Back CoversAfter I had designed my front cover, I decided to

go for a similar theme with my back cover and link the two backgrounds. Throughout this

presentation there will be slight differences on some of my mock ups, I then followed through

with a survey on which looked the most professional, ignoring the fact that there were

some extra pieces of information on some images. After reviewing this I felt there was still a need to edit the chosen one, so asked the same amount of people again on which they preferred when it was

placed with the front cover.

Mock-up 1

By the stage of making these mock ups for the back covers, I felt I had mastered Fireworks

pretty well, however it still took a while to feel that this cover was just right, and since then I have had doubts about it. For instance, apart from other things needing to be added to the

cover, such as the record label, I began to dislike just how dark the writing looks on the bottom lot.

This is only due to the writing covering half of the shape behind it, but it doesn’t do the cover justice with the top lot not covering some of the shape too. Also, the heart made up of a treble and bass clef to insinuate a love for music looks

too cheesy in my eyes.

My idea with the next one was to change the colouring of the font in the bottom lot of text and either blur, fade or change the colour of the heart in the middle so it isn’t obvious unless you look really close. Also at the moment it looks really empty, so if I began to add more things to the cover, like a barcode or the record label/s then it may appear too be taking a better form. Also there is a gradient of colour used on the writing, though it does not come across very well or seen very easily. This is because the

only title long enough in the first section, is the first title and so this makes the bottom section look even more odd. The gradient does not compliment the idea, as it is hard to read the second to last title on the bottom section so I would have to work on my gradients as the dark pink also makes it look like

it is in bold and therefore looking strange.

Mock-up 2

Due to the issues with the colouring of the font, I thought maybe a different font would look better, however, personally, I don’t like this anymore as I don’t believe it looks elegant enough. I think this

font looks quite amateur and doesn’t fit well enough with the front cover’s font. Additionally, the heart that was really visible in the first mock up, I have changed the colour off and blurred it

more so to try to fade it but unconsciously give a bigger effect to the image. Also, something I

didn’t mention in the mock up is that I added a bit of extra colour to the background by drawing

a figure of 8 kind of shape and colouring this purple.

This was then placed underneath where the heart is, the effect isn’t massive but it does make the cover look a lot brighter than without it and the blurred symbol, that I created to look like a treble clef,

has got more colour in it, as for most of it there is at least an outline of purple to make it stand out from the crowd a bit more.

Overall though, I am not a fan of this cover but it up to the target audience to decide this.

Mock-up 3After deciding I personally didn’t like mock-up 2, I went back

and re-evaluated mock-up 1 again and though that I moved the gradient tool around a bit more on the type fonts then that

patch of bright pink should be solved. After moving this though, I still wasn’t sure about it, and couldn’t place my finger on just what was annoying me. I felt that the font was now too weak, and was harder to see than original, so I added bold to both sections, though this still doesn’t feel right to me as it

now looks as though I have ‘plonked’ the words on there and left them. Although is diagonally symmetrical to the symbol through the middle, it doesn’t feel right, so again I went back to the drawing board and onto mock-up 4. These changes are minute, but have a big effect so I thought I would explain the

differences.

Mock-up 4Having stated above, that I disliked the font being in bold, I again

thought the best way to move forward instead of being stuck in the same position, is to change the font style for the third time and this I

felt fitted the artist and the kind of music, becoming more elegant once again, however I had this recurring problem with the dark pink patches and felt it was quite hard to work out what is written. This

could be an advantage though, as it would make the target audience look closer and find they know some of the songs such as ‘Mama Do’, ‘Cry Me Out’ and ‘Boys and Girls’. It could also have the opposite affect though, and people could pick it off a shelf (if it was

to be sold, obviously) and think I cannot be bothered to try, so I decided to change it once again (mock-up 5). Moreover, I blurred

the heart even more so it is now unrecognisable because I felt it was cheesy and didn’t link very well, though I think it looks better

blurred than not there at all.

Mock-up 5This fifth and FINAL (woo) back cover, seemed to fit what I felt it needed and the font finally felt

right. Although it is a little hard to read, it looks elegant and you can see what it says mostly, also I didn’t have a problem with that dark pink patch on the bottom right lot of words.

I began adding the record labels and website of Pixie Lott, for ideas for putting on the finished article, whichever the public chooses but they are to ignore this as I don’t want them to judge on how professional and like a conventional CD would, I just want their ideas on how aesthetically

pleasing it looks with the fonts and background. Also I made the heart slightly less blurred as I think the outline of it is better really faint than not there at all and if you didn’t know it was there, you

wouldn’t look for it.

The Results (100)

Mock-up 2

ll = 2

Mock-up 3

l = 1

Mock-up 1

llll = 4 Mock-up 4

lllll lllll lllll lllll

lllll lllll lllll ll

= 37

Mock-up 5

lllll lllll lllll lllll

lllll lllll lllll lllll

lllll lllll lllll l = 56

Front and Back 1

After the back cover was chosen, I decided to compare it to the front cover and although they would not be next to each other like this if in an album cover, however the side bit would be next to the front cover and although I first liked my front cover, I found that compared to the front cover it looked too ‘girly’ and there was too much colour in it. Apart from this though, I

liked the design overall.

Front and Back 2

I thought that if I changed the fill of the background symbol then it would look better, however until I compared it to the front cover I wasn’t sure if it was the correct colour, and as

can be seen it wasn’t. In my opinion though it does not look too bad like this, but not professional enough for there to be two differences like this. Again, I worked on the back

cover till I felt it was right.

Front and Back 3

This was a definite improvement in my eyes, however where the two covers meet, it looks a little strange due to the size of the front cover and the edge of the images from the front cover so my aim was still to improve this. Additionally, there is still a colour difference

between the covers that does not look quite right, though the target audience can view this at the end.

Front and Back 4

Finally, I feel this is right! The connection between both covers fits well and the colouring out of the background of the back cover works better with no extra colour and just keeping to the

same as the front cover and in my opinion looks quite professional, though the front cover not as much as the back cover.

The Results out of 100 for front and back cover

Front and Back 4

Front and Back 3

Front and Back 1

Front and Back 2

llll = 4

lllll lll = 8

lllll lllll lllll ll = 17

lllll lllll lllll lllll lllll lllll lllll lllll lllll lllll lllll lllll lllll lllll l =

71

Final front and back cover, with own image.

Eventually, I got there! After the back cover was chosen, which showed that my opinion was similar to the target audiences, I then added my own image to the front cover so it was all my own work, and added the artist and album cover to the side, following the traditional

designs of CD covers, making it rather conventional. To improve this though, I would need a better camera and a proper wok area to take the images so it came over more professional

but I have tried my best with what I had.