Album Artwork - The Wanted & Battleground

THE WANTED 

The Wanted is the self-titled debut studio album by British-Irish boy band The Wanted, released on October 22, 2010 through Geffen Records. The majority of the album was written by members of the band, with help from songwriters Steve Mac, Wayne Hector, Ed Drewett and many more. The Wanted's first album premered at number one on the charts, making The Wanted the first boyband since The Blues, of 2001, to have their debut studio album premiere at number one on the charts without a TV show.


The vibe of the album cover is quite boy band orientated, in the way that the the photo on the front shows all of the members sitting in a car looking very powerful in the poses they are showing. Also the main colours that they are all wearing is black. Black is a colour that stands out and takes notice of how serious it is. In my opinion the use of the black compensates on how serious the band are on there music, and are not just another boyband. I also like the arrangement of the front of the CD, as it is not to fusses, it just get straight to the point having the name of the band/title at the top and a photograph of the artist.


When you look inside of the album, you have the booklet of song lyrics, photos and thank yous to people who created the album and all the support. The booklet back has and image of the band and at the top it has some writing that tells you about the album. To the right of that, is the actual CD. The disc has the bands logo stamped and printed onto it. Every CD has this to know that it is their own and has not be copyrighted. 


The back of the CD album has all of the songs that are on the disc. The text that is used is all in upper case letters. The back is very simple but get straight to the point in showing what is on the album and what the songs are called. 

In my opinion I like the look of the album as its not to complicated. It has a simple photo on the front and the self title album is a good idea, because it makes it easier to read. I mean this by when you would find this in a shop you are attracted to the image and the big font at the top. The target audience for this CD would be teenagers that may want to listen to a new up coming boyband that write their own songs. Also girls from kids to teenagers to young adults that may like the look of them and want to hear they voices.  

      

BATTLEGROUND

The band started working on their second studio album in January 2011. The album features writing credits from the group, Steve Mac, Wayne Hector, Ed Drewett, Diane Warren and Guy Chambers. The second album is called Battleground after being in one of their songs. The album got to number 5 in the album charts, with having 3 top 5 singles with in the album. The most successful song that is 8th biggest single this year was Glad You Came.


First of all the front of the CD covers, has different shades of reds and purples setting in a deserted area. The members are stood right in front of the the landscape looking straight at the camera with a stern look in their eyes. Again the name of the group is right at the top of the cover with also the name of the album in uppercase underneath. I love how the camera has caught every bit of detail that is in the rocks/mountains behind but also in the facial detail of each individual member the group.


When you open the inside of the CD, to the left you can see the booklet that again as information about who wrote the songs and thank yous to their friends, family and fans that have supported them from the start. On that booklet is quite natural image of the TW, looking down and closing their eyes waiting for the command to look up at pose for the photograph. I do like this addition to the booklet because it isn't to fussing but its just makes the impact you just want. 


To the right of that is the CD disc which again has the name of the band on the top of the disc and at the bottom it has the name of the actual album in a smaller font. 


As we close the CD and turn to the back you can see a lot going on. At the top is all of the songs that are in the album, all in white uppercase font and underlined so they stand out. The main aspect of the back cover is the photograph of the band. The picture that has been used is very eye catching in the way that the members are walking away from the camera then suddenly turning around at the right moment. The fact that it is in black and white makes it more striking and effective when you look at the back.

In my opinion I like this album artwork because of how simple it looking with the brightly colours, that may capture some one to by it in a music shop. But also the photo images compensate quite well with the look and style that the album may give you, when you first listen to it. I feel the target audience is for people that already loved the band and their type of music from the first album. Teenagers from young adults my buy this album because of their catchy songs but have been perfectly written. Or even that may like one of their songs want to listen to what else they have instore.  

       

Digital Screen Printing

Screen printing is a printing technique that uses a woven mesh to support an ink-blocking stencil. Instead of hand making a screen print, we asked to make a digital screen print being inspired by this image. We were supposed to use our chosen band that we are making 'song of the summer' album.

Again the band I have used throughout this process has been THE WANTED. This is the original image that I would create my digital screen printing poster from.>>>  




After uploading the image I wanted to make into an poster print using animal heads, I then found animals that I found quite suitable to have as each individual members 'heads'. These are the animals I chose; Elephant, Parrot, Lion, Wolf and Monkey. 

Once i had uploaded all of the images that I was going to be using in this print. I had to make each picture black and white, and adjust the contrast and the grey scale. I made the main photo of the band more poster like as adding more defined highlights to it. I also erased the heads of the boys so that you would not be able to see the actual members face or hair. 

For the animal heads, I used the pen tool to draw around then to just have the heads in frame. I also made these new images more poster like. After that I had to place each of the animals faces on top of the bands shoulders and neck where the head would normal be.

Then after arranging where to place the animals, I then added some text and some 'fire' images to make the poster stand out. I also added different colours to the image to get a nice vibrant feel to it and making sure you could see every bit of detail.

Below is my final out come. I really do like this image as it is very unique and quite artist, in the way that a lot of imagination has gone into coming up with an picture like this. I like the poster like qualities that this picture has. Out of some of the experiments that I have done I really like this final result the most.