Colour Schemes - Black and White?

I now have to figure out the kind of colour schemes will be needed for my overall album cover. Thinking about this, i've had an idea for a black and white theme but with one central item or aspect of the album cover having colour. I have gained this inspiration from different mediums, as it creates a dramatic impact and draws the reader in with its one singular colour. By having one singular colour, I can easily symbolise my music video and album because the colour has no other colour to clash or contrast with. For example, different colours are often said to symbolise different themes; red = anger, passion, love, romance; yellow = happiness; purple = royalty; pink = sexuality, feminine.

Steven Spielberg's Schindlers List:

Though the context within the film is serious, and I have interpreted it to be so, this is still my most fundemental inspiration for the colour scheme of my album cover. Here, you can quite clearly see the little girls coat is red, drawing the audience into her image and giving off the sense of love and a mothers' love when put in relation to the context of the film. This one coloured image presents a singular idea with another dimension to it, and in the case of Schindlers list, it shows a sign of hope, in a film that depicts the horrors of the Jewish Holocaust in Nazi Germany.

Bart Busschots' photography blog:

I found this on the photography blog of a man named Bart Busschots entitled www.bartbusschots.ie/blog/?p=536. Once again, I picked this for the strong impact it makes and the message it sends out to an audience. In this picture, the idea of nature is highlighted through the orange presented on the butterfly. Consequently, the colour orange presents the idea of happiness, and thus provokes the feeling out of the audience meaning overall this image is seen as a happy and positive one - something I would like to create in my album cover.

GIMP - Selective Colourization Tutorial:

This is less of an intense photo, as it is not fully in black and white but sepia. I obtained this photo from a tutorial website that specialised in teaching you how to place only one colour onto a black and white photo named http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/Selective_Color/. I used this photo as I felt that once again, the impact of keeping the eyes colours intact whilst everything else was in sepia was both clever and symbolic to the idea of the beauty of children. Therefore, once again this is a positive image with an artistic dimension to it - something that inspired me further in my ideas of an album cover.

Other colour schemes:

Failing I cannot create such a thing as above, or that I decided to opt out from this idea, I have deliberated three colour schemes I could use in my album cover design and, with explanations, have placed them in the form of a powerpoint presentation.

Other colour schemes

View more presentations from Amachin.

My chosen font.

I conducted a survey in my class to help me choose my chosen font. The class, out of eighteen (including me) had to choose one font they would pick if it were there album cover. I then plugged the results in the form of a pie chart from the website http://www.mathwarehouse.com/ .Here are the results;

As you can see, Ghetto Marquee (as coloured bright blue) gained the most votes with a total of 38.8% and this will be my chosen font.

My chosen font:

Font Ideas.

The font of my album cover is key to its design. Because of this, I will take extra care in the font of my album cover by searching for different fonts and how/why I think they could relate to the feel of my album cover. I have obtained these fonts using http://www.dafont.com/, a website I have used before and thus know its reliable. I have narrowed my search down to four different fonts with feedback from various classmates. Later on, I will conduct a survey as to which font recieved the most fonts; using this is as my final decision on which font to choose. My chosen fonts are as follows;

1. Que FONTita!

I chose this font as it has a youthful, comical feel to it and seems like the type of font that could appear as part of a fun, upbeat song. If you look closely, small pictures are placed around a few of the letters, something I thought would appeal to my target audience and something that, on a personal level, I thought looked good.

Lance: I like this font as it seems fun and boyish (something that would appeal to me - and also would appeal to the male dominated target audience of the music project). The boldness of it is appealing and I think it could really work well with the music project.

Ashleigh: The font works well as its fun and bold, meaning it wont fade out amongst other aspects of the album. The little pictures are intricate and intriguing, something I think an audience would really enjoy.

Rachel: The font works well because it looks hand written/drawn, and gives it a bit of authenticity. The white and black work well together and make the font look fun and quirky.

2. A Love of Thunder

In this font, what really appealed to me was the simplicity of it. By making it simple, I can add other quirky effects to the album cover. As I believe my music video and chosen song is more male orientated, I wanted to project this onto my album cover; believing that out of all the font's chosen, this is the most male orientated thus relating to my target audience.

Chris: I like how simple this font is, and its boldness, but I fear it could become a bit boring. However, it has potential to be really good if everything else on this hypothetical album cover is constructed cleverly.

Sarah: The boldness is something that, as a teenager and therefore part of the target audience, appeals to me. It draws me in and intrigues me into what the album cover could be like. Its very easy to read and stands out, which is good.

Amy: This font I enjoy because it works in a very understated, simple way. It seems to draw the reader in and gives them an impact. The small faded bits are very implicit, but give it an authentic look, something I really like.

1. Elastic Wrath

I picked this font because I felt it fit with the criteria of that I wanted out of an album cover; fun, silly, informal and something that would appeal to a teenage target audience. I personally really liked the swirls that define the "0's" of the writing, and the curls emphasise the fun I wanted to get out of my album cover.

Lee: I enjoy this font because its eye catching and fun to look at. However, I think if anything, it could relate more to girls and because of this, its not my favourite. But, I could definately see a title like this in an album cover for The Wombats because its quirky, fun and epitomises youth.

Naomi: This is one of my favourite fonts because its really fun and different. Having an individual looking font could add an advantage as it attracts more of an audience. This fun font envokes positive emotions - something I think could even more attract an audience.

Jack: This font is fun and unique, but to me it looks a little too girly for the key target audience and it may be too flamboyant for a simple album cover. However, it certainly is different and looks authentic - something I and I believe an audience would appreciate.

3. Ghetto Marquee

So far, this is my favourite. Mainly because it looks authentic and almost natural - like photography. This font seems gritty and pertains very cleverly to both a predominately male and teenage age criteria. This font caught my eye because in my music video, I am using flashcards as props to create a fun and quirky feel and this font looks like each individual letter is made of a flashcard, so relates very much so to my music video and the overall feel of my music video project.

Hamish: I like this font as it looks very indie, something I think The Wombats music is. The font looks very authentic and natural, but with a gritty edge to it that adds quirkiness. My only criticism could be that it looks a bit too dark, and sharp and in that sense, doesn't fit in with the quirky music.

Perry: This is a unique and "indie" looking font that I think could fit well with the idea of the music video, if constructed properly. It could be a bit too dark and grungy though, and might not add in with the target audience.

Kris: I really enjoy this font type for a title as it looks unique, different and fits in well with the male target audience. Though it does look a bit dark in colour and sense to be classed as fun if it was part of an album cover, it has a lot of potential to be constructed well and would catch an audiences attention.

Alternatively...

After considering all four of the titles, I have to note that I could choose more than one font, and alternate between the album name title and the bands name title etc. However, that would tak choosing two fonts that look similar together. Still, the option is open.

Album Cover 3

Album Cover 3: Jack Johnson - To The Sea


The first noticable thing about this album cover is that, in a sense, it relates to the album name. "To The Sea" creates an idea of serenity, mainly through the idea of the ocean, and this is related in the both the album front and cover in which blue is the predominate colour. This idea of relating the album design scheme to the album name interests me as it sets an entire theme for the album, artist and music - binding them all together to create an entire theme. I may use this idea in my album making; finding some way to link all three musical aspects together. On both the front and back cover, the artist appears in a medium to medium long shot, but looks comfortable and relaxed (not posed) thereby giving a realistic nature to the shot, making the album feel more personal to the audience. The artists name and album name are in line with one another, linking the artist and the album together and they correlate with the black/white title colour contrast. Whilst the contents is not numbered, it is listed chronologically and so in a sense, the numbers are not needed. Once again, the technicialities and minor details are placed on the bottom of the back cover (probably because they are the least interesting aspect of any album cover).

Album Cover 2

Album Cover 2: Blink 182 - Greatest Hits

The album is simple. That being it follows a simple colour scheme (or shade scheme as technically no colours are used). By using this simplistic technique, the artist creates more of an impact to the target audience especially when the bands logo is used and placed large and in the centre of the front. The target audience (that being Blink 182 fans) will instantly recognise the logo and thus, be attracted to the album instantly. The album and bands name "greatest hits" has a font that is similar to the bands logo, and this shows the logo (and therefore the band) is central to the entire design scheme of the album and the logo. However, the back does not link too much to the front as the font is different and it contains no logo. It does however, clearly show that this is the artists album by naming it at the top, and the colour scheme is the same (black and grey/white) so in this sense, there is still a distinctive connection. The colour scheme itself relates to the target audience because it pertains to the theme of the music - punk rock. As punk rock is usually dark, gritty music, the black and grey/white colour scheme is recognisable to that music style and therefore, relates to the bands target audience. The contents is organised neatly in a chronological list as the contents clearly needs to show any audience what songs play when. After the contents, comes the technicalities (an order i've found on the majority of albums when researching albums).

Researching Album Covers and Album Cover 1.

As part of my media project, I will also have to create an album cover (front and back) in accordance to my music video. Before I do this, I have decided to research a couple of album covers (front and back) in order to get into perspective the kind of themes and ideas I could use for my own album cover. I obtained all of my CD Album covers by either taking pictures myself of my own albums, or using a simple google image (free from copyright of course).

Album Cover 1: Michael Buble - Crazy Love

On first looks, there is a simple but effective connection between both the front and back of the album cover. Whilst most of both cover sides are primarily a picture of the artist (for the obvious reason to draw attention to them and their music), there is a colour scheme present also. In this cover, the cover theme is a serene, happy kind of colour scheme will creams, light greys and yellow. This relates to the style of the artists music which is primarily pop/jazz, meaning it usually has a relaxed feel to it. On the front side, there is a close up shot of the artists face to present an intimate feel to the artists music; allowing them to relate to it more. However, on the back it is a medium shot, designed to show the artists clothing and further imply to the target audience of the style and feel of the music and the music album. In this sense, the music album becomes a summary of the type of music inside. On this cover, there is a simplistic feel. Not much is going on unless it is necessary such as the title, contents and artists name. On the back, the contents is clearly shown in an organised manner; each song labled in chronological order with the font large to draw attention to the reader the songs. The yellow banner that contains the artists name links the front and back cover together as, put side by side, you can clearly see it follows on. This connection clears up confusions about which artist the CD is of. Looking at the technicalities of the album cover, I can see the necessary labels that are issued on the back to signify to the audience certain things: for example, the bar code, the artists record company label and a symbol to show the CD can play on a DVD player. I will use these in the making of my own album cover to make it appear professional.

Animatic (Without Music)

Currently, I do not have the music on me to demonstrate the storyboard shots with the music. However, I have compiled an animatic on me that demonstrates each storyboard shot in turn. This has given me a more clear idea on what my video will be like, or how I want it to be like. I created this animatic using Windows Movie Maker to which I then uploaded onto http://www.vimeo.com/ , and this gave me a brief demonstration into video processing and editing, something I will later be using in more detail when editing my music video.

Storyboard Animatic from Alex Machin on Vimeo.