Once I had completed this analysis I was aware of how the band has been marketed and how they market themselves, and with my group I was able to discuss the possible options for the structure of our narrative. Then I went on to analyse the album covers for the two albums Noah and the Whale have released - Peaceful, the World Lays Me Down, and The First Days of Spring. I also analysed the covers for the e-single of 5 Years Time and that of the newly-decided song to use for our Music Promotional Video, Blue Skies.
The band’s debut album, Peaceful, the World Lays Me Down, the picture to the left (the purple one), looks like it has been drawn by hand and is a painting of what the artist (the person who designed the album cover, not the musician) sees in the music. It also reminds me of the 1980s and modern-day cartoons and television programmes such as South Park (even though I don’t really watch it), and is just a simple drawing, in similar ways to which the music is also simple. The Single-Cover for “5 Years Time” (the yellow one in the middle) incorporates some of the features and colours of the album from which it originated, but has these details inside the shape of the number ‘5’. Where their first album cover has a tree and what looks to be someone’s house inside a tree and a man and a woman sitting outside in the garden, and a strange grey thing with legs behind the woman (I’m assuming it’s a monster of some kind, or even a ghost - since it’s grey), and high contrast colours instead of normal world colours, the cover for the Single CD of “5 Years Time” seems to have the same drawings in the tree except inside the shape of a ‘5’ with a plain yellow background. The logo is the same on the Single CD Cover as it is on the Album CD Cover, only a different colour (blue on Single, yellow on Album) since the song is from that album and the band is keeping their corporate image going (just like a brand logo such as Coca-Cola).
A step into the modern world, their new 2009 album The First Days of Spring (the album cover second from right) sees a photo of Noah and the Whale band members in a grassy field, frontman Charlie Fink looking at the audience though either an old camera of some sort or a handheld telescope, the other three band members to the left him out of focus and looking up at the sky as if they are looking at the title of the album and waiting for ‘the first days’ of Spring.
A step into the modern world, their new 2009 album The First Days of Spring (the album cover second from right) sees a photo of Noah and the Whale band members in a grassy field, frontman Charlie Fink looking at the audience though either an old camera of some sort or a handheld telescope, the other three band members to the left him out of focus and looking up at the sky as if they are looking at the title of the album and waiting for ‘the first days’ of Spring.
The part of the photograph on the right, where Noah and the Whale frontman Charlie Fink looks through either an old camera or a handheld telescope, has been edited so that he actually looks as if he is from the 1970s. (I found another image on the web, below - similar). The colours and the way in which the photograph for the album cover has been taken reminds me of photographs I have seen from the 1970s which have faded and lost some of their colour over the years or that never really had as much colour in the first place. Maybe this has been done deliberately - as with the band’s logo which is now typed in capitals in the typeface Times New Roman, and the album cover written in a classical-music style typeface which reflects the band’s redeveloped ‘image’.
Their cover for the Single CD for “Blue Skies” is similar to the Album Cover in terms of typefaces and sizes of text, but what makes this different is the photo of a blue sky in the background and, in the foreground, I think I can see the band members in silhouettes, walking their bikes across a sandy landscape in front of the “blue skies”. The sand appears to be a monotone colour with the silhouettes, so that the main focus is on the text which seems to be “in” the sky. Having two artworks from their Debut album and two from their new 2009 album, one for the Album and one for the Single CD in each case, it is easy to declare that not only have the band developed but they have moved away from the pretty artworks of a child to the plain, simple yet declarative artworks of a professional photographer. Also, showing the band is a major selling point on most Album and Single CD Covers, as this technique also promotes and sells the band, not just the music.
I have found out the difference between the Album and Single CD Covers for one of the songs which we had wanted to use and the song which we now want to use for our Music Promotional Video, and so the Cover which I will create will incorporate and combine some of the images, typefaces, drawings and colours that have been used in Noah and the Whale’s previous album artworks.
Therefore, I was hoping to create an Album Cover for the “Blue Skies” and "5 Years Time" songs on it, but this would be a new album featuring the best-selling songs of Noah and the Whale, even though the songs from the new album The First Days of Spring, including Blue Skies, haven’t yet had enough time to sell. My album artwork will be incorporating Noah and the Whale’s image, the image that they seem to have redeveloped, but the artwork has to appeal to audiences of Noah and the Whale music otherwise the album simply wouldn’t sell.
Originally, I thought that the Album Artwork could feature a photograph from the video itself, maybe this could be where I bring in my “Action Man and Barbie dolls” idea! The CD package (Digipack) itself could be a montage or mosaic of several images from our video or images of wildlife in a wood or forest. The front would be different from the back, and so on through the Digipack, until all faces of the Digipack have a different image or item, but similarly-themed, on them.
I thought the band’s artwork for the Single CD of “Blue Skies” was a little too bland and plain and should have contained more to portray the song itself, other than silhouettes of the band members on the backdrop of a plain blue sky. Their album cover was a little bit more exciting, but both designs lacked something. As if they were designed to be too perfect and too precise. I went and researched other band’s artwork for Single CDs and Albums, looking at some of AC/DC’s artwork, some artwork from The Beach Boys and then Status Quo. What I found was that on some covers there were shots, or photographs, of the band members. On one of The Beach Boys’ old vinyl records, which I found at home in my collection of vinyl records, not only were they there but they seemed to be enjoying themselves. I looked at my Status Quo Greatest Hits double-CD Digipack (“XS All Areas”), and although the image on the front cover featured a photograph/hand-drawing of the two main members of the band, Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt, but they were playing their guitars with long hair. The shot had been drawn/taken when in concert, where the boys were performing their famous rock and roll moves whilst playing their guitars, which they still do today, and similarly with The Beach Boys they seemed to be enjoying themselves.
I looked at Fleetwood Mac’s "Tango In The Night" album (below), which had a painting of wildlife in what looks to be a night in a tropical rainforest, with the birds and creatures. It was the back cover which most appealed to me - in the middle there was a portrait-shaped photograph of the Fleetwood Mac band members, and around this was the names of the songs. But the names of songs had actually been placed around the photograph as if it was a “Spider-diagram”. This was a big inspiration for me and I shall try to incorporate this design into my design for the “Blue Skies” Album, and I will need to call the Album something which bears some resemblance with the band Noah and the Whale. The name which I think should go on the CD, the Digipack/cover and the Poster should be something like “Not Enough To Be Said”.
I have found out the difference between the Album and Single CD Covers for one of the songs which we had wanted to use and the song which we now want to use for our Music Promotional Video, and so the Cover which I will create will incorporate and combine some of the images, typefaces, drawings and colours that have been used in Noah and the Whale’s previous album artworks.
Therefore, I was hoping to create an Album Cover for the “Blue Skies” and "5 Years Time" songs on it, but this would be a new album featuring the best-selling songs of Noah and the Whale, even though the songs from the new album The First Days of Spring, including Blue Skies, haven’t yet had enough time to sell. My album artwork will be incorporating Noah and the Whale’s image, the image that they seem to have redeveloped, but the artwork has to appeal to audiences of Noah and the Whale music otherwise the album simply wouldn’t sell.
Originally, I thought that the Album Artwork could feature a photograph from the video itself, maybe this could be where I bring in my “Action Man and Barbie dolls” idea! The CD package (Digipack) itself could be a montage or mosaic of several images from our video or images of wildlife in a wood or forest. The front would be different from the back, and so on through the Digipack, until all faces of the Digipack have a different image or item, but similarly-themed, on them.
I thought the band’s artwork for the Single CD of “Blue Skies” was a little too bland and plain and should have contained more to portray the song itself, other than silhouettes of the band members on the backdrop of a plain blue sky. Their album cover was a little bit more exciting, but both designs lacked something. As if they were designed to be too perfect and too precise. I went and researched other band’s artwork for Single CDs and Albums, looking at some of AC/DC’s artwork, some artwork from The Beach Boys and then Status Quo. What I found was that on some covers there were shots, or photographs, of the band members. On one of The Beach Boys’ old vinyl records, which I found at home in my collection of vinyl records, not only were they there but they seemed to be enjoying themselves. I looked at my Status Quo Greatest Hits double-CD Digipack (“XS All Areas”), and although the image on the front cover featured a photograph/hand-drawing of the two main members of the band, Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt, but they were playing their guitars with long hair. The shot had been drawn/taken when in concert, where the boys were performing their famous rock and roll moves whilst playing their guitars, which they still do today, and similarly with The Beach Boys they seemed to be enjoying themselves.
I looked at Fleetwood Mac’s "Tango In The Night" album (below), which had a painting of wildlife in what looks to be a night in a tropical rainforest, with the birds and creatures. It was the back cover which most appealed to me - in the middle there was a portrait-shaped photograph of the Fleetwood Mac band members, and around this was the names of the songs. But the names of songs had actually been placed around the photograph as if it was a “Spider-diagram”. This was a big inspiration for me and I shall try to incorporate this design into my design for the “Blue Skies” Album, and I will need to call the Album something which bears some resemblance with the band Noah and the Whale. The name which I think should go on the CD, the Digipack/cover and the Poster should be something like “Not Enough To Be Said”.
The labels to go on the CD could then be of resemblance to the Digipack/CD Covers, with a montage or mosaic of images, but inside the text, rather like the way in which several patterns are inside the number ‘5’ on the Single CD Cover for “5 Years Time”. The magazine poster could also have the montage of images, in a portrait-rectangular shape, with the date of release, songs featured on the album and quotes from several reviews. The reviews may have to be made up for the purpose of the poster, or instead we could combine several quotes from already-existing reviews of the albums Peaceful, the World Lays Me Down and The First Days of Spring from magazines such as “Q Magazine” or “Kerrang”, or from any other music magazine available. LightScribe technology is built-in with some laptops sold in shops today, and basically allows the user to burn an image to the disc via the lasers in the CD/DVD Drive, without the use of paper and glue. It might be an idea to consider this and to find out who owns a laptop with LightScribe technology, as we can then look at a perfectly designed (and created) labelled Music CD.
