Similar Artists and CD Cover Work

The next process of creating a Digipak was to look at similar artists and their cover work for CDS/Albums. This would help me too get further inspiration and creative ideas by looking at examples of the iconic music genre (Altervative Folk Pop/Rock). From looking at these, I instantly knew that I wanted to create a digipak that would be simplistic - in the sense it is not too 'busy.'

Above is an image of pop, soul and alternative rock artist Jason Mraz, for his 2008 album 'We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things.' The cover is very similar to Ed Sheerans in the way it contains a black and white edited effect, and also similar within the sketch/creativity that it holds of himself. His name stands out in bold, the image is of himself, and the album name is slightly smaller, but still noticeable.

Above is a smaller group called 'Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly' in which the cover art work is also very creative, and looks very abstract. It does not hold distinctive figures about the band, for example images of them. I really like the line work that is covering half of the cover, its very different and memorable, it also looks like it is set for  the younger generation. It makes me want to hear there music, and look further into the band.

Ben Howard, an English folk, rock artist album is slightly more different to Ed Sheerans, in that it doesn't have any form of drawing on, instead it has photography shot of somebody under water. I like the unique, vintage/alternative look that the image holds, through the editing choices. I like the big font, and the choice of having the font white makes it stand out and appeal to the audience. His audience is a younger generation so I feel it fits well to appeal to them.


I also then looked in to elder artists that are in the music genre, to see how it has developed/ or in some cases stayed similar. I looked at covers that where also of different genres, as the covers generally interested, and appealed to me.

This the album for 'The Dark Side of the Moon' by Pink Floyd released in 1973 - an English progressive rock band. The sleeve was designed by Hipgnosis and George Hardie. Richard Wright had specifically asked for a cover with something 'smarter, neater - more classy' and something 'simple and bold.'
I found online this section about the cover: "the gatefold design also includes a visual representation of the heartbeat sound used throughout the album, and the back of the album cover contains Thorgerson's suggestion of another prism recombining the spectrum of light, facilitating interesting layouts of the sleeve in record shops." I like the simplicity of the art work, and how eye catching it is. It does not give away too much about the band or their music, which appeals to the audience too listen further. I also like how the artist has visually represented the meaning of heartbeats etc, I think that its very effective and cleverly done.