Album Cover 1
Context and Content
This album cover if for Paolo Nutini’s second album “Sunny Side Up” which was released in the UK in June 2009. The cover illustration was designed by Marq Spusta, a freelance artist and illustrator based in California. Spusta has a very distinct drawing style and often works on projects such as rock band posters. The breakfast table scene on the cover goes with the title of the album ‘Sunny Side Up’. The overarching themes on this design are relaxed, natural and positive.
This piece was designed specifically for the cover of this album and so has been created entirely around the album itself, including the song titles hidden amongst the illustration. The design follows the conventions of an album cover in that it includes the name of the album artist, the name of the album and even an image of the musician himself. There is no obvious narrative to the design as it portrays a rather still scene.
Form
The overall look of the album cover is quite cluttered (with little use of whitespace) and bright, and this reflects the style of the Paolo Nutini’s rugged voice and good-mood music. The colour palette of this cover is bright and colourful with the most dominant colours being warm yellow, red and green. These colours were chosen to reflect the positive mood of the album and to give it a warm, cosy look to go with the quaint scene on the cover. This means that he used colour both decoratively and emotionally. Spusta chose bold colours, two of which are primary, to keep it simple and to make it look eye-catching. This is an important factor as the cover is mainly what attracts a customer when looking at albums in a shop. Using white for the artist’s name at the top of the cover stands out clearly against the yellow background ensuring that it is seen by customers. The designer has used textures that give it a hand-drawn, rugged, scratchy look by using lots of little lines to add detail. He has also shaded using this method. This intricate detail can be seen in almost all of Spusta’s work of which is all hand drawn and screen printed.
There is no use of white space on the cover design as it is busy and completely covered in colour and texture. The angle of the image is a simple horizontal angle, as if you were sitting across the table from him.
The cover has a consistent style throughout and holds together well. Spusta’s distinct style of illustration gives the cover a suitable theme that goes well with the folk-y album. Elements such as the plate of fried eggs on the table that link to the title of the album “Sunny Side Up” are quirky and effective and bring relevance to the artwork. The design is controlled because it creates a clear scene however the detailing may have been random as it looks very natural and carefree. The cover is organised so that the representation of the musician, Paolo Nutini, is placed centrally in the image to draw the attention to him. His name is the biggest text on the cover and placed centrally at the top. Also, the names of some of the songs on the album are small placed around the cover in spots such as on the newspaper and on the flower pot, making them similar to easter eggs. These elements are interesting and interactive give the cover an original quirk.
Process
In the process of creating this album artwork, it seems that the artist traditionally hand drew the design using a rather thin pencil/pen with it then being coloured digitally in a program such as Photoshop. The text on the cover is also hand drawn instead of eing typed up, and this keeps it looking consistent with the hand-drawn style of the artist.The distribution of the cover was done using lithography, which was also used to distribute the design as an official poster. Spusta is obviously very artistically skilled and his subtle use of small lines of different tones for shading looks very effective on the cover. All of the detail in it means that it probably took quite a while to initially design.
Personal Response
The element that first caught my eye was the colour palette used in the design, namely the bright contrasting stripes of yellow, red and green. With the colours being rather bright and summery, it reminded me of a colourful holiday villa in a hot country. It gives me a warm feeling and the scene of the breakfast table on the cover as well as the expression on his face, has a very relaxing effect. It creates a rather whimsical and desirable image and suits the music of the album well as it ranges from chilled out to upbeat songs.
Album Cover 2
Context and Content
This is the cover for the album “Takk” by Icelandic band Sigur Rós and was designed and created by Ísak Winther (a graphic designer from Iceland), Alex Somers (artist and band member) and Lukka Sigurðardóttir (artist and wife of a band member). This album, their fourth, was released in September 2005 and also won Best Album Design at the Icelandic Music Awards in 2006. The minimal cover consists of an image of a child among trees.
This piece was specifically designed for this purpose but without any major relevance to the content of the album. The title of the album “Takk” is Icelandic for “Thanks”. The overarching themes of this album artwork seem to be nature and mystery. There may be a narrative included however it is not told through this cover alone. Perhaps with the songs together with the cover image, a narrative can be told. The cover follows the conventions of album artwork in that it includes the name of the band, however it does not include the name of the album itself on the front cover, something that is usually included.
Form
The colour palette to this cover is very neutral and desaturated with only tones of black and brown being used. Pale brown has been used for the background with the imagery sketched onto it in black so that it stands out. The textures of this design clearly give clues as to how it was made. It has a hand-drawn, sketchy style that gives a very rustic finish. This was achieved by using charcoal which also gives the slightly opaque look, and the bumpy texture was achieved by drawing on to corrugated paper.The strip of binding along the left hand side has a fabric texture, a feature that is often included on some album covers that are designed in a similar style to this. The style of the lettering seems to have been created by using an ink pen which suits the rustic style. The colours were used decoratively for the naturalistic look however they were also used emotionally to reflect the sometimes solemn and understated music on the album. White space was used on this cover all around the edges of the trees and between the trees and the child. The main subject of the cover, the little child, is central and very small which makes it look simplistic and minimal.
The work holds together well throughout the design and the style is kept consistently across it. The artist chose these materials because charcoal is a tool that is used quite a bit in their other work and it suits their drawing style very well, as it is very understated and subtle. The illustration is not entirely controlled due to the tool that they were using that makes it difficult to get fine, exact detail. This, however, gives it a more natural look and fits well with the design.
The way that the composition was organised so that all of the attention is drawn to the child in the image. The child is very small and central with the trees surrounding him and being much larger, taking up lots of the page. This makes the child look more vulnerable and innocent, perhaps a hidden theme to the album. The charcoal strokes are very evident on the cover making it look very raw and showcasing the artist’s skills. The cover is designed in that there are images of a child and trees featured, but the drawing of these items seems quite random and free-hand. The textures on this cover were probably rendered through the use of textures paper when drawing, however they could have also have been rendered in post production in digital design software.
Process
The process of creating this album artwork was done by 3 artists: Winther, Somers and Sigurðardóttir. Somers and Sigurðardóttir were the ones to design the cover, Somers being the one who drew the design. Somers is a member of the band itself but is also a skilled artist and often uses charcoal and watercolour for his own pieces. His style has been used for the whole album cover through the use of charcoal, ink and textured paper. Winther is a graphic designer who did all of the post production work such as finishing up and touching up colours and then getting the image ready for distribution as the album cover, and also as band posters, gig posters and album adverts. Using the same design for multiple reasons related to the band is very effective and helps people to recognise it and link it to the band Sigur Ros. The design probably took time to create due to the amount of texture and to gain the artistic look is has. The artist, Somers, is very skilled in this area of drawing and it shows through his ability to draw the subjects roughly and vague while still making them easy to see, even without any use of colour.
Personal Response
I like this cover a lot and what drew me to it was it’s minimal style and very beautiful drawings that are so simple yet look so effective with the rough, rustic style. The small child among the trees on the cover looks very mysterious and interesting. I also like the colour palette used and the textures because it reminds me of an old, worn drawing. The expression on the child’s face is quite emotive and intrigues me and makes me wonder about the reason why the child is placed to poignantly on the cover.The only bit I do not like about it is its unclear connection to the album itself. If I was able to see a clear connection, I may find it more interesting.
