I started out by experiementing with the diferent tools in photoshop, such as creating a drop down shadow on the text. The image I got made me wanted to create quite a dark and dramatic album cover similar to Marrilyn Manson's album cover "Antichrist superstar".
Immediately, it is evident that to create an ablum cover some basic design principles needed to be taken into consideration. The first principle which became apparent was allignment. This principle states that nothing should be placed on the page arbitarily. My initial album cover design follows this principle because I thought about where the text was placed in relation to other objects and therefore every item in my initial design had a visual connection with something else on the page. This also links in with the principle proximity. Proximity states that you must group related items together. The closeness of items to one another sets up their visual associateion with one another and helps produce an order to how the text is to be 'read'. For example I chose to do the band name "Colarado Central Railroad" in a bigger text size than the album's name "All things must change to something new, to something strange." so that the band's name was the main focus. However this was difficult due to the fact that the image was quite distracting. By placing both these pieces of text in corners it aids the viewers eyes to move across the image and by having several groupings in this design it helps develop a holistic feel. However I don't think the proximity and allignment is that successful in my first design.
In my second design I prefer the use of allignment and proximity. Another way of achieving proximity is through containment. This means to group items by borders or white space. The use of containment makes this design look more organised and as a result more successful as an album cover. The reasons for the development my final album cover design was inspired by the style of Andy Warhol.
Below is my final design and is my chosen album cover. This design is successful because it uses the principle of repetition. The principle of reptition states that you repeat some aspect of the design throughout the entire piece, in this case my album cover. For example, the repetition of the image and reptition of keeping it the same size. Repetition is a type of consistency that helps tie a publication together. In this design I have used a succesful combination of both reptition and containment which has helped achieve the concept I had in my head onscreen. These principles working together have made it my favourite design.
My final outcome also demonstrates the use of the design principle contrast. This principle of contrast states that if two items are not exactly the same, then make them different. This principle makes my final design more visually interesting. For example, through selecting one image in the centre of my design and changing it to red gives the album cover contrast. As a result this has achieved my inital concept of creating a dramatic album cover.
In my second design I prefer the use of allignment and proximity. Another way of achieving proximity is through containment. This means to group items by borders or white space. The use of containment makes this design look more organised and as a result more successful as an album cover. The reasons for the development my final album cover design was inspired by the style of Andy Warhol. |
| (Marilyn Monroe by Andy Warhol) |
Below is my final design and is my chosen album cover. This design is successful because it uses the principle of repetition. The principle of reptition states that you repeat some aspect of the design throughout the entire piece, in this case my album cover. For example, the repetition of the image and reptition of keeping it the same size. Repetition is a type of consistency that helps tie a publication together. In this design I have used a succesful combination of both reptition and containment which has helped achieve the concept I had in my head onscreen. These principles working together have made it my favourite design.
My final outcome also demonstrates the use of the design principle contrast. This principle of contrast states that if two items are not exactly the same, then make them different. This principle makes my final design more visually interesting. For example, through selecting one image in the centre of my design and changing it to red gives the album cover contrast. As a result this has achieved my inital concept of creating a dramatic album cover.