There For Tomorrow 'Pages' Album Analysis

There For Tomorrow album covers were quite a large influence on my ancillary media products from their text affects to their dominating background colours. I particularly liked the repeating of the text on the Page's Album (Right top image) and therefore employed it into one of my own album booklet pages.

However to concentrate on the 'Pages' album (right) I would say it suits the name very well. The cover has a repeating text affect of the name of the band on top of an image of pages being thrown in the air in a chaotic fashion suiting the Indie / Rock music. The blankness of the sheets equal just that, a page, which can contain anything but without reading it you do not know what.

I think this kind of artwork would appeal to their target audience as it is different from the norm and via it's striking green colour it will stand out against the more darker traditional rock album covers. The target audience would be mainly male based with the age range of 16-25 similar to that of Blighters. This is due to the fact quite a bit of the music is slightly 'screamo' with a strained voice singing.

The lettering of the band while being very straight forward also relates to that of the name of the Album. The majority of pages you pick up from books to magazines are made in very basic fonts such as Arial or Times New Roman such as the above.

I do feel that this CD connotes a confused mind, similar to that of the bands music, while also showing the uniqueness and artistic values of theirs. Overall I found this cover to be extremely inspirational in my own work, and when comparing it to my work you can see some large similarities employed.

CD Case Original Images.

The 3 above images were used throughout my CD Case design. The image to the left was used as the front of my Album booklet after removing the background via cropping using the magic wand and eraser tools. I then used an overlay affect to change it to black and white to gain the final version.

The centre image I used for the 3rd inner page within the booklet. I used minimal editing on this image apart from adding a layer beneath it to add more depth via an Overlay / lower opacity value. Similarly the right image was used on the 1st inner page within the booklet and has minimal editing.

But as you can see from the 3 final products above there are numerous other layers used on top of the original pictures including textures as well as gradients. The most difficult affect I created was the 'Rays of light' using the Pen Tool in photoshop. By using the Pen Tool to create a single beam of light I then went on to duplicate the layer and use the transform tool to rotate it 20 degrees. I then repeated this step until I had 5 rays, merged the layers, duplicated and then rotated 100 degrees. Then by using this 'Ray of light' as an overlay over a gradient I was able to create the affect you see in the left image above.

The beautiful thing about the rays I created above is that I could stretch them to huge lengths to gain different thickness of rays from the same original image. However as previously mentioned I also used numerous images as back layers to add depth via a mix of gradients and changing the opacity setting.

CD Designs

The 2 images below consist of the Back of the CD Case and the Front.

The images below consist of the booklet within the CD Case itself. As you can see the Front of the case is also the front of the booklet. Each song has it's own page with select lyrics of the song and finally the back of the Booklet lists the tracks as well as the website of the Band.

Coldplay 'Viva la Vida' - Album Analysis

Coldplay album is a prime example of what a good digipak really is. A simple card creation with a huge amount of high resolution art creating a very graphic experience. This album would easily appeal to people of all ages from it's almost graffiti style text to the historical implications of the French revolution images.

The music itself attracts a large range of listeners from my own age group of 16-25 to that of my fathers generation of over 50's. The beauty of Coldplay is their unique alternative sound can be enjoyed by all generations. Likewise this digipak can as well, regardless of whether or not you understand the historical implications of their music or just enjoy the amazing colours or the inside booklet it has something for everyone.


The Digipak itself has a a simple design with 2 sleeves to hold the CD's in and 2 mini booklets. These mini-booklets are art books in their own right. Below you will find numerous images showing the huge amount of colour which the booklets employ. Once again these designs can attract numerous ages from their serious imagery from the Music Videos to the graphical art.

The first booklet contains images from the Music Video's which enables you to see the entire band as well as gain an insight into the type of videos of Coldplay that are out there. Where as the other booklet is a huge 10 page graphic piece of art taking bit's and bobs from the various songs and turning it into some sort of graphic.

The final page of the this booklet however shows an image of the band which enables you to put a real face to Coldplay. This enables the audience to fully put a visual link in their head for the band members to the name 'Coldplay'.
Overall this album is a huge boom for any collector of shiny CD Cases / Digipaks, even if it is a Coldplay disc set...

Video of Digipak + Ad [Old]

Blighters Lyrics

Blighters - Don't Want Nothing
Today we have fallen apart
But you wont take it away
Today you have broken my heart
But you won't fix it for me

Today we have fallen apart
cos you're naughty for me
Today you have broken my heart
cos you're naughty for free

(You're you're)
you don't want to leave me
you don't want nothing
you don't want leave my side
you don't want nothing

Tomorrow is another new start
So I'll forget the past
Tomorrow I will learn how to love
cos you're naughty for lust

(You're you're)
You don't want to leave me
you don't want nothing
you don't want to leave my side
you don't want nothing ( x 2 )

She knows what shes doing to you ( x 9 )

You don't want to leave me
you don't want nothing
you don't want to leave my side
you don't want nothing ( x 2 )

Today we have fallen apart

Blighters - Boys in Motion
The war has been won
The soldier must go on
in search of
New life, new work
You were my battle
And you have been won
Like the Soldier
I must move on

Oh boys in Motion
Fighting against me girl
This place like heaven ( x 2 )

Girls smell so sweet
or so I remember
So why do you
Make it so hard to fall in love
I guess there's no one good for me
Better get used to being lonely
don't ever say
Fall in love

Oh boys in Motion
Fighting against me girl
This place like heaven ( x 2 )

Blighters - Be your own hangman
She's as foolish as me
But she still can't see
She's as foolish as me
She's as foolish as me

Going down down to the city
It's so cold but girls so pretty
But don't be a fool remember to wrap up boy
don't be a fool remember to wrap up

- Chorus -
She's as foolish as me
But she still can't see
She's as foolish as me
She's as foolish as me

I could be the hangman
Be your own hangman
I could be the hangman
Be your own hangman
I could be the hangman
- Chorus -

And I'm so stupid second time
makes me sick but I'll be fine
don't be a fool remember to wrap up boy
a hangmans noss just for the boy (the boy the boy)

- Chorus - ( x 2 )

Blighters - The Exam
Hello
Sit down
In your seat
Don’t look; don’t speak; don’t cheat
Who’s that sitting down,
Sitting next to me
I want her
And she can say
Examine -oooh-

Examine me
I’ll examine you
I like you too
Don’t look; don’t talk; don’t cheat on me

It’s what I do

Little dress, little desk, I’m impressed
So cool, so calm, so not stressed
I wish I was your pen
You can chew me again and again

Examine –oooh-

Examine me
I’ll examine you
I like you too
Don’t look; don’t talk; don’t cheat on me
Don’t look; don’t talk; don’t cheat on me

Your time is up
Your time is up
(Your time is up, your time is up)
Your time is up
Your time is up
(Your time is up, your time is up)

Don’t go
This is just the beginning

Examine me
I’ll examine you
I like you too
Don’t look; don’t talk; don’t cheat on me
Don’t look; don’t talk; don’t cheat on me

It’s what I do

Don’t look; don’t talk; don’t cheat on me (x4)

It’s not what we do

Sitting at your little desk
Sitting at your little desk
Sitting at your little desk
Sitting at your little desk

Examine.

CD Cover Designs.

After my initial attempts I decided rather than throw myself in head first I would have a bit of a planning session. Taking aside the measurements I decided to put some notes onto paper.

As you can see from the image to the left I came up with a few ideas. I decided to go with a normal jewell case to keep things simple. I also decided to include an inside booklet so that I would cover the required '4 panes' as well as add an extra indie type touch.

I decided to have a single strong colour dominating on the front and back cover with simplistic black edges. This is because it would contrast greatly against other CD Cases or Album Covers thereby drawing the potential buyers eye to pick the case up. Or to prompt the thought "Huh that looks interesting".

Where as to add that little special 'indie' touch I also wanted to add a booklet with the lyrics of the songs as well as a few relevant images. To keep to the contrast ideas of the outside of the case I was going to have them be in a simple domination background image / colour with only a limited amount of imagery here and there.



This would mean that in total there would be 7 panes throughout the CD Case. Firstly with the Booklet acting as the front of the album with 6 panes and the Back of the CD case as the 7th.

Front of CD Case + Booklet

After looking at a few other CD Cases I decided to have our lead singer Owen as the face of the CD Case. I decided to use a medium shot so that we can have him singing as well as playing his instrument to bring in the aspiration listeners. I also employed a 'Ray of light' affect to draw the audience to look at Owen after reading the large title 'Blighters'. Furthermore by the way we're taught to read we then look from left to right thereby the viewer instantly reads the Album name.

The image only uses 4 imagery layers (once ; firstly we have a high-resolution papery texture to add a bit of unique with a low opacity of around 25%; secondly there is a radial gradient of yellow to green with an overlay setting to create the background; thirdly the rays of light with an overlay setting of only 35% opacity; finally there is Owen with a desaturated affect.

Creating the ‘Rays of Light’ was quite challenging. I employed the Pen tool and created a single ray where I then went onto duplicating it multiple times. After that I then transformed each image and rotated them in 20 degrees multiples until I achieved the final affect you see. For a more detailed explanation of how I achieved some of my editing look [ HERE ].

The text has numerous affects such as Shadow along with stroke to make it more imposing; there are 9 different text layers on the image. I wanted to create a affect as thought the Album name was traveling along the guitar and then falling off it to the ground which leads us onto the back of the CD Case.

Back of CD Case

Once again I decided to use the same background with a slightly different paper texture. Along with this I wanted to use a puddle like high resolution texture to create a ground affect. The idea behind this is that the ‘I’, ‘o’ and ‘n’ has fallen to the ground. Where I then went onto have the songs on the album displayed.

I decided to use a blue text as though the song names had fallen into a puddle. This affect may not come across clearly but it does have a very impressive manner of drawing your eyes straight to the songs which is the point behind the back of this case.

You may notice the edges, these are for the edges of the CD Case. I decided to keep them simple with a black overlay on the green background. By using this contrast anyone picking up the CD Case will be instantly drawn to the green thereby advertising the songs and band name.

Inside of CD

The 1st and 3rd pages of the booklet were designed to be annotations of the lyrics while also showing some imagery from the "Boy's in Motion" music video I had produced in my main production. Furthermore I wanted to name the band members somewhere in the album so that the audience knew who played what instrument and could visually link them. I achieved this on the 3rd page of the booklet (right image).

The 2nd and 4th inside images of the Booklet were also designed around the lyrics of the song. However I wanted to have a drastically contrasting colour to the imagery in the previously mentioned pages. So I went for a more graphic idea, similar to the front of the Album. Similarly the back of the Booklet (right image) went back to the blue colour. This created a graphic element, strong blue coloured picture then graphic element pattern to the booklet.

Overall the product came out successfully I personally find the 2nd inside image of the booklet (left image above) to be my best product. It relates to the lyrics far more successfully than the other pages while also keeping to a simple not to busy design.

Initial CD Cover Ideas

Blighters is a Indie-New Wave band so I felt that I would aim for more of an alternative artistic design similar to that of There for Tomorrow’s ‘Pages’ album or the Fast Forward: Indie Trax cover. Knowing that my creative skills aren’t that impressive I wanted to keep to a simple design, thinking of this put me into the mind of New Wave being similar to graffiti and sent me on a hunt through my album collection for inspiration.

I then came across an album cover by Open Chapter called ‘falling to be held’. This cover has the simplicity yet interest I was looking for. The horizon affect, or rays of light, also suited my idea extremely well because of the relation to the New Wave genre with it being related to a New Dawn, or rising sun.

With these initial thoughts I then decided to have a go at using Adobe Illustrator. The first image I created was this high contrast design. I liked the strict differences in colour however after further fiddling I found the affect used called 'Trace' was very limiting in it's affects and created a huge loss in the detail of the image.

Not letting this deter me I spent a bit more time on the image and in the end found that the limits of detail was very annoying. Looking further from that the first outcome had a completely off colour scheme for the genre. Suiting a more grungy band than indie. The second outcome wasn't anymore effective.

I felt that the outcome was to cheesy to be an Album Cover. While the contrast was good the amount of detail lost even when multiple character layers was used was to immense to be an effective path. But I felt i should at least attempt to use the horizon affect I had liked the look of and a few of the outcomes can be seen below.

The horizon affect created quite strong images, however they had lost my desired affect and had no obviously location to host the name of the album or band name. Even though using the speakers seemed a good idea in my initial attempts the text was far to small in comparison to the album cover.

So I decided to go back to the drawing board and to select a different album cover image. I went through my original selection of images from [ THIS ] post. Knowing that I had hit something good with the 'Rays of light' / Horizon affect I decide to push forward using a stronger single image.

To see my thought process and the CD Covers Design stage look [ HERE ] and for the finished products [ HERE ].