Album Cover’s Codes and Conventions

Artist’s Name There will always be the Artist’s name on the front of the album cover, this is key to creating the stars image and allows their target audience to see their name along with an eye catching main image on the front of the album. This is very clear on Example’s latest album, with the bold black font and bright yellow background it is the most eye catching thing on the album, fulfilling the designers vision of engaging the audience from a far.

Album Title There will always be the Album’s Title on the front of the album for the obvious reason, but it is also to give the audience a feel of what the Artist was thinking while creating the Album but also what the album might contain, song wise. For example the name of Eminem’s album, The Eminem Show, is an insight into his current life, he believes that the life he is currently leading is like something you would expect to see on a television show and a lot of the things that he portrays aren’t possibly the real Eminem and he is putting on somewhat of an act.

Main Image There is always going to be a main image on the front of the album and possibly on the back aswell, it could be in the form of a Portrait, Text or black and white image, this is to get a message across to the audience about the artist’s or band’s unique interests/styles. Different genres would normally have different images, for example a pop act such as Rhianna would have herself on the album, but a more alternative act such as Foo Fighters would have a logo or image which would be putting a message across.

Age Restrictions You sometimes will see Age Restrictions on albums telling you that you must be a certain age to purchase the album, a lot of album’s nowadays contain age ratings, but they can be used it different ways, for example an age rating on an album by an artist such as Rihanna would be placed on the back to somewhat hide it, where as on someone like 50 Cent or Eminem it would be placed on the front because these artists are somewhat known for their ‘badboy’ appeal in the industry with them not conforming to rules and regulations in there music with the song being about violence or containing certain swear words.