Album Cover Analysis 1 - Taylor Swift 1989

On the cover of Taylor Swift's 1989 album you can see a picture of her. Now, this is an odd picture, as she is wearing unfashionable clothes and the top half of her head is missing from the photo. This makes the picture seem like a silly selfie, taken when she was with friends, making it more personal to her. The picture also has a vintage/worn effect making it seem old. You could say the picture looks like it was taken in 1989. The red lipstick she is wearing is a typical and easily recognisable feature of the artist. Because of her ever increasing popularity most people would be able to gather that the picture is of Taylor Swift. Helping anybody who isn't too sure is her initials written on the white frame around the picture. The frame is present to add to the idea that this picture was taken in 1989, and was from a photo album very close to her. The shot is also a medium shot, implying it the person taking the picture was standing quite close to her, suggesting a possible friendship between the two. The typography is marker pen, and next to it are the letters DLX and above the date 1989, which is the year she was born. It is written in pen because it looks like she has written on it, dating it and signing it. This is the type of thing you'd see in someone's old photo albums from their teenage years. The letters DLX abbreviate the word "delux", letting the customer know that the version they are buying is special, more so than the regular edition.

 

On the back there is a picture of the artist, the song names and track numbers and copyright details, along with a bar code. Once more, the picture looks vintage, and not really typical of a professional photoshoot, adding to the continuity from the front cover. Stylistically, it is to make the artist look more like a person someone can relate to, opposed to just a celebrity. Additionally, it fits with the conventions of her image and  the genre: There are two typical and easily recognisable features of the artist - her blonde hair, and the bright red lipstick. Her reserved and hipster demeanour also add to the conventions of the genre too. Opposed to posing, she is stood there looking at the camera, which represents her simplicity, whereas a more aggressive rapper like 50 Cent can often see posing with a gun, or a metal band like Black Veil Brides would often be seen screaming on their album covers. Comparing her to them once more in terms of attire, people would be seen wearing the clothes she is wearing in the real world, but it is not particularly mainstream. Once more, making her quite relatable to her audience whereas 50 Cent is often seen wearing clothes associated with gang culture, making him seem different to the people who may choose to listen to him.

Once more, certain things are written in a marker, such as the track numbers, and the Big Machine Records logo. The personal vibe they are trying to put across suggests the songs on the album mean a lot to the artist personally, and the music isn't profit driven. 

The CD itself shares its image with the shirt Swift is wearing on the front cover. On it is written "1989 T.S. DLX" which is oddly reminiscent of a mixtape.  Additionally the typography remains the same, adding to the continuity unlike Jethro Tull's album "Aqualung"

 

The insert is simply lyrics to the songs. The polaroids are annotated photos of Taylor Swift, the type of thing one would see in a time capsule. This is simply an added feature of the album, making it feel like a deluxe edition.

Main Titles Typography

The typography of this album name is the same as the artists name, implying it is unlikely that a mainstream audience would recognise them from just a simple logo. This brands the demographic as alternative, which I can agree to. The font itself is reminiscent of that of a type writer, hinting at the simplistic style of the album. It is also in black, which both matches the colour scheme of the album cover and stands out. Of the three, I'd say this is my favourite.

This obviously more mainstream than the Nick Cave album. We have Eminem's logo placed conspicuously in the middle of the cover, in the same place as is Push The Sky Away, but this is a lot larger and easily recognisable. The album's name is in a smaller underneath it in the same font. It is also written in white, a bright colour which stands out.

This is the stranger of the three covers in my opinion - it just feels like the font is inappropriate for the style of the art on the album. The album cover's picture looks drawn, and the typography is obviously printed.

Noteworthy - font

Actor Enquiries

For my music video, I will need characters. Three to be specific. The protagonist, the ex-boyfriend and the mother.

The Protagonist

The protagonist will be played by a girl, ideally the singer of the song. A general description of this character is a female with dark hair, of reasonable stature and build and somewhat appealing to a male audience.

The Boyfriend

The boyfriend will look like a generic male, of average height and build. I describe the character as looking generic, or drab, because the song is about him being cheated on and generally people remain faithful to people who bring excitement into their lives. I feel Daniel Farndell would fit this role perfectly, and I will contact him accordingly.

The Mother

The mother lacks relevance in the story. She is simply a side character only seen for a brief moment form behind. My only requirements for this actor is that they are female with long hair and of the same ethnicity as the boyfriend, who is her son. This is for the sake of continuity. If my preferred actor accepts the role, I would prefer the mother to have brown hair.

Treatment

My project is a music video, as we know. It shall contain two relevant elements mainly, a performance and most importantly, the story.

The song is about a girl who has lost a lover due to her cheating, or making a mistake, as she so subtly puts it. It is a tale of sorrow, melancholy and regret, the objective of the protagonist being on a quest to redeem herself and to convince her ex-lover to forgive her of the sin she had once committed.

The performance element will be the protagonist and artist singing. She will be alone in an empty room.

Additionally, the film is to be recorded at night - only the ominous shroud of night could represent the emotions the protagonist is feeling. Also, one of the first lyrics of the song states that it is 3am. Continuity is important - we wouldn't want to be like Ed Wood. All humour aside, the mis-en-scene is two have a dark theme to it as to truly capture what was felt by the writer of this song at the time it was written. The song was a reflection of the composers emotional state; as will be the video.

I have chosen not to include a dance in my video, despite being influenced by Nick Cave, the reason for this being I feel a more simplistic video would be preferable for a song such as this.

Company logo

Here are some examples of music company logos that I looked at in order to create my own in a  suitable manner:

A common trend between these logos is that they're all simple designs in black and white. I also quite liked the idea of using one letter in a distinguished font on their logo as Motown did. Columbia records and Atlantic records both used easily recognisable images too, thus giving me further inspiration. All the logos have the companies name next to the image representing their company. Easily readable fonts are a common sight amongst these, as to be clearly visible to those who are hard of sight.
Here is the logo I designed.

This logo contains the companies name, an easily read and recognisable font, and a logo. The logo is of two bass clefs put together creating the image of a heart. Inside the heart is the letter A in the Jazz LET font. A stands for adagio, the company name. Adagio and the bass clef are things related to music. Adagio means slow, which is relevant to the type of music the company sells/would sell. Jazz is also a genre of music. Already, music is heavily referenced and implied, but unlike the logos I analysed, the word records is underneath my company name - this clearly shows that my company is a record company. The heart shape of the bass clefs implies some form of love, whether it is a love for music, or the meaning of the songs. The song I am making a video about is a song about lost love, so this is relevant.

The image above was the finished product. Before hand, I had created a less satisfactory logo, which was this.

At this point in time, I was pleased with the logo's font and the general concept, but the the letter O in a different font in a larger size was repulsive; Mr Allan, my teacher also did not appreciate how low down the image was in the frame, so for then on I centralised the image and replaced the O with two bass clefs.

Digipak flat plan

This is the digipak I shall create to contain my cd. I will produce this as 6 separate files on photoshop, and then combine them, creating my album cover, at which point it will be ready to sell. I will be using these measurements to create said case.