 

We looked at the similarities between the album cover and the magazine advertisement: Ellie Goulding- Lights

                                                   




                                                     Ellie Goulding - Lights magazine advertisement



Ellie Goulding - Lights album cover

• Both the magazine advert and album cover has the image of the artist. This publish when she just started, and so he image use so that she might be easily recognised by her audience.
• Muted colours of sparkling gold and black are used on both magazine and album
• Her name is written written with the same font on the album and the magazine which stands out and is almost recognised as a logo.
• Her achievement,  awards and reviews are written on the magazine which is important as a new artist to show of her talent.

Oasis- Be Here Now

 
                                         
Oasis - Be Here Now- magazine advertisement 



Oasis -  Be Here Now- album cover

• The album and the magazine advert uses shared image. The magazine is a mid-long shot of the album cover which is a close-up shot. 
• The Oasis logo is on both covers
• Unlike Ellie Goulding's covers, the Oasis did not use any image of themselves on the magazine advert. This is because they are establish enough, and their audience are able to  recognise them through their logo. The use of their picture on the album cover could be to stand out in the competitive music market. 
• The band's website is written on the bottom of the magazine to inform the audience where the album can be downloaded. This also emphasis the importance of technology in this age. 

After looking at this album covers in lesson, I decided to look at album cover and magazine adverts from the metal-core genre. I looked at Bullet For My Valentine their album Fever and Bring Me The Horizon their album Suicide Season. 

Bullet For My Valentine - Fever

 

Fever - Album cover                                       

                                                                                   Fever - Magazine advertisement

• Both the album cover and the magazine cover have a shared image of  girl who is standing naked on the album. The picture could be criticised for "Male gaze" as it objectifies the woman on the cover.The  band members did not use pictures of themselves which is not unusual as bands from this genre hardly ever use their own pictures. 
• Both the album cover and magazine advert uses the same sanserif font for the name of their band which is used in all their print work and can be represented as the band's logo. The name of the album "Fever" is also written in the same font on both covers.
• Compared to the Oasis and Ellie Goulding's print work, Bullet For My Valentine has more information about their album on the magazine cover than the album. This might be because fans buying the magazine will be directed to the website where they can download the album and find other information about the band. 
•  Mise-En -Scene elements used on the album and magazine include under-exposed lighting and dark muted colours.    

Bring Me The Horizon - Suicide Season

Suicide Season- album cover           Suicide Season- Magazine advertisement

• Both covers used shared image of a girl on cover, and  unlike Ellie Goulding's print work, there is a lack of band imagery for advertisement or promotion of the band. Oasis did not need it because there are already well establish and the do not rely on the extra advertisement to sell the album. 
• Mise- En-Scene elements includes the theme of black and blue colours;  the blue colour is used as the font colour on both the album cover and magazine advert and it is also used for the bubbles the girl is holding, while the black is used on the girl (black dress). The lighting used in the covers looks natural which is unusual for this genre as they always use dim colours to reflect the mood of the album. 
• The name of the band is not prominent on the album cover as we will expect it to. However, their fans will recognise the band as they do not have a consistent logo or a way of being represented. 

From looking at the above examples and focusing particularly on the metal-core genre as it will be useful to use for our own print work, I thought that we could include the following on our album cover and magazine advert; the use of under-exposed lighting and dim colours on our album cover. We also want to use still images from the music video to make the album cover cohesive and easily recognised during advertisement. We do not plan to use a shared image for the album cover and magazine advertisement as we wanted a  cohesive imagery with to music video.