Researching and Analysing Album Back Covers

I'm going to research and analyse existing album back covers in order to understand the conventions properly and how they're used for when I create my own.

Example One:

Above is the back of The Saturdays album 'Headlines'. From the image you can see that they kept the font style and colour the same as the front cover showing how they maintain their house-style. A barcode is also used which makes the album look professional as do the record label logos. The spines however are in back as a way of keeping the emphasis on the actual back cover. The song titles are all placed in the middle too, with the copyright information placed at the bottom of the back cover as although they are important, don't need as much emphasis unlike the actual song titles. This is because this is an attractive feature for the audience which appeals to them.

Example Two:

Above is the back of The Saturdays album 'Wordshaker'. Despite a prominent colour scheme being used on the front, the back is a little less subtle with not as many dominating colours like on the front. One spine is blue, whilst the other is green showing how The Saturdays do maintain some elements of their house-style. This album was released before 'Headlines' and has the song titles, record label logo, barcode and copyright information located on the right of the album. This draws a contrast to their latest album 'Headlines', which they released after and shows how they haven't maintained the house-style in the format. Although all of the information is placed under one another, it is still put at the right on the back.

Example Three:

Pictured above is the self-titled debut album by JLS. As you can see, it is quite simple with the boys' colour scheme of the individual colours that they represent. The four lines of colour placed under the title on the front cover is also used on the back showing consistency. It is also used in the spines which reinforces each colour that each member in the band represents. The format is similar to 'The Saturdays' and has the songs, record label logo, barcode, website and copyright information located in the middle. I like this back cover as I feel as though everything is balanced out, and there isn't too much unnecessary writing on there which makes it coherent for the audience. The black background also helps to emphasise the colours of the individuals.

 

'Outta This World' is the second album by JLS. This is quite similar to their debut album as it maintains the same format and layout on the back as all of the information is located in the middle of the album. The spine is also the same and in black. The background image used is quite 'space like' to relate to the album title 'Outta This World'. All of the font is in white to stand out. The boys' individual colours are represented on the front however not on the back unlike their debut album.