Nickelback

After sitting through some friends' discussion about how they hate Nickelback and can't stand them, I thought, hmmm, since nobody likes Nickelback, I should take a look at their covers to see if I can find anything interesting. 

While refraining to listen to Nickelback's music while I researched Nickelback's covers, I did find some interesting themes. In the first two covers below, there is a very obvious lighting element in the covers. The rest of the covers do have some interesting lighting elements. 

I did notice two things. The first one was that no matter the album, Nickelback's name is always very prominent on the cover. Whether it's black on a light background, or white on a dark background, the band's name is always prominent. 

The second thing, was look at the themes for the covers. They're all very dark images. The imagery almost looks monochromatic. Blacks, dark blues, and greys. Definitely a big difference from album covers such as Katy Perry's or David Guetta's. No colours here!

David Guetta

Poking around, I've noticed the unique style of David Guetta's collaboration album covers. He has branded himself in a certain way that you can always recognize his work by the specific font his name (and titles) are in. I've found a couple examples here to show what I mean:

A lot of artists use the artwork on their albums to identify themselves. What David Guetta has done here  is branded himself with a typeface. Actually kinda cool when you think about it. Whenever I see those A's and V's, or the stylized W's, I always think of David Guetta. His style is also very bright colours. When you put the bright colours and the really cool stylized font together, I think you get a pretty neat album cover. What do you think?

Look Familiar?

I've been looking for album covers that use typography as the primary visual. I first came across Paramore's Riot!, but after some research, found out that the artwork closely resembles that of No Doubt's Rock Steady. Take a look for yourself, they similarities are pretty obvious. Despite the resemblance, this handwritten look is a great way to illustrate the punk rock nature of these two bands. Personally, I prefer the design of Paramore's cover because of the off-center placement of the album title and group name. Also, it's obvious on No Doubt's cover that most of the letters have been used several times whereas the ones on Riot! seem more unique -- staying true to handmade type.

Gotye - Making Mirrors

If nobody has told you about Gotye yet, please take the time to listen to some of their songs. The Making Mirrors album is about 45 minutes long and has a cool, moody, and reflective vibe to it. When I saw the cover art for this album, it is clear to see that the two go hand in hand.  The painted canvas is indicative of the heart that went into writing the tracks for the album. Despite the fact that it is made out of geometric shapes, it's interesting that the cover has a circular flow to it just by the way that the lights and darks have been placed.

If you have a few minutes, take the time to look at the video for the single Somebody that I used to Know. It brings the album cover to life, literally.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UVNT4wvIGY

Red Hot Chili Peppers

This red hot chili peppers album cover has a lot of contrast within it. Between the illustration in the center, and the texture that each band member is done in. The coral colour is a great accent colour, as its not the typical deep red that is usually pair with a black and white piece. Its an interesting layout that guides your eye in a circular motion around the entire album cover.

Dave Mckean

One of my very favourite designers is Dave Mckean, so I thought today I'd share some of the album cover art he's done.  The first is a Tori Amos cover, showcasing Dave McKean's tendency to mix photography with a collage of items. The result is usually a strange but gorgeous piece... It just works.

The second piece is a Dream Theater cover... A collage of many different photos which juxtapose to make up one face. It is distorted and emotional; dreamlike in its layerings. The first two covers are very warm in their colouring, but the third is a departure in this sense.

The third is colder, more monotone... but anything but boring. In this piece he's blended his image right in with the wood behind, and it is very effective.

Tori Amos cover

Group Shots

I'm always intrigued by album covers that feature large groups of people as they invite you to really observe the artwork and decipher the characters. Here are 3 great examples of crowd-filled covers. 

First, The Airborne Toxic Event's All At Once album displays a black and white photograph of individuals whose eyes have been censored. Doing so prevents us from seeing their emotional state. These people could be protesting something just as much as they could be enjoying an outdoor concert. This cover is truly left open to the interpretation of anyone who sees it.

Next is Foster the People's Torches album. The illustration style and line work adds a certain quirkiness to the cover which makes you want to determine what each figure is doing. Just like All at Once, the album art is black and white with a spot colour. But despite this similarity, both albums convey an entirely different mood. 

Finally, and what I think is one of the most popular crowd scenes ever featured on an album, is The Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The cover features many iconic celebrities of the 20th century such as Bob Dylan, Marilyn Monroe and Shirley Temple alongside other historic figures such as Oscar Wilde, Lewis Carroll, Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud. The juxtaposition of colour and greyscale images also makes for an interesting composition. Please take the time to do some research on the individuals featured on this award-winning cover as you may be surprised. Have you found Albert Einstein yet?