The fourth studio album by
American singer – songwriter Jason Mraz, “Love is a four letter word” was
released in April back in 2012. Mraz mainly performs songs from the pop rock
genre. His songs often feature connotations of love, hence the name of this album.
Most cover designs feature the name of the artist and usually the name
of the album. “Love is a four letter word” does not feature either of these
things on the cover. The cover itself is an incredibly basic design. With a
plain background many albums would have a bold or detailed image to create more
depth and interest in the cover. However, on this cover there is just the word
‘Love’ represented by 4 basic shapes. The shapes are simply coloured with basic
block fills and have a drop shadow to give them a more 3 dimensional effect. Despite
this, the cover is still very basic in its complexity. With the basic but
relatively bold design, there are several connotations created.
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| Love is a four letter word (Jason Mraz) - Album Cover |
One connotation of the different shapes and
colours could be that love is always different. It may suggest that there are
different stages of love and that none of them are identical. The majority of
the songs featured on this album also convey the idea of love being varied and
no song does this more than the 4th song on the album, ‘I won’t give
up’. The song contains the lines ‘I won’t give up on us, even if the skies get
rough’ and ‘When I look into your eyes, It’s like watching the night sky’ which
both show the beauty love can hold. Songs on this album contain a lot of lyrics
displaying love as something pure. This is reflected through the use of the
basic album cover. The pure and simple word, ‘love’, further indicates the
strength of love and the meaning of many of the tracks listed on the disc.
I really like the design of this album cover
because at first many people may not recognise the shapes form the word love.
Secondly, I think this design is really good because it challenges the
tradition of having the full album name on the front. This makes it unique and
adds to the individuality of Mraz’s music.
It could be described as an abstract design
due to the use of separate shapes. On the contrary, when together and
positioned in the way they are they clearly form the word, ‘love’. This would
suggest the design is more realistically inspired as it creates a visual piece
that has a meaning behind it.
In comparison to some of Jason Mraz’ other
albums, this cover design is relatively similar. Many of his albums feature a
plain and simple background with a basic shape or image printed across the
centre of the cover. This suggests a continuity in his music style as well as creating implications that is music often has a core, a central theme.
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