Print Analysis PART 2

Section 2

Intro

This album belongs to the band Muse, who are a popular alternative band who create their music electronically, so could also be classed as an electronic band. I can tell this from the album cover because it’s design is very unique, it includes images and designs that aren’t used by other bands and aren’t very commonly seen; it doesn’t use the average album design for a band, which might usually include photos of the band or something related to their genre. Also the cover also gives a sense that they produce electronic style music because you can tell that the design has been produced graphically because the photo used on the front cover looks animated, it doesn’t look real and so this gives it a modern or electronic feel.

Layout

The layout of the whole cover is very sparse. A lot of white space has been used. I think that this may be because the designer wants the image on the front to act as a centerpiece that helps the product to stand out on the shelf, and so by using a lot of whitespace it helps to make the image that. It also means that other things on the cover can also stand out, such as the band name or the album name, this cover may have been designed with the customer in mind and so by making such conventions stand out it might help the customer find the CD if they are look for the band name or album name, more that the design. Also the white space, is just a plain black block of colour, which means that brighter objects can contrast it and also can stand out more easily, therefore making the album more recognisable or attractive.

Typography

The typography used for this album cover is a san serif type. Because it is sans serif, it look more modern because serif typefaces can often look traditional, however by using very basic- looking, sans serif type it can make something look a lot more modern. By using this typeface to make the album look modern it adds to the modern feel of the album. When you look at the album you can tell that it the artist does very modern music, and many will associate Muse’s music as being modern. A serif typeface might be used for more traditional artists such as folk, artists or may just be used to suit the artists taste.

Hierarchy

The biggest object on this album cover is the large colourful graphic in the centre of the front cover. The bright colours used and the size of the graphic against the dark, block of colour, that is the cover’s whitespace, stand out, which may help from a sales point of view, because it can help the product to ‘catch the eye’. Also from my point of view, the fact that this image is so large means you can also see the graphic detail- you can tell that it has been electronically produced. This may also works from a sales point of view, because from this image you can tell that the music is going to be modern, due to the modernity of the design and aos if people see that they may buy the album due to liking the genre, which they have decided belongs to this album.

Grid

You see from the way that the text is positioned on the album cover, that the designer has used a form of grid or alignment tool. In section one of this analysis I noticed that text, such as the album name and the band logo, had been aligned to be exactly in line to each other, also you can see that they have also been aligned left, to stay on the left hand side on the page exactly. By using a grid or alignment tool it adds to the modernity of the pack. It doesn’t look organic (placed naturally) it is exactly in line, which shows that some sort of computerised software has been used to align them and so therefore looks slightly more modern, due to the apparent use of more modern materials to make the product. Also in terms of other conventions being ordered using a grid, you can tell that such a tool has been used because things such as the picture on the front cover are evenly centered, the information on the spine is aligned exactly and so have the numbers and names of tracks on the tracklist on the back.

Photography/Ornamentation and Photo package

The album doesn’t really use any form of photography, instead it uses a vector graphic, which is more  ornamentation than it is photography. Once again it adds to the modernity of the pack and the electronic feel, displaying the fact that it is the album of an electronic artist, as you wouldn’t see something such as this on a record from the 40’s. But also this certain use of ornamentation is very vibrant in colour and in display, and so it makes the product stand out against other products. But also because it uses, what I think is a vector graphic it looks more professionally produced, and so therefore the sense that the band is also professional. There is only one, large image used on this digipack, which means that the photo package isn’t very big at all and by using this simplistic photo package, it makes everything look a lot more sleek and ‘cool’ which is what most electronic artist what to represent their music as, however different packs look different due to different artists having a different definition of ‘cool’.

Colour scheme

The product uses a very vibrant colour scheme, where colour can be seen. The most vibrant of colours can be seen on the graphic used on the front. Colour is also used on the products typeface. You can see that the typeface uses a sort of spectrum, where the colour at the top starts of being unsaturated and then gradually it  it uses a graphic effect which causes vibrant, heavily saturated colour to fade into the bottom, an nice example of this is seen within the track list. This bright, vibrant colour usage makes the product look alive and attractive and also the fact that it uses these graphic effects and such vibrant colour also adds to the modernity of the product, because an older album probably wouldn’t be able to bring such vibrancy to the eye. Also the colours make the product look lively, which may present  the mood brought across by the music, and being electronic music, it can usually be the case that it can be a lively sounding genre.

Institutional Information  

There is very little institutional informational but this may be because it is a CD and there isn’t much need to use institutional information with a CD. Also the institutional information is very small on this digipack cover because it isn’t needed to sell the product to the customer, it is important, so it must be there, however in terms of selling the CD to the public, they won’t be interested in the institutional information and even if it is huge, they won’t however it will also just make the product look unattractive.