Album cover ideas

Before we started to produce a final group album cover we had to individually create one. I produced three initial ideas on paper before producing a final version of each on photoshop. I decided as the bands name is the 99's that I would try and incorporate an ice cream into the design of the album cover. Hopefully this would make people associate the relatively unknown (although growing in popularity) which the iconic 99 ice cream from Flake.

Idea One:

This is my first idea sketched out. I have gone for a very simplistic style on this album cover with only 4 elements to it, I did this because it helps keep the focus on the key elements. The white background, the blue pencil across the page, the iconic ice cream sign and the text 'The 99s'. Keeping the album cover simple allows the black ice cream sign to be more noticeable and act as a vocal point as it stands out from the blue pencil very well. It is also situated in the centre and automatically addresses the viewers interest becuase of this. As this is a self titled album I only needed one text, this helps again keep the album cover uncluttered and keeps the viewers attention on the ice cream sign and 'The 99s' text.

Idea One final:

This is the final version of my first idea. I used photoshop to produce the image as I feel the results I desired the best. As you can see the black ice cream sign stands our well against the white background and the blue pencil. The only thing I have changed from the original design is the colour and position of the text. I did this becuase I felt it would make it stand out more without detracting focus from the ice cream sign. I feel I achieved this. I also produced the back for this idea:


I keep the back similar to the front to keep the album consistent. I also removed the ice cream sign from the centre and placed the song names there as they are know the main focus.


Idea Two:

This is my second idea sketched out. Again I have gone for a simplistic style so that the focus is again kept on the important elements in the picture. In this idea I have neon ice cream sign on a Polaroid lying on a table. The Polaroid has the name of the band and album on it 'The 99s'. The Polaroid background is black and allows the neon ice cream sign to stand out drawing more attention to it.

Idea Two Final:

This is the final version of my second idea. Again I used photoshop to produce the image as it had the tools I needed to successfully realise my idea. As you can see the neon ice cream sign stand well against the dark background of the Polaroid. This again draws attention to it successfully reinforcing the link between the ice cream sign and the 99s. As mentioned earlier i keep the idea of naming the Polaroid 'The 99s' after the band and the album, this adds a personal touch to the image as you would normally right what the image is about on a Polaroid. I decided to use a more friendly font and chose to you a custom one I found on the internet. This one was designed to look more like someone's handwriting again reinforcing the point above. I decided to add a table underneath the Polaroid to make it seem more realistic than if it was simply up a white or black ground. These also caused problems as with a white background the Polaroid didn't stand out enough and with a black background the black in the Polaroid didn't. I feel that the transition from idea to final idea was successful and happy with the result of my second idea. I also produced the back image of the album for this idea:

Again I have purposefully kept the back similar to the front to remain consistent.I also removed the ice cream sign from the back and replaced it with the song names. You can see here clearer that the font I used looks more like someone's natural handwriting which add a more personal touch which is what I had originally set out to achieve with the Polaroid.

Idea Three:

This is my third and final idea that i sketched out. I chose to do another simplistic design to keep focus on the key features. I also believe that the more simple a design is the more successful it will be as there are less elements that can go wrong. The ice cream sign again is a prominent feature in this design except this time there are three of them. I chose to do three to represent the three members in the band. In this design the ice creams are all the same colour or colours with white, brown and cream being used in each to represent the different parts of an ice cream with a flake. The text in this design is very generic and creates a sense of familiarity with the viewer without distracting them to much from the ice cream signs. I was undecided on a background colour at this stage of the design.

Idea Three Final:

This is the final version of my third idea. Like the other designs i used photoshop to produce the image as it had served me well before. I made some minor adjustments from my original design. I decided to stick with the three ice cream cone signs however i changed the colours from cream, brown and white to white, grey and black. I did this because i felt it gave a more professional look to the album cover. The cream, brown and white also clashed with the yellow background which made it difficult to see some of the colours. I decided to use yellow for the background colour as it is a very bright colour and this fits in with the bands genre. The colour yellow is also very eye catching and draws the viewers attention to the album. I changed the type of font I used as well, I felt this made it more accessible to people as the other more traditional fonts I tried were to linear and predictable. I used this have used this font in earlier design ideas and like it a lot.

This is the back for my third idea:

Unlike my other ideas I have changed the back on this one from the three ice cream cone signs to just one laying at an angle. I originally tried black text with this design as black and yellow is a good combination that attracts attention however due to the ice cream cone sign being black some of the text wasn't visible so I decided to use the white text instead.