Design Context: Album Art Research

Arcade Fire - Funeral

The cover has a elegant feel to it which links well with the music. The colour pallet works well giving it a mature feel. Overall I love this album art. I am not sure why, I just think it is really pretty.

M.I.A - Matangi

This is a striking image that captures your attention. The contrasting colours make it look bold and daring. It had a garish look to it which I think she was aiming for. i-D magazine used a similar image of M.I.A to relaunch their website.

Muse - Origin of Symmetry

A lot of the time I don't know why I like album covers. I like them to look strange and unusual, it is a space where they can be as weird and odd as you want. The artwork for origins of symmetry reminds me of a fantasy, an unusual world. The title and theme of the album comes from a book called "Hyperspace", which is about parallel universes. I think that the artwork expresses this theme well.

New Order - Power, Corruption & Lies

Designed by Peter Saville. The cover is a reproduction of the painting "A Basket of Roses" by French artist Henri Fantin-Latour. The artists name is not actually visible in the design, it is however had a colour based code to resent the album title and bands name. This is a clever and unusual way to do this rather than to use type which is the easy option. It created a modernised visual.

Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti

The image is of a block of flats in New York, it uses the windows to spell out the album title. I like how they did that and blended the bands name into the building, this allows the text and image to work as one rather than two separate thing. The image flows and I think this is why it is such a successful design. It was designed by Peter Corriston.

Pink Floyd - The Dark Side of the Moon

Designed by Storm Thorgerson, it one of the most iconic album covers ever. The design shows lights passing through a prism. The design has a simplicity and elegance, to which I think it owes its success too.

The Strokes - Is This It

The cover art is by photographer; Colin Lane. The cover includes a womans bare bottom, with a leather glove. The paleness of the skins seems to take away the sex feel to the image and create more of a pure innocence.

Blur - Parklife

The cover a photograph of a greyhound race, a typically British pastime. The album has a British theme running throughout and the album art reflects this British persona.

Alt-J - An Awesome Wave

The cover is created from a multi-layered radar image of the Ganges river delta in Bangladesh. The finished effect is spectacular. Due to the colours the image always reminds me of the sea, coral and seaweed.

The xx - Coexist

The X is made up of oil and water. The album then got its name from this because of how the oil and the water. The two do not mix, yet they live peacefully together. The reason that you see the colours is because of this. It creates a peaceful message, those that do not go together can still create harmony and tranquillity.

The Temper Trap - The Temper Trap

Designed by Alberto Seveso. Photographing when paint/ink is added to water and how it spreads and mixes. There was a full series of images that were created and they look amazing, the level of detail that is captures is crazy.

The Temper Traps music video that also used the ink and water effect.

Biffy Clyro - Only Revolutions

Designed by Storm Thorgerson. The meaning behind it is, the flags of revolution, this is why large flags have been used. The red and blue is used to symbolise the different sexs.

The Black Keys - Magic Potion