Editing Photographs by Maddy Ryder

Before I could begin to create the album cover, I needed to make a few changes to my chosen photograph:

I edited the background to plain white, and made Grace's shirt a little brighter. I also highlighted races' lips and eyes, as i felt they didn't stand out enough, and added a little more colour to her hair, as the lighting made it appear too yellow.

Album Cover Photo Shoot by Maddy Ryder

Having completed the photo shoot, I now have several pictures I would consider using for the front cover of the Album:

My final choice is this picture:

It is appealing as it uses a pain white background (apart from the bit of blue, which can easily be edited out). It features a low-angle shot of Grace, making her appear in control. This is important as I want her to appear as a strong, confident female artist.

 For this reason I decided to stick to natural make-up, because showing her with exaggerated eyes and lips may make her appear too girlish/vulnerable, the opposite of what I want to achieve.

The pose is also quite casual which fits with her character.

Album Cover Design Plan by Maddy Ryder

For the font on the album cover, I would like to use something modern and unique - I want it to stand out, like Grace herself does.  For this I considered several fonts:

My favourite is this one:

I like it because it looks modern and informal, which I feel will fit well with Graces' image. The style almost looks like graffiti, which would certainly appeal to a younger crowd, but it isn't too 'out there' so as to put an older generation off.




For the cover itself, I would consider a plain white background:

 This would make Grace the main focus of the picture, although in order to ensure there was nothing on the cover distracting from her, I would use plain colours for the font, not flashy gold like the Album cover above.

The colour white also reflects the simplicity of the Star Image we have created for Grace.




because of the natural, down-to-earth image Grace has, I would also consider using an outdoor setting as the background for the album cover:

Unlike the picture above, however, I would not include an instrument. Grace plays a piano, not a guitar in the video, which would be highly impractical to set up. I would also not include anything that distracts from her; if an instrument is included, it might become the main focus of the picture, rather than Grace.

Album Cover Photo Shoot Plan by Maddy Ryder

For my Album cover I would like to keep with the star image we have created in the video; a down to earth, unmaterialistic young female singer. This goes against conventions, as many female starts produce quite voyeuristic images, usually wearing heavy makeup.


I would like to portray Grace as casual yet stylish, and I would also like to keep with the colour scheme presented in the video. For these reasons I have chosen to dress Grace in a long sleeved jumper in white, grey, blue or green (natural, simplistic colours) with a scarf and dark clue jeans, along with her trademark white and blue trainers:

 Once I had decides the types of clothing I wanted Grace to wear, I used the computer programme Bitstrips to create a cartoon image of Grace, allowing me to try a multitude of different outfits to see what worked best:

The pictures that I felt reflected Grace's star image the most was the green top with the blue scarf; the green stands out, and is bright while still keeping with the 'natural' colour scheme.

I would also consider having Grace wear boots instead of trainers - this would give her a more stylish look, without being too formal.

Album Cover Photo-shoot By Lucy Barker

I liked this photo because Grace's lips look really big and the lip gloss is very prominent, this highlights her attractive features without going over the top which is why I used quite a subtle lip gloss. Her clothing differs from the video because although she still looks casual, the scarf is very pretty and adds some 'girliness' to her, it was important for me to try and make her look a bit more attractive because this is something that will attract people to the album cover.

Plan for design of album cover by Lucy Barker

Font

For the font I want to use something clean and un-fancy because this represents Grace. For example this font, named "Alien League" is quite simple and so is "Metro". I think the "Alien League" tittle does need a thick border because it wouldn't stand out enough against a black background. I think these texts would contrast against the image because with the border, it looks quite old fashioned, but the artists image looks very new because her idea is new and never seen before.

Background

Because I'm planning on shooting Grace from the knee up I know that there will be room in the background that I want to use wisely. Artists like Adele (shown below) use plain backgrounds because they become she focus of the front cover

Where as this album cover, which is very much recognised across the world uses "Abbey Road" to make it so recognisable. This was well thought out, because as 'Britpop' was so famous at the time of the Beatles, having a shot of them in england highlights this.

I want to try taking shots of Grace behind a black background to start with, because I can add in affects (such as the gold spots shown below) in on photoshop. 

Of course it is important to consider that the theme used on the front cover will be continued on the back, for example Ellie Gouldings album back looks like this: 

Plan for album cover photo shoot by Lucy Barker

I'm planning a photo shoot with Grace on Friday afternoon. I'm going to do her make-up very naturally, I'll use a tiny bit of foundation and blusher and do her eyes natural and bright because although we want to portray her star image; a down to earth un-materialistic person, it is important that her target audience also find her attractive. I will use photoshop to make her look even more made-up.

I'm going to get her to try the following poses but pulling a funny face so it looks satirical, which matches the idea of the video.

I'm going to ask Grace to pull some of the funny faces such as the one to the right of the bottom left photo were she has her tongue sticking out, this also matches the clip in the video were she has her tongue sticking out whilst playing the piano and this would be recognised by her target audience. 

I will be shooting Grace from just above the knee. I will be using colours that I also used in the video, for example she will be wearing blue and green colours because these are the casual colours that made her stand out against the brashness of the gold at the gold party. Green is also an earthy colour which can signify her down to earth nature. I will also be shooting her landscape.