Evaluation of CD Cover

How has the research helped me in my final product?
My research has helped me gain an understanding of all the main conventions of a CD cover, for example, where the artist/band name usually goes, and the fact that there's nearly always a main image in the background which takes up the whole cover. The research has helped me gain an understanding of how a CD cover should be laid out, depending on what genre the artist is.
Doing this taask had also helped me develop more knowledge of the genre conventions; what colours, fonts and layouts to use when designing an advert that advertises a certain genre of music, so it appeals to the target audience.


How my CD cover fits into the conventions of the genre:
The images are of the instruments that acoustic/folk artists usually tend to use (acoustic guitar and piano). Images like this show the fact that James Vincent McMorrow is a acoustic/folk artist. Also, a lot of folk artists use close ups of instruments to emphasise the instruments they use, and to represent the fact that they're an acoustic/folk artist.


How my CD cover appeals to the target audience:
There's lots of different close ups of the instruments, which makes it more interesting than just an ordinary image of an acoustic guitar. The scrapbook effect makes it more interesting and eye catching.


The editing process:
I used Photoshop CS2 to edit all of the images on the cover. First of all I changed the colouring of the images to give it a sepia/vintage look, so it would fit in with the genre conventions. I then inserted all of the images onto the background, making sure they overlapped slightly, creating a scrapbook effect. I chose the font which I thought would look best, and that fitted the conventions of the genre. Then I inserted all the text (the album title and the artist's name) in a new layer on top of the images.


What went well and what could have been better:
I think the images that I took worked really well, because they fit in with the genre characteristics. The close ups of the instruments make the images so much more interesting, and represents exactly the  kind of artist James Vincent McMorrow is.


To make the CD cover better, I would make the font a little bit different, it looks too plain and out of place. I would maybe try and find a font that goes with the images a bit more, and isn't so bold. I would also change the colour of the font slightly so it blended in more with the rest of the cover.


What I have learnt from this and how that will help me in my next task:
From doing this task I have:
- Enhanced my editing skills on Photoshop . Before this task I never knew how to make images have a sepia/vintage look, but doing this task helped me gain knowledge of how to do that.
- Learnt the conventions of a CD cover, and the conventions of acoustic/folk music.
- Learnt a lot about the young acoustic/folk target audience, and what appeals to them.