2. You me at six Front Cover Colour The colours used on this front cover are very stereotypical of this music genre. Firstly, because the are very simplistic showing that the band are more about the music instead of the design of their album and their promotion as a whole. Secondly, the colours that have been chosen have their own connotations. The beige of the background also emphasises the idea that they do not have much of an interest in their promotion as it is very dull and aesthetically boring. However, the other colours featured, such as the purple, blues and reds, show the personality and identity of the band. This could connote how the band are showing themselves as rebelling against the companies when, in fact, they are ‘selling’ the item to their target audience.
3. You me at six Front Cover Colour (Continued) This could link to the album title ‘Take Off Your Colours’ as the song this title was taken from is all about someone who should stop hiding who they truly are and literally take off their colours. I also believe that these much brighter colours link to the genre of music that the band play; they show the more ‘grime’ and ‘techno’ side of the bands music. I also think that the mixture of the bright colours with the dull background could represent how the bands music does not fit in to one singular genre and is instead a mixture of music genres. The use of white for the band name and title of the album has been done primarily to make these two features stand out from the rest of the cover. However, it could also show the youth and innocence of the target audience of the band.
4. You me at six Front Cover Character Differently to the other two album covers that I have looked at for this genre, this cover does not contain any characters. This could again show how the band is trying to portray that they are not mainly about promoting their stuff, but instead about the music. However, the lack of characters could also link directly to the title of the album. For example, the lack of characters could show that this album is all about letting the band show who they are instead of hiding behind a plot idea for the album.
5. You me at six Front Cover Characters (Continued) There are also many other items featured on the cover, including a pencil, a cassette tape, cigarettes and a cinema ticket. All of the items featured are very common, everyday items so this could therefore, again signify that this album is not aimed at anyone in particular. Also, none of the items featured on the cover can be directly linked to the band, and this could connote that the album isn’t even about them, it instead has a storyline.
6. You me at six Front Cover Font & language Again, the language used on this front cover is very different from all the others that I have looked at and this is mainly because of the lack of spaces between the words in the name of the band. This could again have been done to represent their identity and how they single themselves out from all the other bands in similar genres. However, the use of bold text has been used to enable the viewer to see the name of the band clearly regardless of the lack of punctuation.
7. You me at six Front Cover The words ‘Take Off Your Colours’ were chosen from a song title off the album and mean that people should stop hiding who they truly are. This could again show what this band is all about; they would rather show themselves for who they really are instead of who the media or a record company want them to be. The font that has been used for the name of the band is very simplistic and this seems to be very stereotypical of this music genre and could connote how the band and the presentation of the album is not as important as the music on it. However, the font used for the name of the album is very complex, and this could signify that the name of the album is very important and listeners should pay just as much attention to it.
8. You me at six Front Cover Layout Again, as with the rest of the album design, the layout is very simplistic. This simplicity again emphasises the idea that the band are not really concerned about promotion but instead about the music that they create. The fact that the name of the band and the title of the album is centred signifies that these are the two most important things on the cover, not the colours nor the overall design. However, the fact that the bands name is much larger than the title of album could connote how, even though both are more important than the rest of the cover, the band itself is the most important thing about this album.
10. You me at six Back Cover Character Similarly to the front cover, there is no use of characters on the back cover of the album. Instead there is only the information that the audience will need in order to enjoy the music. This emphasises the idea that the back cover of the album puts across; that the band are trying to represents themselves as not really being focused on the promotion and sales of their records but more about the music and people enjoying what they have created. The lack of characters could also connote how this album is about the band themselves instead of a story that they created. It could also show how they are not hiding behind a plot or storyline, but instead are quite open about the fact that the featured songs are very personal to them.
11. You me at six Back Cover Colour As with the characters, the colour scheme for the back cover is almost identical to that for the front. The dull brown colour has again been used for the background connoting how the band are not about promotion and becoming famous, but instead about the music they create and sharing that with others. The colours used for the record company and copyright information is also in this colour, again connoting that the professional and business side of their career is less significant when compared to the music. Black has been used for the name of the band, album title and song titles and this could also support the idea of significance as this shows how the music and the band is much more important than anything else.
12. You me at six Back Cover Font & language The font used on the back cover is also almost identical to that used on the front cover. The bold font of the band title and rather light font of the album title again shows the significance and importance of the music and the band themselves. Again, to show that this band are more about the music than promoting themselves, the design of the font and writing for the names of the songs are very simplistic and not even numbered, again trying to put across this idea that they are not focused on the promotion of their album but more on their music.
13. You me at six Back Cover Font and Language (Continued) This again, shows them to be rebelling against the companies and conventions when in fact this representation will help them to sell their product. The font at the bottom of the back cover is the same as that used for the song titles. This could anchor the idea that even though the band is trying to portray themselves as a band that challenges the conventions and is all about the music when they are really just the same as every other artist or band in the music industry; focused on making money from the records they sell.
14. You me at six Back Cover Layout All the features that are directly related to the band or their music has been placed in the centre, much like the front of the album. This could connote the idea of importance that the band is trying to put across. To anchor the idea that the band are trying to put across, that they are not bothered about the promotion of their work, all the text about the record company and copyright has been placed at the very bottom in each corner.
16. You me at six CD Inlay CD Inlay After looking at the front cover and back cover of this album, the inlay for this CD is exactly what you would expect. The absence of any characters is completely conventional for this album and helps to anchor any ideas that are put across through the design and layout of the rest of the album. When you couple this absence with the absence of text, this seems to take the design ideas to a whole new level. For example, from the rest of the album, we can see that the main idea that the band are trying to get to their audience is that they are rebelling against the companies and ‘don’t care’ about the promotion of their work, when in fact they need to care to sell their item.
17. You me at six CD Inlay By creating an inlay as bland as this, they are carefully considering their design so that it will attract their target audience as it will seem to the audience that the band is rebelling when in fact they’re not. The background also seems to have tea stains on it, which again emphasises this idea of the band not taking time over their appearance in the media and not caring about it. This idea is again anchored by the fact that the background seems to almost have bubbled and creased where it was placed on the CD so carelessly.
18. You me at six Spine Spine The spine for this album contains all the stereotypical details that you would expect to see on a CD spine; the name of the record company, name of the band, name of the album, and the companies cataloguing number. However, the design of this spine completely contradicts some of the ideas portrayed by the rest of the album.
19. You me at six Spine For example, the rest of the album anchors the idea that the band have taken no thought or time over their design, whereas the fact that the band name, album name and company catalogue number are all in the same font signifies how the band are linked to the record company, but also contradicts the idea that the band do not care about the professional and business side of their work. Similarly to the CD inlay, the spine seems to have tea stains on it, again emphasising the fact that the band would like their audience to believe that they do not care about the layout and design of their album, and more about their music and audience. Also, the name of the record company and the catalogue number for the album have been placed at either end of the spine, with the band name and album title in between and this emphasises the idea that the band is trying to put across; that the music that they have created is the most important thing about the album.
