1. Analysing Album Covers
Within the Indie genre.

2. This example of an album cover is from a
popular indie band with a fairly large fan base.
The image on the front is quite ambiguous
because no one really knows who the girl is.
This is quite unusual for most album covers, but
seems quite conventional for an indie artist. The
effect on the image is quite unfocused and faded
drawing the attention to the centre point, which
is the girl and the text on the album cover. The
straightforward font is basic and whilst it stands
out against the background there is a simplistic
style to the album cover.
In general it seems to be quite obscure and
unusual. The title of the album seems to have
no relevance to the cover and, however it clearly
conveys all the information it needs to for the
alubm cover; the artist name and the album title
making it successful as it grabs your attention
due to the obscurity of it.

3. Unlike the other album covers this one
does not have an existing image and is
one that has been drawn for the
purpose of the album cover. I am
looking into this because this is
something we may be wanting to
replicate for our album cover. Although
there is no photograph like other album
covers I’ve seen the artists name is very
clearly displayed and they even use
their logo in a drawn style to keep the
album cover consistent. Although it is
only small they have also incorporated
the album title within the drawing. This
is a convention we will be sticking to
and we will be using the album title and
the artists name in our album cover.

4. This example is probably the most obscure
and least like the album title. The image
and the text don’t really seem to have any
connection at all. The image looks as if it is
there for humour purposes as opposed to
hint at the type of album it is. It is
ambiguous as it doesn’t reveal much about
the album, but does suggest to the
audience what the artist is like, character
wise. The colours are quite bright, but again
the font and design is simple. The artists
name and album title is in capital letters
making it seem bolder and more important.

5. This is a very simple design and of all the
album covers I have looked at is the most
popular indie artist. The artists ‘XX’ have
clearly chosen to not use an image or an
album title to display on the cover. Therefore
they have simply put the letter X in a
contrasting colour. The black background
against the white font is very striking and
bold. Although the majority of the album
covers I have looked at have been ones that
have challenged conventions it may be the
most unlike a conventional album cover. This
is because of the lack of album title or any
image or photo on the cover. If you were not
to know the artist being called ‘The XX’ then
you may not realise this is their album so it
is quite risky to not have an artist name or
album title.

6. In conclusion
By looking at all of these different album covers by artists of the
same genre although they are all quite different in way, there are a
clear set of conventions:
• Ambiguity
• Little connection between the album title and the drawing
• Very basic design
• Simple font