Comment On This Album Cover

Stylo

Stylo

The Freeman
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** FINAL UPDATE **

Thanks y'all for the comments. If you are interested in seeing what the actual cover for this album turned out to be, here:

hotsignalcoverjpegcmyk.jpg


** THREAD UPDATE **

Thank y'all for taking part in my thread. The experiment has been successful thus far. I must now, however, ask one more favour.

Comment on this:

valvescoverprev.jpg


Compare and contrast as you please.
I've got all the response I needed from posting the previous image in a few places but feel free to still comment on it.

Album title is real this time.

** ORIGINAL POST **

Okay, doods. I am doing some qualitative research of sorts and I need your opinions, pretty plz.

Imagine you are in a store and before your eyes is a shiny jewel case. This jewel case,
contains an audio CD of the musical variety. It is an album, recorded by a rock band that
you may or may not have heard before or be familiar with. This does not necessarily matter.

You stare at this album and the front cover is thus:

rubbercoverprev.jpg



You form an opinion of this cover. What is that opinion and why?

You may ask questions, for example:
Q. What is that circle symbol thing with the lines through it?
A. That is a version of the band's logo.

Constructive stuff would be nice.

Note that your opinion may or may not have FULL LIFE CONSEQUENCES.

(Also note that the album's name is not 'Album Title' and that this is placeholder text)
 
Pretentious.
 
ThePerson5 said:
Looks pretty good, but I think a bit... empty? Maybe that white space around the edges could be filled in a bit.
Click to expand...

Useful. Thank you.

Please bear in mind anyone commenting, I ask for reasons / explanations for any opinions, positive or negative, purely so that I can actually put comments to some degree of use.
 
Stylo said:
Explanation?
Click to expand...

Personally the imagery comes across as trying to make some kind of weird cultural statement about sex/sexuality/safe sex. It seems like just another example of musicians trying to appear more culturally significant than they actually are by making "bold statements" about things which are irrelevant to their music or true beliefs just to attract more attention from certain demographics for reasons disassociated with what their actual goal is - to sell music.

What ThePerson said also applies to what I'm trying to say, as the massive amount of white space only attracts attention to the condom in the middle of the album cover, emphasizing whatever "important point" the artist may be trying to make.

That or the guy really likes condoms in white rooms.
 
Omnomnick said:
Personally the imagery comes across as trying to make some kind of weird cultural statement about sex/sexuality/safe sex. It seems like just another example of musicians trying to appear more culturally significant than they actually are by making "bold statements" about things which are irrelevant to their music or true beliefs just to attract more attention from certain demographics for reasons disassociated with what their actual goal is - to sell music.

What ThePerson said also applies to what I'm trying to say, as the massive amount of white space only attracts attention to the condom in the middle of the album cover, emphasizing whatever "important point" the artist may be trying to make.

That or the guy really likes condoms in white rooms.
Click to expand...

Thank you!
 
Pretentious? Not really, no. It's nice, minimalist and eye-catching.
 
I like the simplicity of it. For me, it kinda depends on what the album is going to be titled. If the name goes along with the image it could work well, but as a non-sequiter it could be kinda odd.
 
Its eye-catching due to the whitespace and jarring color, but I wouldn't be interested in looking at it further once I notice its a dicksleeve. Putting a cockbag on your product with your logo on it usually isn't the sign of highly creative individuals :/ I agree with nick's explanation, though I don't think pretentious is the word for it.

Sticking with the jizzcatcher though, artistically I think the image is too flat. Perhaps playing with the shadow around the pecker poncho's wrapper would help, or maybe have a feint textured background.
 
It's quite striking but "weird thing against pure white backdrop" is a little played out with album covers. But then I guess just about everything is.

Questions for you:

Is it meant to represent anything? I don't normally read too far into things but the fact that the wrapper is closed sort of implies chastity to me. Like I figure your typical cock rock band would probably have the wrapper open to imply that sex things are about to happen.

Is the album title actually Album Title? Cause... come on, man. :p
 
Krynn72 said:
Its eye-catching due to the whitespace and jarring color, but I wouldn't be interested in looking at it further once I notice its a dicksleeve. Putting a cockbag on your product with your logo on it usually isn't the sign of highly creative individuals :/ I agree with nick's explanation, though I don't think pretentious is the word for it.

Sticking with the jizzcatcher though, artistically I think the image is too flat. Perhaps playing with the shadow around the pecker poncho's wrapper would help, or maybe have a feint textured background.
Click to expand...

Eye-catching appears to be an emerging opinion pattern, which I guess is good. Suggestions for improvement, also good.

Bad^Hat said:
Is it meant to represent anything? I don't normally read too far into things but the fact that the wrapper is closed sort of implies chastity to me. Like I figure your typical cock rock band would probably have the wrapper open to imply that sex things are about to happen.

Is the album title actually Album Title? Cause... come on, man. :p
Click to expand...
There are a couple of songs on it that are related to doing the deed and the representation of the image is along the lines of drawing a sort of metaphor for the album. Here's the album (the man-sheath) put it on and experience the stuff. Kind of the band are going to enter you with their music.

The open / closed wrapper is an interesting thought because one of the ideas for this art was actually to have the wrapper open on the back of the case.

...and yeah, Krynn already got the album title thing. :p
 
I'm not going to come and blurt out a bunch of hooey about symbolism or messages, but I'm not a fan of the white space as others have mentioned. My first instinct to change it would be, like, a hearty woodgrain table, but as a disclaimer that idea might be terrible.

And unwrapped on the back is a great idea.
 
just ****ing say condom

also my only suggestion is removing the logo from the condom. the purple says enough.
 
One thing about iterative design, that it doesn't necessarily work with album covers. You can change up text but the icon of the design can never be amended. When dealing with such a bold icon white space can work to your favour but you need to balance the negative space.

My opinion: Boring.

Here's an album that made me buy it solely based on its album cover:
khd3scQ.jpg
 
Yeah, almost a bit too minimalist, I guess. The white seems a bit disconnected from the condom, just weirdly sterile (ho ha) and artificial. Sort of mixed on the condom, can see why people might roll their eyes and think you're trying to be edgy or something like that.
 
Naph said:
Here's an album that made me buy it solely based on its album cover:
khd3scQ.jpg
Click to expand...

The music within is even better than the cover itself. Wonderful album.
 
What if the backdrop was a wall and the condom was held up by a pin? Then the message would be "this shit will get you PRAGNANT."
 
What if the condom was a CD and the CD inside was an actual condom?

With a download code printed along the shaft when you unroll it.
 
And if the condom were a CD, what if when you put it on your penis the music began to play?
 
** THREAD UPDATE **

Thank y'all for taking part in my thread. The experiment has been successful thus far. I must now, however, ask one more favour.

Comment on this:

valvescoverprev.jpg


Compare and contrast as you please.
I've got all the response I needed from posting the previous image in a few places but feel free to still comment on it.

Album title is real this time.
 
My first impression was that it was a live album because it looked like a stage, but then I looked harder and now I don't know what it is. It's very tidy and I like the colours but that's about all I can say about it?
 
Bad^Hat said:
My first impression was that it was a live album because it looked like a stage, but then I looked harder and now I don't know what it is. It's very tidy and I like the colours but that's about all I can say about it?
Click to expand...


It's a photo I took of the valves inside the valve bass amp used in the recording of the album in question. I concede that the photo itself is pretty ambiguous to most, however!
 
The colors are nice, but it's so dark that it bothers me that I can't tell what it is. Even if it would still be unidentifiable if made lighter, at least my brain wouldn't think that the darkness is the problem, which is what is off-putting about it.

This problem may not exist with a physical copy, but likely almost nobody is going to be looking at album covers in person when shopping for music.
 
Looks like a bar. Or a pub for you United Kings.
 
I thought it was some sort of cityscape. Yeah, its kind of annoying not being able to tell what I'm looking at.
 
Thanks y'all for the comments. If you are interested in seeing what the actual cover of this album turned out to be, here:

hotsignalcoverjpegcmyk.jpg
 
Is this band related to the pop/dance/funk group known as Rockmelons?

 
Yeah, we did become aware there was a dance/pop band called 'Rockmelons' not too long after we'd been named 'RockMelon' - But we decided it wasn't an issue. Rockmelons were mostly notable in the 80s and early 90s, different genre, different country of origin, an 's' and no stylised capital 'M' so we figured people would have enough there to differentiate. :p
 
Looked on last.fm, Rockmelons has like 700 listeners. They're nobody.
 
God damnit I knew there was a thread I forgot to post in. I mulled over some analysis while doing other things and then didn't post anything. Augh this thread would have been perfect for me. ****.

Anyway I like the cover, it could be better or more in-focus or etc but for what it is, it's good enough. Messy mechanical incandescence. It's a signal that gets hotter once you turn it on B)
 
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