The Kooks - Shine On The Kooks's Shine On album uses clever artwork to entise an audience into buying their product. Its the Front cover thats pinnacle to grab a media consumer to buy their album. The album frontcover is a close-up shot of the lead singer, Luke Pritchard. A common theme that runs throughout bands' album cover is a mid to long shot of the band toghether. Yet this is a much too common trait to follow and therefore the Kooks have opted for a close up of the lead singer, who resembles the band as a whole due to being the central focus point of the band. The white and grey colour restraint of the image works well with the white background to produce an antique looking shot. A collage is created inplace of Luke Pritchard's hair this works extremely well and is visually appealing to an audience. It offers more than a simplistic close up shot of a lead singers face. The image of Luke is a representation of The Kooks as a whole and the collage features the other band members around him, creating a sense that he is the main focus point, as people recognise lead singers as the band itself this works well from a consumer point of view. Luke is shot following an indirect mode of adress, as he isn't looking at the camera this is a subtle album cover and doesnt rely on a hard hitting image to capture the attention of the consumer. The form of the text can be seen in the top left and right, inbetween the central image. The text is small, yet strikingly bold and contrasts to the covers background. The text remains the same throughout and relatively small in size. This makes the album cover give off a smart, simplistic suit. Due to the images contained in the collage, the black writing remains in suit making it simplistic yet strikingly attractive.

The Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, Thats What

The debut album from the Arctic Monkeys follows in similair suit to the above, The Kooks - Shine On album cover. There was much controversy over the albums cover, with critics saying it promoted smoking. Yet the band's manager Mr.Bradshaw said "You can see from the image smoking is not doing him the world of good". Yet i believe this album cover works well and is hard hitting. The grey and black image is used to show connotations of the taget audience, which would be teenagers - late twenties of a middle class. It depicts a man shot using direct mode of adress as his looking direct at the camera. This is great to capture a consumers attention due to the eyes being one of the main focus points, using them to entise emotion.
The cigarette is used in conjunction with the albums title, "Whatever People Say I Am Thats What Im Not", this plays upon stereotypical views, i.e he is smoking a cigarette, unshaven with a rough cut look. Many people would stereotype this guy as a thug or a criminal due to the ever-growing violence of youth culture and their false representation within the media. The picture has a symbolical meaning, giving of the age-old "dont judge a book by its cover". The form of the text is titled in the corner and follows suit to the image of the man by using uneven edges to give off that rough depiction that the main has connotations of. The font is seen to be handwritten, containing a scruffy image giving off to the listeners what exactly the album songs will be like. They use the album cover to entise the audience but to give an insight through visual perception as to what music they create.

Jack Johnson - In Between Dreams

This album cover differentiates from the other two above as it doesn't use a close-up shot of the specific artist. Whereas this co er uses a long shot to depict the shadows of the artist and a tree. This symbolises the artists love for nature and the world as he is a slow meaningful acoustic singer. With him touching the tree it symbolises this love for nature and provides a powerful symbolisim to entise the consumer into buying the product. By using the yellow background it provides a powerful stimulant which would attract the consumer into looking at the product in a store. The yellow and black contrast well and is visually pleasing, with the yellow representing sunshine and the black acting as a bold outline to the graphic pictured.

The title form is seen depicted in the top left hand corner out of the way of the image. Many album covers use this as it allows for the text form to be properly seen. As the picture's focus point is aligned to the left, it allows for the text to be seperated from the picture. This differs from many albums as the artists name and album name is made to be the central figure depending on how famous or popular that particular artist. is. The albums name "In Between Dreams" is hardly recognised due to the insignificance of it. Being an artist like Jack Johnson is the album name doesn't really relish importance yet the production of the album tries to entise consumers through their graphics and using a medium sized text form to establish the artist.

Paolo Nutini - These Streets

This album cover works well as its visually pleasing on the eye and differentiates itself from other album covers as it depicts more than one image or main central point. Paolo Nutini is a young soleful acoustic artist and this is shown through the albums cover as its fun, bright and colourful. There are four single images depicted, each with its own colour code ranging fromm white to deep red. Each image differs from the angle based on the angle in which paolo nutini is standing. The long shot capture still stays the same therefore an audience can see the difference in changes in stances much easier. The colours blend in well toghether and provides a quirky yet funky stance on the graphics. Paolo is pictured with his guitair showing his music resemblence in the album cover which sometimes is lacking from other artists. This shows that he cares about his music and has a real passion for it as he is depicted with his guitair alongside him. The text form is yet again seen to be to one side, a reoccuring theme throughout the album covers i have been analysing. It seems, through evaluation that the artists with more fame/popularity produce their name as the central focus point. This therefore stands out to consumers as they most probably have heard of their name, therefore they already have a recognisable branding i.e their name to market their album to boost sales. As for the likes of Jack Johnson and Newton Faulkner they have to rely on their imaging to appeal to music consumers if they havent heard of them before. The text form is pictured in the top left hand corner, away from the images produced. The writing for Paolo Nutini is yet again quirky yet fun as its produced in bubble handwriting to make it stand out. Its produced in black to make it appear bold against a seemingly light coloured first two colour seperations.

The Bravery - The Sun And The Moon

  The Bravery's album artwork is considered to be more in-tune with the general requirements of a bands front cover. This being having all band members appear on the front cover, something that the previous album covers haven't opted for. By using the whole band on the cover the consumer gets a feel for who the band is and who features in this band. They cop a feel for their style through the way they are styled and through the design of the album artwork. The cover depicts five band member each sitting down together, this shows interaction between them and therefore as viewers we see this as a tight-knit band. The shot is relaxed and may resemble the type of music the band play. The calm yellow and white diagonally striped background shows conntations of being sun rays through its shape and color resembelence suggesting the bands bright future. The way that the background is used and how the band members are outlined give off characteristics of pop-art culture, a modern, fresh take on art using bold colours and outlines. This works well to give off the bands youthism. All the band members are styled in black so that there aren't too many colours on display. This is a common theme running throughout and something i'd have to consider when creating my own as to what specific colours i use and how to match accordingly throughout. The text form remains black against the white and yellow background. The font for the bands title and also the albums remain the same throughout, yet the bands name is produced in larger font showing that the bands name is more recognisable and important than the albums. Yet again the text is slightly aligned to the left corner of the cover, this gives off a professional aura as its too basic to slap it in the middle.