Patrick Duffy
When reading this I found it very insightful. He puts across various elements to create a good album cover. I though that the one thing he put across the best was that you should focus on your target audience and not just use things you like. He stated that if your band you are making an album for is Goth then the cover should have Goth stuff in it. He also stated that you should use the correct font. Don’t just go and use your own font that you like. Go out and research, go to a record store and see what pops out. Other designs will tell you what pops out and what the current trend is at the moment.
The next thing he stated was that you should stay with in the scope of the music. He stated that if you are going to be making a cover for light music then cover should be simple. If you are going to make cover for hardcore music then there should be a lot in the design. Everything he said basically stated that the focus should be the group and not what random design you can come up with. If you use a random design people are going to ask why or the album wont appeal to them when they go buy the album.
This author really those focus on key elements that one should keep in mind when making a CD cover. Fallowing his guidelines could really help our thinking process when creating our CD cover for a targeted audience.
Submitted by CatTail1986 on Fri, 02/08/2008 - 09:22.He points out the connection between th graphics and the actual recording is the most important part of designing cover.
Submitted by aalbert on Fri, 02/08/2008 - 11:30.I agree with him. I believe that is the essential part of designing cover for any kind of album.
If the graphic is not related to the music then the targeted audience may be confused and ends up buying the type of music that he does not like. This will cause the audience rates the music as bad.
I thought the article was interesting in that it provided people like me, with little to no interest in the album cover design process, with insight on the minimum thought that goes into an image. In addition, it was interesting to read his opinion of what the cover should cost. However, I feel that he has presented a widely accepted fact, that the album cover should reflect the album content, yet did not provide any deep insight on how this can be accomplished. There were no criteria for how this could be accomplished, even if vague.
Submitted by iamaustin on Fri, 02/08/2008 - 12:23.This article was good in that it reinforced the basic concepts about creating an album cover. As mentioned before, I'm glad to see him mention things we've been talking about in past classes, i.e. target audience...etc.
What I would have enjoyed seeing are a few examples of album covers that the author personally felt did the things discussed in tha article. I also would have found it informative to hear what the author has to say about creating an actual booklet rather than just a cover
Submitted by Soho on Fri, 02/08/2008 - 12:29.I don't completely agree on the comment about covers for metal bands should have a lot of stuff on them. Look at the example of Metallica. They're a metal band, and their most acclaimed album, The Black Album, is basically black. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Metallica_-_Metallica.jpg
So, I'd have to say that you can't simplify rules like that for everything. Design is always full of rules, but they can be broken, and sometime have to be broken to stand out from the crowd.
Submitted by zmcnulty on Fri, 02/08/2008 - 12:33.This article emphasizes the importance for a cover to be more than something the band likes. He points out in a couple of ways that the way the consumer views the cover is critically important. Even if a band likes a certain font, they shouldn't just blindly use it (especially if the font is Wingdings).
Submitted by twykoff on Fri, 02/08/2008 - 12:39.Another major point that Duffy makes is that you should have all of this done professionally. Although I don't completely agree with this, a band shouldn't do everything themselves simply to save money. However, a friend of mine likes some emo band that I can't think of off the top of my head. The band made their own website, and that appealed to my friend. Sometimes, a less professional work can look, but it might only appeal to a very specified niche.