CD or Vinyl?

In the brief it states that we can either design a CD cover or a vinyl cover so i have decided to weigh up my options before making a decision by collection information on both of these options.

Vinyl

With the option of Vinyl there is a considerable amount of blank space to fill compared to CD so I would have to consider how big I would like my illustration to. I would also have to consider if I wanted  my cover to have any holes or slots cut out of the middle which a few vinyl covers do have to show off the art work that is on the actual record. Looking at the dimension diagram of a record cover I would have to remember to include  the tabs to assemble the record cover together so it would function correctly. The last thing that I can think of that might raise a problem is creating the physical product, as vinyl covers are quite large and the printing might be quite hard if I couldn't find somewhere with a printer large enough to print the cover. 

Tubelord Single vinyl Covers Artwork, by Jack Teagle

CD

When thinking about creating a CD there is lots of things to consider for example the small size because you couldn't put something too detailed on a small CD cover because the smaller details would get lost in the image. There is also the spine of the CD case to remember because vinyl does not have this but Cd's have a spine that usually has the artists name and the record label printed on to it and it will occasionally have a tiny piece of art on it that links to the front cover. I think that CD's are are also a lot more versatile than vinyl covers as a lot more can be done with them, for example you could create a cardboard wrap around protector for your CD. You could also include a booklet with the CD case. 

Overall I feel like there is a lot more that you could do with a CD case to make it a lot more interesting and visually more exiting than a vinyl case so I am going to decide on the option of creating a CD case. 

Illustrated Album cover research

As I was a bit worried about how I was going to illustrate an album cover I decided to have a look at and evaluate different illustrated album covers have been done in the past. I selected a few different styles of covers to get an idea of what I liked more and what I didn't really like to help me work out how I would like to approach this brief. 

1. Keanes "Under the Iron Sea" (by Sanna Annukka)

This album cover was created by an illustrator named Sanna Annukka who also created a vinyl version and a book to go alongside the album. The theme of the album art was to create an underlying narrative, this is revealed as the booklet that comes with the CD is unfolded, and within the book that the band also released.
  
Keane's album Under the Iron Sea has a really bold eye catching cover, I really love the colours and composition as they work so well together. The simplicity of this cover is probably what draws me most to it because it makes me want to look closer to workout what is happening amongst the shapes. Another thing that I really like about the album is the fact that you get a pull out booklet that unfolds to reveal more beautiful art work. I love it when music comes with things like that because it makes it feel like you are getting a lot for your money, it also makes the album feel more special as it has something extra. I think ideas such as this will make the album sell more because at the moment people don't often go to shops to perchance an album because tit is so easy to just download the music from the internet. 

2. Architecture in Helsinki "Places like this" (By Will Sweeney)

This album cover was created for use as the CD and the vinyl cover, the illustration was also used on a picture disk vinyl. It was created by Will Sweeney in 2007, Sweeney has also illustrated album and vinyl covers for many other bands throughout the years. 

I decided to look at this album cover because unfortunately i'm not too fond of it and I wanted to make note of what I disliked about it so i know what to avoid when creating my album cover illustration. The main thing that dislike about this album cover is the simple fact that there is too much going on in it and I don't quite know where my eyes are drawn when I look at it. Along with the busy imagery the colours are also very bright which I thing brings more confusion and gives my eyes a bit of a head ache, although this might have been the intention of the cover its just not for me personally. The last thing that  I noticed when looking at this cover is that I couldn't easily make out what the title is and I think if you are going to include the title on the front of a cover it should be pretty clear so that the consumer will know if they are buying the right thing. Some albums don't have a title or band name on the front so i feel like this album could have got away with leaving the title off instead of creating a confusing, hard to read title. 

Looking at these two album covers it has became clear that they are very different and that album illustrations can vary greatly. I also have learned that a lot of the time the art usually fits in with the music that is on the album so I will have to greatly consider the album whilst creating the cover.  It has also became known to me what I would prefer to buy if I saw it in a shop based on the cover alone. Throughout my research I will keep looking at different illustrated album covers to help me with ideas and compositions.