The Iconography Of The Album Cover

'In the age of Itunes, can there be a future for the ancient art of album cover iconography'. Straight from the first comment of this article I can understand that this piece from the magazine is going to make me think hard of the unique ideas that I am going to have to come up with regards to the design of my digipack. However I am hoping that this article is going to give me some ideas of what I could possibly do or how I could possibly go about making my digipack and where to watch out for the pitfalls that could render my work not as special and unique as I want it to be. In this post I will be looking through the article from Media Magazine and I will be picking out certain points that will help guide me through the difficult task of making a digipack for my artist DJ Boosh.

When looking at this iconic album, you can understand that this is an artist that does not mind swearing as it uses the word 'bollocks' within the text. What the text is also doing is commenting on the show 'Never Mind The Buzzcocks' by mocking it and changing the words around. We can also tell from the text that this isn't just one artist and that it is in fact a band as it states 'Sex Pistols' which is not singular, its plural which means there more than one. What we can tell from this album cover is that if there is only words on it then why isn't their faces on there, this asks the questions, do they want to be kept hidden? are they camera shy? are they so tough and well known that they think they don't have no need to have a picture on there.

Within Media Magazine it talks of how the art of album cover is part packaging part advertising and often gives an insight into an artists personality. It also states that usually the best album cover art illustrates and accompanies the music in a way that creates a whole package. In my opinion I think that what the article is saying here is that the album/digipack has to link with the artist and the illustrations has to link with the genre of music that I am doing. With this in mind I will make sure to follow my artists genre of music which is 'Dance' and I will also make sure to design my digipack in a way that will connote the dance genre whilst at the same time giving some sort of hint as to my artists personality.

Having already done some background research on this album cover already I can understand that this piece of art is actually mocking Elvis Presley album by smashing a guitar. Smashing a guitar could symbolise the anger in the music that this artist creates. Once again we can also understand through the text that 'The clash' are a band and not just one artist and this is plural and not singular. 'London Calling' is quite and effective title for a album as it can suggest that perhaps the capital of london is shouting out for The Clash to sing or for them to release this album. Much like the previous album the band is not on this cover so this leads me to ask are they that well known that they perhaps don't need their faces on the album cover.

When Christopher Budd is interviewing people within the album cover industry he asks questions about how the album cover is made and what it takes in order to make the best album cover and the answer he got is from 'Julian House (a creative partner in London agency 'The Intro Partnership'). She stated that 'we take most of our direction from the artist. More often than not this involves sitting down and talking with them about the ideas behind the album, anything they've seen that they liked (not just music related, but film, books etc). Then we'll go off and do several sets of visuals and present them, then home it down from there'. With regards to my artist I could think of what books, films and other such things he like but instead I can just look at the brief and judge by that what he likes and what he dislikes and from their I can build up my ideas within my head and draw it up on paper of what the digipack could possibly look like.

With this album cover we can see all of the singers from within the group stuck inside what seems to be some sort of science tube. This matches the title of the album cover as it is called 'Biology' and they are like an experiment as they are in a tube with a cork in the top which means that they are so lethal that they shouldn't be let out as perhaps they are an experiment that means they are untouchable or even toxic. I think this album is the best album for linking in with title and image as you can understand that they are like an experiment. Unlike the other albums Girls Aloud have their faces on the album which is also interesting.

Within the next part of the article I will be looking at how to deconstruct album cover art and in doing this it can be broken up into four main sections, these are; Who made it, why, how, for whom and for what purpose?, associations and connotations, signs and symbols and composition and framing. When looking at the first part of the deconstruction it is much like what I have already talked about with regards to the art of an album cover is usually to promote the artist, to make it eye catching (it will usually be reproduced not just on CD covers, but also posters), and to tell us something about the musicians and the music behind it. While the immediate target audience is likely to be those who frequently buy music, and particularly those who favour the specific band or genre, the artwork may be designed to attract a wider audience. As I have talked about earlier with regards to this aspect of my digipack design, I think I know what I have to cover with regards to this section as I have talked about it earlier but I know that DJ Boosh's personality has to shine through the digipack in order for it to be  success. The second section of the four, associations and connotations is also important as you have to consider the difference between denotations, which means simply identifying the elements in the image and connotation, which means examining what meanings and associations they might link to. For example an image that denotes a powerful looking car may have connotations of speed or power; but in conjunction with other elements making up the art it might also have connotations of escape, or thrill-seeking, for example. On a hip-hop cover it may well have connotations of conspicuous wealth and extravagance, given that genres conventions. This will be an important aspect of my digipack as I am going to have to make sure to have something on my digipack that connotes the genre of 'house/dance'. I am also hoping of connoting the fact that we are using intertextual references in our music video by perhaps mocking a design of a different pop artist that we are mocking within the video.

This album cover uses good symmetry as each member has their own little section of the album cover and we will be using this four face effect within our music video. I think that from the positioning we can understand that the guy at the bottom in the centre with his hands on his chest is the lead singer as unlike the other three he is doing something different and so we can understand this artist to be the leader of the group. The typography used on the album cover is like an olden days sort of writing back in Shakespeare days and so with this in mind you could say that perhaps their music has some link to past centuries with regards to the music that occurred back then. What is also interesting is it is their second album, yet still they need to have their faces on the album.

The final two sections are just as important as the first two and this next section, signs , symbols and codes links in with the section that I had just talked about as a sign is a representation that refers to something else and has meaning, such as the car. A code means the structure of how sings are organised into systems to make meaning. These are usually divided into the technical (for example, what techniques are used to make the image, such as camera angles and lighting?) and the symbolic (what subtle indicators are there in the tex to create the meaning, for example details of clothing or the arrangement of objects?). There are also written codes that include the use of language and text layout. This is very important with the regards to my digipack as I am going to place close attention to the positioning of characters within the design as I am thinking that I could have the four main dancers as black bodies standing there, with one guy stood out with head phones in his ear. The final section of the four is composition and framing. This section links in with the previous section as it talks about if there are are numerous objects or figures in the scene, is one of them favoured? are they all in focus? how is the image framed? this links in with what I have said before about the previous section as my initial idea is having the four dancers with no expressions in their faces as they will be black silhouettes and where the composition and framing comes in is how the guy is standing more in front of the other 3 dancers with headphones in.

This articles originated from 'Media Magazine' (September 2012) Interviews by Christopher Budd