withtheband

At withtheband we often have the pleasure of working with bands and musicians when they’re just starting out. And sometimes we get the exciting task of designing artwork for their first album. We know that when musicians come to us they’ve probably had an idea in their head since they started making music as to how they want it to look. We respect that.

Our job is to help them visualise what it is they’ve had in mind, adding to it a sprinkling of design and marketing know how until they have something that they’re proud of, we’re proud of and their fans will be excited to own.

We’re honest too. If we think that perhaps their idea might need a little tweaking to benefit them most we’ll tell them. And we’ll work up a selection of designs that show their idea intertwined with our theory so that they can see where we’re coming from. We don’t blind them with design science. And ultimately we’ll do our utmost to make sure they’re happy with the final concept.

We were interested this week to see Pitchfork.com’s list of the Worst Album Covers of 2009 It got us wondering about the stories behind them and ultimately if it was Artist or Management who came up with the concepts.

Off the top of my head i’ll be honest, i can’t think of any album artwork i’ve truly hated (until i saw that Joss Stone one that is). I see artwork as successful if it is informative and has artwork that provokes a reaction in you which suits the music. True some album artwork sits better with me, i'm a sucker for a nice illustration or soft imagery but then i like Alt Folk Music and this is where this usually features.

What do you think? What makes an Album Cover bad?