CDD Research : The History Of The Album Cover
The first disc records, ones that we would recognize as such, appeared around 1910. Most often these were packaged in plain brown Paper or cardboard sleeves. Occasionally and enterprising retailer would print his store name on the sleeve but generally they were unadorned.
In the early 1920's retailers started gathering many of these cardboard sleeves and binding them together with heavy paperboard or leather covers. These looked similar to large photo albums and, borrowing the name, were sold as record albums. These albums offered much greater protection for the discs than the original packaging and were seen as indispensible to disc owners that had seen too many of their fragile records broken.
Beginning in the 1930s the record companies started using these record albums to distribute bundles of records from one performer or a collection of performers with similar musical styles. Some of the first cover designs can be traced to these albums and the record company’s desire to graphically communicate the music each album held.
Alex Steinweiss the art director for Columbia Records is given credit for the concept of modern cover art. He experimented with different concepts and images through the late 1930s and into the early 1940s. During this time Columbia Records rebounded from the terrible years they had suffered during the depression to become one of the most prominent record companies in the United States. Much of this was due to their ground breaking use of graphical design. By the close of the decade all major recording companies had graphic design professionals on staff.
The golden era of cover art design began in the early to mid 1960s and lasted into the early 1980s. During this time the major format for music was the 12 inch, long play disc or LP. Cover art became a part of the musical culture of the time. Often used to express graphically the musician’s artistic intent, it helped connect and communicate to listeners the message or underlying theme of the album.
Designers, photographers, and illustrators sometimes became famous for their cover art creations. Such notables as Andy Warhol and Frank Frazetta were taken from being known in their industry to becoming household names due to their cover art graphic design work. So respected and desired are the designs and illustrations found in cover art that there are numerous art galleries that specialize in helping collectors find rare album covers.
As the medium for recording transitioned from the LP to the compact disc many graphic designers failed to transition with it. Having worked for so long with the much larger canvas of the LP cover, switching to the smaller CD case left most designers dissatisfied with their results. Often artist and record companies simply tried to shrink the LP size art to fit the CD.
Album cover art, now almost exclusively CD and CD packaging artwork, went through a period of change and rebirth in the 1990s. Designers learned to capture snapshots and portions of the artist’s musical intent rather than trying to convey the entire message. Also designers started conveying the emotion of the music rather than the musical intent.
In the late 90s computer design programs started to overcome the physical limitations of the smaller CD packaging. With the ability to draw much tighter, finer lines and have even small details look crisp and sharp, once again designers were free to explore a larger variety of design options. As the technology continued to improve graphic designers adapted and were once again producing world class artwork.
In the present, CD design is undergoing a true renaissance. Rather than becoming obsolete in the digital age as many thought it would, graphic design is once again proving itself as the difference maker. The internet is now the largest record store imaginable. Now rather than browsing a few hundred albums or songs at a time you may be exposed to thousands and thousands. Since it would be impossible to listen to portions of all those thousands of songs the design of the accompanying artwork must cause potential listeners to stop and take notice and give this album a try.
CLICK HERE to watch a video which provides an interesting take on the implications of album artwork in relation to marketing.
Alex Steinweiss the art director for Columbia Records is given credit for the concept of modern cover art. He experimented with different concepts and images through the late 1930s and into the early 1940s. During this time Columbia Records rebounded from the terrible years they had suffered during the depression to become one of the most prominent record companies in the United States. Much of this was due to their ground breaking use of graphical design. By the close of the decade all major recording companies had graphic design professionals on staff.
The golden era of cover art design began in the early to mid 1960s and lasted into the early 1980s. During this time the major format for music was the 12 inch, long play disc or LP. Cover art became a part of the musical culture of the time. Often used to express graphically the musician’s artistic intent, it helped connect and communicate to listeners the message or underlying theme of the album.
Designers, photographers, and illustrators sometimes became famous for their cover art creations. Such notables as Andy Warhol and Frank Frazetta were taken from being known in their industry to becoming household names due to their cover art graphic design work. So respected and desired are the designs and illustrations found in cover art that there are numerous art galleries that specialize in helping collectors find rare album covers.
In the late 90s computer design programs started to overcome the physical limitations of the smaller CD packaging. With the ability to draw much tighter, finer lines and have even small details look crisp and sharp, once again designers were free to explore a larger variety of design options. As the technology continued to improve graphic designers adapted and were once again producing world class artwork.
In the present, CD design is undergoing a true renaissance. Rather than becoming obsolete in the digital age as many thought it would, graphic design is once again proving itself as the difference maker. The internet is now the largest record store imaginable. Now rather than browsing a few hundred albums or songs at a time you may be exposed to thousands and thousands. Since it would be impossible to listen to portions of all those thousands of songs the design of the accompanying artwork must cause potential listeners to stop and take notice and give this album a try.
CLICK HERE to watch a video which provides an interesting take on the implications of album artwork in relation to marketing.
Research Into Existing Digipacks
This is me looking at some existing digipacks and analysing the spine, inside covers and the front and back covers.
I then looked at existing digipacks as part of my research which I tried to find common conventions that had near enough the same features in each of them, on a lot of the back covers, all the digipacks had the tracklist, barcode and the small print. Only some of them featured the website/social media and the record label. On some of the digipacks the tracklist included the length of each of the song as well. The front cover featured the album name, a close up image of the artist and some abstract designs as well.The inside back cover featured the image of the digipack, the production info so who helped create it and where and some of the inside back covers will have text wrapping around the disc tray, sometimes these are the lyrics. The inside front cover featured the production team and some of them also included the lyrics to each of their songs as well. On the digipacks, the same font gets used throughout and the same colour of text as well and this was exactly the same on most of the digipacks with exception of one which had the same font on the trackless but one of the songs was in different font. The spine consisted of the artist and album name and had the same fonts used as well as the production company logo.
Research Into Existing Digipacks
This is me looking at some existing digipacks and analysing the spine, inside covers and the front and back covers.
I then looked at existing digipacks as part of my research which I tried to find common conventions that had near enough the same features in each of them, on a lot of the back covers, all the digipacks had the tracklist, barcode and the small print. Only some of them featured the website/social media and the record label. On some of the digipacks the tracklist included the length of each of the song as well. The front cover featured the album name, a close up image of the artist and some abstract designs as well.The inside back cover featured the image of the digipack, the production info so who helped create it and where and some of the inside back covers will have text wrapping around the disc tray, sometimes these are the lyrics. The inside front cover featured the production team and some of them also included the lyrics to each of their songs as well. On the digipacks, the same font gets used throughout and the same colour of text as well and this was exactly the same on most of the digipacks with exception of one which had the same font on the trackless but one of the songs was in different font. The spine consisted of the artist and album name and had the same fonts used as well as the production company logo.
Planning: Digipack
Below is an image of my plan for my CDD. The top left panel is the inside right, top right is the inside left, the bottom left is the back cover and the bottom right is the front cover.
Construction: Digipack
To begin with, i imported a template into photoshop which helped me get the correct dimensions for each of the covers. I began with the front cover
I had to find a good image and a the image i got had a really good background colour so it was quite easy to edit around and i wanted to make sure that my CDD consisted of one colour and therefore the background was red and worked really well.
I then began to work on the font of my CDD and after looking at a lot of different fonts, i then decided on having the Brittanic Bold font because it suits the genre of music and goes really well. Also as you can see the image of the artist has slightly altered, this was because I included a filter onto him in order to give the CDD more of an impact and stand out a lot more. The filter i chose was Accented Edges and felt this was a really good filter to use. The image to the left is another filter that i looked at but i didn't like the look of it as i don't think it suits the purpose of the genre of music.
This image to the right is my back cover and i have gone with the same emotion in terms of the serious looks on the outside covers whereas on the front cover he is showing some emotion. For this back cover I have included the barcode and small print as well as the tracklist. The filter has also been applied onto the artists face as well. This image on the left is the artists face being cut out, this was because the colour was not the same so therefore, the back cover photo, I made it overlap the front cover so all i had to do was put the cut out image on the front cover.
This is my inside left cover and this is going to be flipped around, I have included a thank you message onto the inside left cover thanking all of those involved in making sure this was able to be created.
This is the inside right cover and for this, all i included was a quarter of the artists face showing some emotion with the red background.
This is the spine of my CDD and i have kept the same red background and same font as the text as well.
Imagine Dragons CD Digipack Completed
Planning: Digipack
Below is an image of my plan for my CDD. The top left panel is the inside right, top right is the inside left, the bottom left is the back cover and the bottom right is the front cover.
Construction: Digipack
To begin with, i imported a template into photoshop which helped me get the correct dimensions for each of the covers. I began with the front cover
I had to find a good image and a the image i got had a really good background colour so it was quite easy to edit around and i wanted to make sure that my CDD consisted of one colour and therefore the background was red and worked really well.
This image to the right is my back cover and i have gone with the same emotion in terms of the serious looks on the outside covers whereas on the front cover he is showing some emotion. For this back cover I have included the barcode and small print as well as the tracklist. The filter has also been applied onto the artists face as well. This image on the left is the artists face being cut out, this was because the colour was not the same so therefore, the back cover photo, I made it overlap the front cover so all i had to do was put the cut out image on the front cover.
This is my inside left cover and this is going to be flipped around, I have included a thank you message onto the inside left cover thanking all of those involved in making sure this was able to be created.
This is the inside right cover and for this, all i included was a quarter of the artists face showing some emotion with the red background.
Imagine Dragons CD Digipack Completed
