Development of Front Cover

CD Cover –

When looking at the other existing CD covers I am able to see that, the dimensions of the cover is similar to that of a square with the same length and width, this is easily acquired due to Photoshop allowing me too choose dimensions of the blank canvas in which I will choose the dimensions in which most represents the current codes and conventions of a CD Cover. I have chosen the dimensions 500 x 500 with a 20 resolution. I have decided to use these dimensions, as this will allow me too create an even image using symmetry to allow the CD cover to look professional.

I have then decided to find an image of clouds using the search engine called Google, the variety of images that I came across was vast. One image really stood out to me and that was a grey scale image of a cloud, the image I believe represents the album well as the album will be called “Exhibition” I believe the imagery of clouds and the unknown is a clear representation of an exhibition.  I have decided to make the image smaller and use it as the backdrop of the CD cover. I have used a Gaussian blur on the image to make the image less distinguishable and take the attention of the main image, which will be in front of the clouds. I have also changed the opacity of the edited image to once again make the image a more inconspicuous image and thus making it subtler.

I have then decided that the cloud image is too bland and boring, Due to the research in which I have conducted I realise that the existing CD cover art are mostly colourful especially in the genre of music in which my music video was created. The EDM/Dance genres rely on the use of a vast array of different colours. This is something that I will need to eventually emulate in my CD Cover. I have then searched goggle images again to find conceptual art in which is popular on the social media platforms Pintrest and Instagram. I have now chosen a image in which I believe can go over the top of the clouds to provide the clouds with a colourful tint which is not so boring and therefore it will attract the consumers. I then changed to opacity of the image to allow the colour fade into the clouds, I then changed the effects of the image to “soft light” this allows the image to become even more transparent however allow the colours still to be present and powerful when looking at the cover.

I then chose the object tool to create the shape of a rectangle; I then chose to choose the colour white. This colour will allow me use a black font colour in which is most commonly used in creating CD covers. I have made the size of the rectangle reasonably large with the sides of the shape being faded by the use of the eraser tool, the eraser tool allows me too erase part of the object, image or text. I erased the sides of the shape as this will go with the current theme of distortion.  I then have placed it at the bottom of the page, as this will allow me to use the main image in the middle of the cover.  This is also a current code and convention that is on many CD covers.

  

The main image on the cover of my CD cover will be a silhouette of the actor in our music video; I have chosen to use this image, as it will link both the CD cover and the music video well. I have used a combination of the quick selection tool and the magic wand tool to cut around the edges of the image and ensure that the silhouette was not patchy. The main image is the most important part of the CD Cover as this is what draws the attention of the consumer towards the product. The main image I believe should be from the music video as this will link the two pieces of media directly. I have also decided to distort this image by once again adding a blur, however this time a have preference using another blur called the motion blur, this blurs more out the outline in which I have also brushed to make the blur more distinctive, I have done this as it makes the image more intriguing and overall a better image for the consumers to view when comparing CD Covers. I believe that this image is very striking and allows for the consumer to relate both the CD cover and the music video very easily. The image also asks questions about the artists’ identity as the artist “glitz” face is not on the cover of the CD Cover, this gives the consumer a sense of mystery as the identity of the artists will still not be known.

I have chosen to now input the text on top of the white box as I am planning to make the text black, this is a key choice when making the CD cover, due to the research I have conducted I am able to see that the typography is very important in terms of the consumer being interested in the cover as you can see I have used and tested a number of different fonts. I have decided to use a smaller font, which I then decided to use effects such as a gradient overlay, the gradient overlay allows the text to be more visible and look more professional. I have also used the stroke tool to make the text more visible from further away,  I then decided to duplicate the text by using the duplication tool located on the right hand side of the screen. After doing this I then have once again used the blur tool however this time I decided to use it on the text itself, I have then lowered the opacity and enlarged the font to make it a behind the main text. The reason for this is because the conventional features of EDM music genre presents the liveliness and fast pace. I feel by having a blurred or faded out text will suit my music genre even more.

This is the stage where I have taken in an account of looking at the convention elements that are always included in a CD cover and I found that the “parental advisory explicit content” logo/icon is often included as it warns the potentially consumer that the album contains strong languages. Therefore I have decided to include this on my cd cover as from one of the songs a strong language will be used. The logo was found through an image search by Google, after finding a high quality I then applied that to my CD cover through importing tool. I choose to place this at the bottom which is a normal place which meets the conventional feature. Also in my opinion by having it at the bottom is less distractive however when looking at the icon it does not match the overall composition and therefore I have applied the same effect by making the logo slightly faded. This will then enhance the overall composition and makes the CD cover looks more appealing.

I also added a small icon which is a reputation to my music genre as you can see that the icon is a circle shape looking like a splash. This represents different level of beats which portrays EDM music. I did not add an effect to the icon as it will become repetitive and it is not the main view point.

When looking at my research I can see that majority of the time name of the artist is located on the top.  I will also apply this to my product to meet the conventional look. I decided to place it in the middle which is where the main attention is. To complete this stage I imported the picture from my file onto the product by using ‘import’ tool which allows me to browse the file I want.                      

One significant feature that should be added onto a CD cover is the main image that will be placed in the middle. I decided to include an image of a man wearing hoodie which was conducted from the research. I then imitate that by shooting my own photograph as it follows the codes and convention after selecting the best photograph I then imported the JPEG file onto the software. I began to edit to picture by using the magic wound tool to remove unnecessary background image. But looking at the photograph I still feel that the main image is standing out too much against the composition I came across the idea of blacking out the whole image and left with a shadow of a man. In order to edit this, again I used magic wand tool to select the picture then used the pain bucket tool to fill the image with colour black. This makes the composition more appealing as the colour of main image matches with title.

I feel that the main image is too solid therefore I decided add a small blurred effect to match the text even more. While experimenting with the effects in my opinion it was too much and could lead to distraction therefore overall I have used the blur tool to only blur out the outline of the image. This prevents the image from looking to stiff but have some minor effects around it. To produce the blurred effect I have used the quick selection tool to cover the wanted area and changed the feature radius to 60 which allow the outline to become softer. Also I have used the refine edge tool to adjust the smoothness of an image.