Iconogrophy of album covers

The art of the album cover is a curious one, part packaging, part advertising, often an insight into an artist's worldwide view and usually the happy result of a successful collaboration between creative minds, the best album cover art illustrates and accompanies the music in a way that creates the whole package. Julian House who is a creative partner at London creative agency, the Intro Partnership, speaks about how most of the direction for the album must be taken from the artists and this usually involves sit down discussions where the artist gives ideas, then the creative people go off and do several sets of visuals and present them, then hone it down from there. House also explains how the album sleeve is an entry point into the universe that the music is in, its a window into the themes of ideas of the artists and that there is defiantly a need for a visual accompaniment for the music and there is a resurgence of vinyl; special packaging sells quite well to a select audience. There are a lot of people still who need a tactile product, something to pore on.

De-constructing album cover art
Album cove art can be extremely varied utilising photos, graphics, typography, or any combination of these. As a type of media text, it can be de-constructed like any other. When analysing it we can use the same tools we'd use to analyse and understand any visual media text.

Who made it, why how, for whom, and for what purpose?
It is visual to take into account who and why that person constructed a media texts, but it is also important to think about who the audience is for any given text and how they may respond to it. Album covers are made to essentially promote the album, to be eye-catching and intriguing, and to tell us something about the musicians and the music contained in the album. While the immediate target audience is likely to be those who frequently buy music, especially those who are fans or specific bands, artists or genres, the artwork may be designed to attract a wider audience.

Associations & Connotations
Detonation is identifying the elements in the image and connotation is examining what meanings and associations the image may link to. Eg, an image that denotes a powerful looking car may have connotations of speed or power, but in conjunction with other elements making up the art it might also have connotations of escape or thrill-seeking. On a pop or rap cover, there may be connotations of conspicuous wealth and extravagance, given that genres conventions.

Signs, symbols and Codes
A sign is a representation that refers to something else and has meaning, such as the car. a code means the structure of how signs are organised into systems to make meaning. They are usually divided into the technical and the symbolic, there are also written codes that included the use of language and text layout.

Composition & Framing
This focuses on the construction of the album cover, like how do light, shadow and colour play a part. We refer to conventions as established ways of doing things, in this case, established forms of presenting and image. It can be helpful to examine how closely any given image tracks the conventions you's associate with it, for example a death metal album might conventionally use a gothic or medieval looking typeface, horror or occult based imagery, and a lot of black. Album cover cart can be self-referential, adding an extra layer of meaning to the image.