Final 2 CD cover designs (front&back)

Having made 4 initial front cover CD designs I have now taken my favourite two forwards to develop and produce a back cover for as well. I liked 2 of my designs more than any of the others and therefore decided these two would be the ones I kept to take forward into the development stage.

This is the first of my two final ideas. The idea behind this picture is to combine the element of nature - which is shown throughout my music video - with the idea of fun, happiness and childhood. I think the action of the performer reflects this well and I also think the typeface I've chosen work well with the black and white aesthetic. I have also focused on the framing and structure of the photograph to make it suitable for my CD cover. The use of layers, the dark grass bottom layer and the plan sky, work well as it creates a contrast and also allows me to put the title of the album over the darker section. I set the typeface to a light grey and applied a 70% opacity which gives it a transluscent look.

I also wanted to create a back design which would match the front. The design I have made uses a different picture but using a similar aesthetic. The image was taken using the same lighting and set up but with my hand in the foreground to create the large silhouette in front of the figure in the background. I have added 5 of the original album's songs to create an EP which would have 'Stressed Out', the song I used for my music video, as the first track. The design of the cover matches the colour scheme and mood of the front cover but adds a further element of fun to the overall brand of the design. I also chose to include the track times of each song as an extra piece of information. The layers on the back work well as they did on the front.

This is my favourite design of the final two. It features my friend and star performer, Jordan sat and stood on a fence in different positions while I took 3 different pictures. I then used the picture editing software, Adobe Photoshop, to merge the 3 images together into the final photograph you can see on the left. I also used the software to add the album title at the bottom of the design. When creating the image I considered the framing of the shot by the large tree on the right, the long metal fence and the plain sky above. As well as these elements I looked at the dark grass which would form the background behind the text. I also set the opacity up on this cover design as it added more interest to the design as a whole.

This is the back of the final CD design. I really like my work for this section and think it has worked well with the front design.  The photograph is one of the 3 that I used to create the merged front CD cover design image. I also used the dark grass section to apply the text needed on the album and used the lightly coloured sky as a canvas for the track details on the EP. I think the image of Jordan standing and the writing set out next to him works well because it creates a dynamic and entertaining layout while looking highly professional and being easy to read.  I also think this design works well because the text reflects the structure and direction of the tree's branches as well as the bars across the metal fence in the foreground. All in all I'm very happy with my final EP designs.