Creating Back of Album Cover

When creating the back of the album cover my group and I have had to choose another photograph from the ones we have taken and I will then go on to produce the back of the album cover based on our research.

We have decided to use another photograph of Alice with no smeared make up and those are for the magazine advert, as they represent the song we used in our music video and by using one of Alice with normal make up, we are giving the impression that not all of the songs on the album are as depressing as the one we have chosen.

We have decided to use this photograph of Alice as she is in a different position and has a different expression on her face, although it will take a lot of editing to sort out the background. We are basing the back of the album cover on the research we have recently completed from artists such as Adele and Rihanna.

After some discussion we came to the conclusion of not using this photograph as Alice is not facing straight towards the camera and the editing was becoming too difficult. We wanted an image which was not as similar to the front cover and so without her hand on her face. I attempted to get rid of the chair behind Alice using the Clone Tool in Photo Shop, however it just made the image look worse.

We chose this photograph as it was different to the front cover and Alice has a different expression, although she has smeared make up this could convey her main single on the album.

As a group we have previously decided that we wanted our album cover in black and white much similar to Adele's as we thought it looked more professional and had a deeper meaning than the more powerful colourful images.

By opening the picture in Photo shop I was able to use the effects from the program to edit the image into black and white, and use the different effects in order to get the right amount of white to back contrast on the photograph.

I experimented with a few of the effects however after asking the opinions from the rest of my group we decided on using the 'Halftone Pattern' effect as it made the photograph lighter as well as in black and white. This was the photograph after I changed the colour effects:

After looking back at our research into back of album CD covers I noticed that the main background colour was black. I like the way that in Adele's album cover the back image has a smudged effect which I would like to incorporate into the final product as it looks more professional and less tacky. I will try to incorporate this by experimenting with the background colour to make it darker. 

I changed the effects of the background at first so I could change the colour afterwards. I left the outline around Alice's face so it would stand out against a darker background. I did this by changing the diameter of the brush size and making the hardness of the brush a little less to create a blurred effect around Alice. The background of the image changed into grey and white checkered squares to highlight the effects I have made.

In the image below I have highlighted the areas which were most difficult to edit as Alice's hair was quite messy and back combed and so I had to zoom into these areas and carefully edit them to make them less messy.

I used the paint tool to create a black background on the edited photograph. It was simple to use and improved the image immensely in my opinion. The colour used is the same as the album cover from Adele and I feel works well with the chosen photograph as Alice has smeared black make up around her eyes, which conveys her sadness and the colour black is known to be linked with deep emotion.

The edited image below was the outcome after I had changed the background colour. I showed by group this photograph and they were pleased with the progress. I am happy with the outcome as Alice is dominant in the photograph and her emotion and facial expression relates to the music video we made and the theme of the whole album.

I then opened another page in the same program, and began to create the other aspects of the back cover such as song titles. My group and I decided to use the same font on the back cover as we did on the front to convey continuity to our target audience. We decided that the album should contain ten songs altogether as it was practical, we used song names from a range of albums by Pink, the artist of our chosen song, to be sure that all of the song titles were linked to sadness, anger and vulnerability. This meant that the whole album would have strong continuity. 

After changing all of the song title fonts to the same as the front cover I decided to 'Place' the edited image of Alice onto the cover so I could visually see the layout on the screen.

I chose the edited image from my saved files and dragged it into the position on the back cover. I also moved the song names to the top as they were hidden under the photograph after it was place.

Once I had placed the photograph I noticed that the top and bottom of the photograph were visible on the black background and so I asked my group how to overcome this. Lauren suggested moving the image higher and leaving a gap at the bottom, Jessie then agreed as this would leave space for more writing and information about music producers etc which the other album covers have. I then continued to move the photograph to the top of the cover and add more aspects to the image.

The red rectangle in the image above conveys the difference in colour, however once I have added information about the producing of the music etc hopefully it will not be as visible. If this does not go to plan I will have to add an effect to the photograph in order to blur our the sharp line.

I moved the song titles away from the image so I could focus on the other aspects of the whole back cover. As a group we decided to have Alice's name on the back cover similar to Adele's album. We also thought it would be a good idea as her name is not on the front cover, just her initial. We decided to rotate her name by 90 degrees anti-clockwise which resembles the same layout as Adele's album.

This was the finished image without adding the song titles and information to do with music at the bottom of the photograph. We as a group were happy with this as it resembled the same layout as Adele's. I used the same font throughout however I changed the thickness of the font as I had to increase the size of the word.

I then began to add the song titles onto the photograph closely together, just to see how it would all look. I will carry on moving the song titles until we as a group are happy with their placing. I will probably move them upwards and space them out a bit more. However, Alice's face will still be the most dominant image on the cover.

During the production of the back of the CD cover I asked for some feedback from my group as to how to change some aspects if they were not working well. The main discussion we had focused on the bottom of the photograph as it has a sharp distinctive line near the bottom of the cover. We agreed to fade out the image much like the outside of the photograph. I will now go on to edit the photograph again in order for it to look more professional in the final outcome.

I have highlighted the areas above which I will use to change the photograph. By using a gradient effect on the bottom of the image I will be able to change the photograph and make the bottom of the picture lighter in order to diminish the distinctive line.

The gradient tool was ineffective to our photograph and so I decided to edit the background in the same way I edited the photograph edges by making them softer and so the distinctive photograph line will disappear. I used the areas highlighted in the image above such as colour and paint to change the photograph and make Alice look almost ghostly in the image. I feel this is effective and this image reflects the whole feel of the album and conveys a deep sadness in her expression. I will now replace this image on the final cover.

The above image conveys the final edited photograph on the back cover. My group and I are content with this image as it looks better than the image before. I will now go on to adjust the text around the cover and add the final aspects of the back cover.

I will need to create a barcode on the back cover to make the cover eligible to be sold, I will make the barcode on Microsoft word using the shape tool and will add numbers to be sure that I am not breaking any copyright laws.

The screen shot above shows the bottom of the back cover with the barcode in place. The product would not be able to be sold without a barcode and so can now be comparable to real media products. 

The print screen above portrays the back of cover in its current state, the picture has been placed just left of the center with all of the song names in place. So far my group and I are happy with the progress of this aspect of the Digi pack.

Looking back at our research into back of album covers, I became aware of the bonus tracks that Adele has added to her album which were probably added to boost album sales and may even be songs that were not released prior to the album being sold and so this would provoke interest from her target audience. We have used this aspect in our final back cover to make the album look more realistic and the song names are all from the original artist of P!nk, the singer of our chosen song.

The album cover also needs terms and conditions present on the case to make the audience aware of the copy right laws and the company which have produced the product. I have left a blank space at the bottom of the cover for this information and the writing will all be written in the same font as the rest of the album to convey continuity and have a professional outcome. 

In the screen shot above I have highlighted the way in which Rihanna has set out her technical information on her album cover compared to the way in which we have presented ours. Due to our cover not being a real music album I have used our names instead of real executive producers and given Alice her own website which is similar to both Rihanna and Adele's albums. By having their own website, music artists are able to update their fan base regularly with tour date information and news, they can also do this by social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

The image above conveys the final back of album cover. Overall my group and I are very happy with the outcome as we have followed our research carefully and the sketches have ensured that we kept to the layout we had previously planned.