Front CoversIn this presentation I will present some mock up

ideas I had for my front cover of the CD, the back cover and inside cover will be shown on two

different slides and then a final image of it all together will be shown on my blog. There are

different ideas within this presentation and under each image there shall be some analysis on how

and why it was created as shown, and hopefully it will show how my skills have developed. At the end of the presentation, there will be a slide to show the preferred front cover after the target

audience were asked.

First and second attempts:

Though these first two images are nowhere near professional, they were handy to try fireworks out as I never used it last year and only briefly with my I.C.T in

year 11 for making buttons for webpages, therefore not requiring a lot of skill and just knowing the basics. These ideas gave me an opportunity to try numerous techniques out, for instance, fades within words and

shapes, and using the tool that cuts out the background of an image, along with using certain

techniques on the canvas.

The idea with the first image was that, seen as the music I will be using is pop, that the circles are quite

‘poppy’ and the colours are quite female, plus the image of the female was meant to represent her

thinking which would then link in with the video and the lyrics as she is thinking over her past and present

relationships.

The second image was a bit more advanced as similar fonts were used, and to the same angles. Also I drew the heart of two music symbols together using Serif PagePlus and then edited the background out of it.

This was then meant to represent a ‘thought bubble’ which then links with my ideas on the first image.

Third attempt:

This idea, in my opinion, seems a lot better than the previous two attempts, however it still appears a bit too ‘girly’. If a male liked Pixie Lott’s music,

then it would probably discourage them buying this CD looking like this as, I believe, it is too feminine.

The techniques used though are a little better as the colours used link more and I managed to

change the colour of the image to link in with the colours, for instance her eyes link with the thought bubbles, which then link with the artist and album

title.Also, I thought the use of a similar colour for the person and artist’s name, would make the cover appear more realistic that it is her (albeit it not being). Though there is quite a bit of detail in this cover, I think the background is too plain and would look ‘wishy washy’ on the stands with other music covers and definitely not as professional. Plus, there is nothing in

this cover to intrigue a person to look at the cover more closely and therefore in my opinion, attracting less attention and if this was published, would not create a lot of attention, and in

hand, make less money with the sales.

Additionally, although I like the use of bubbles to the thought bubble above her head, and the turquoise is a similar colour to the eyes, I think after reviewing it, that the bubbles are a little

strange with the white used too as they now look eyes themselves!

With this idea, I decided to change the designs I have used on the first three covers of the female thinking over life, so therefore decided against the use of thought bubbles and such. Although this cover isn’t too bad in my eyes, it still wouldn’t gain enough attention and again

would look ‘wishy washy’ on shelves next to hundreds of other designs.

A good point about this cover though, is that I don’t think it appears over feminine and a male would feel less embarrassed buying this cover compared to the first three or so I think.

This cover, however, is quite problematic in the sense of the images in the background I used off the internet, and would be difficult to take myself, also it would be hard to find the time to

take them.

Fourth attempt:

Also, the ideas feel unprofessional with this cover in the sense that anyone could make this cover and so it does not hold as much of an affect as if people are ‘wowed’ and think ‘gosh, I couldn’t create that’.

I felt this cover was more of an easy option by it being simple, however I think it has more affect

than the very first two attempts. Additionally, the font used is good at the bottom right as you can

still read it being in white and looks more effective. The idea with the pink artist’s name is that I felt

the cover needed something to stand out to attract attention and if the colour white was used as the

font and link in with the rest, then it wouldn’t grab attention and would fade into the background.

Fifth and sixth attempts:After mastering the idea of fireworks, I thought I would go beyond the basics. Although the first image on the right shows a bit of a mixture of a cover as there does not seem a link between colours

and affects, but at the beginning, I felt the idea worked. First of all I thought of my other attempts and liked the idea of the music

symbol being on the cover like in attempt two, but thought I should look at this from a different angle, so created an image similar to a treble clef for part of the background by using swirl symbols, colour and a technique of blurring. Moreover, I thought seen as the use of colour wasn’t working out very well for me, that a black and white

cover may do more justice to my ideas and is then also a set of neutral colours for both genders.

I then found the image of a female and kept with the idea of her thinking, used an inner glow, cut the background out and changed the image to greyscale and changed the transparency. I then kept with the idea of a grey background for the black and white theme,

however after deciding it was too dark, I added some strong colours to the fonts and used a fade whilst adding numerous white ovals to look like light reflected from a mirror and creating an affect of small

spotlights.

After reviewing this though, I again felt it looked all over the place so created the sixth idea but developing it more so, changing the

image to sepia, made the treble clef a lot more blurry and sent it to the back, so that the image of the female could be more prominent and not partially covered by the music symbol. I then changed the

font to what I felt more elegant, more suiting and used similar colours but making sure both stand out, yet making the name more

faded on the grey as people should know who she is anyway but should gain more interest to the cover this way.

Although this image may look very similar to the last one, I changed the background colour, though not dramatically. This ensured that it linked better with the genre but also didn’t take away from the fact that the colour is so light

that it’s almost a neutral colour and shouldn’t embarrass a male to buy the album too. This also then linked the colours of the font in better and helped to see ‘Lott’

better but still hopefully gain attention to it.

Seventh attempt:

Results out of 100:

0

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lllll ll = 47

lllll lllll lll = 13

lllll llll =9

0 lllll lllll l = 11

lllll lllll lllll lll = 20