CD cover - how to make an impression?

G

glynb

Balladeer
What are your feelings on CD covers?

Specificaly,
what makes a CD cover stand out from the crowd?
If there were a pile of CDs by unknown artists in front of you what would make you pick one of them up?
Bright colours?
Good looking male/female on the cover?
Striking image(s)?
Naked flesh?

It's all very well for artists on major labels to have 'obscure' front covers (they can rely on promotion and their name being known), but an indie artist needs to get his/her CD picked up and examined. The font cover is arguably as important as the title, maybe more so because you see the artwork first, before the title (or any other text).

What cover art gets your CD ahead of the pack and noticed?

Any views/tips...
 
I think that question is best answered with a question. What do you want the album cover to convey? Its design shouldn't solely be based on what will attract the most attention, but what will attract the right kind of attention.

There's no formula, but I think all the elements you mentioned (along with a handful of others) are essential. If I had to pick one, I would go with striking imagery. Any of the other elements are useless if the image is only marginal.

For the album I'm working on right now, I tried to pick something that went well with the theme and title (see attachment). My old band tried something similar, using an image that evokes some sense of what the band is about. You can see our old album cover (the blue one) at:

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~holtk/cf/merchandise.html
 

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    album cover.jpg
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Thanks

I guess what I'm trying get from this on reflection is to determine if there is a particular type of cover which is more likely to get the CD picked up and looked at.

In the three examples from your post the one with the alpine cow would be more likely to get my attention, because I'd want to know what type of band/artist whould use an image of a browsing cow for their album! But maybe that's more about my quirky choice in music than anything else?

Your point seems to be pick an image which fits the tone/mood of the music, and I think you're right as a rule. It's just that a bland image may not encourage someone to pick it up and read the back (assuming they have never heard of you before).

Judging by the lack of responses, this isn't a theme which worries too many people!
 
My rule of thumb is no pictures of the band on the cover. I think that looks amateurish, unless it's a stylized picture.
 
The whole thing is very subjective.

Look at the white album. :D (couldn't resist the Spinal Tap reference)

main.jpg


OK, why can't I embed an image?

Carl
 
Blank cover?

The white Album kind of proves my point (come to think of it that's the only Beatles album not to feature their faces one way or another). The biggest band in the world can put out a blank cover, because they are going to get attention whatever they do.

The Beach Boys were notable for having lousy covers IMO, but again it didn't matter because their music was guaranteed attention.

But if Mr.Average unknown indepenedent puts out a blank cover is that really going to encourage someone to pick his CD out of a pile for closer examination? I think not.

Many covers feature pics of the artists(s) and that's OK if its a good as you say 'stylised' photo, not a cheesy one, or if the artist happens to be very good looking person. Where a pic of the artist is not appropriate then you have to look for some striking artwork to get the CD noticed I guess?
 
Re: Thanks

glynb said:
I guess what I'm trying get from this on reflection is to determine if there is a particular type of cover which is more likely to get the CD picked up and looked at.
Click to expand...

The question is, picked up and looked at by who?

That's where marketing comes in, it's why the marketing dept has heavy say in a label's album covers.

I mean, think about it; why do you pick up a CD and check it out? It's gonna be one that sticks out of the crowd and says "hey, this is your kind of music".

If you want a design that's gonna please everybody, it's not gonna happen. No more than you can write music that everybody will like.
 
Re: Re: Thanks

lykwydchykyn said:
The question is, picked up and looked at by who?

That's where marketing comes in, it's why the marketing dept has heavy say in a label's album covers.
Click to expand...
Exactly, if it was not so important they wouldn't spend so much time and money on it. The cover has to 'fit' with the album style/genre but it has to do more than that IMO it has to say 'look at me' (what I say is aimed at the product by unknown artists not established ones who get attention whatever cover design they use).

lykwydchykyn said:

I mean, think about it; why do you pick up a CD and check it out? It's gonna be one that sticks out of the crowd and says "hey, this is your kind of music".
If you want a design that's gonna please everybody, it's not gonna happen. No more than you can write music that everybody will like.
Click to expand...

Not design that will 'please everybody', no. But there may be designs which are more likely to grab attention of more/most people. Sometimes I am drawn to a CD in a rack purely because of the picture on the cover, no other reason. That's what got me thinking. I mean when I flip it over and read the CD text it might turn out to be a genre of music that has no interest to me, but at least I picked it up, it got my attention, job done.

If you have a CD cover which is more likely to get picked up in the manner I described and looked at by 'more people' then (assuming they are a cross section of the CD buying public) more of 'YOUR' type of people are going to be looking at the CD, therefore you may get more sales than you would have done without a striking cover.

I don't want to labour the point, at the end of the day a great album is still going to be a great album with or without an excellent cover (and a great cover of itself will not make an album good), just think it's important for us indies to use every means at our disposal to get attention for our work and the album cover IS within our control.

Thanks for the links, I will check them out.
 
ChristopherM said:
Different covers work for different reasons...maybe this'll give you some inspiration:

http://rateyourmusic.com/lists/list_view/list_id_is_1520
Click to expand...

What struck me about that list is the amount of what i'd term surreal/psychadelic imagery used on those covers. And most of them are very colourful. I think bright colours tends to grab the attention in general.

The like the pastiche of the never Mind The Bollocks' sex pistols in the post above by matt pollock. Very clever. I think that would definitely get picked out of the pile, just for further inspection. However, I personaly don't want to go down the 'copying a succesful design' route.

My daughter is at Art college, i think a commission to one of her friends might be in order!!! Hmmm.....
 
Re: Re: Re: Thanks

glynb said:

But there may be designs which are more likely to grab attention of more/most people.
Click to expand...

That's possible, but even with visual things people have their own tastes. I mean, I like green, blue and silver, and I somewhat like scifi, so if I see a CD that's a nice dark green or blue with a chrome rocket ship on the front, I'm gonna check that out. Someone else may be turned off by that. OTOH, if you've got a pink and teel album cover, I'm likely to notice it because of the bright colors, but since those colors jar my eye i'm not likely to check out that CD, unless it immediately strikes me in some other way that I might like it (i.e. the band's name, the CD's title, etc).

The other thing to consider is how it looks compared to what's around it. If you're in the middle of a section of black or otherwise dark album covers, and yours is stark white, it's gonna stand out. If every album is brightly colored, and yours is simple, muted colors, that might strike someone as a nice change.

I guess it sounds cliche, but I really think the best thing to do is have a cover that adequately conveys what the CD is all about and the personality of the artist. Use your favorite colors, use images you like, use fonts that appeal to you. And don't put a photo of the band on the front. :)
 
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