Eminem, Just lose it album artwork (Front Cover)

Now I've decided on my song I thought I may as well analyse the cover to see if I can gain any further inspiration. Above is the front cover from the album "Encore". as you can see the colour scheme is predominantly blue. In the effort not to copy his artwork I won't copy the layout or colour scheme but a further note is that his next album "the Eminem show" to be is the same sort of style cover with a similar animation on the front, although the colour scheme is red its such a similar style. (Below is the artwork)

I'm only going to make one product or album cover but I should take note of the fact that it's very similar to the Encore "album" and that means I can have a similar poster.

The curtains on both covers are slightly repositioned, the "Encore" album artwork looks more like Eminem has just done a performance hence the title "Encore". Whereas in the "Eminem Show" album artwork the curtains look like they are just about to close which could indicate the ending of his career even though it hasnt ended. Additionally, there are people in the foreground facing him like everyone is intersted in him because he's a big superstar at the time. Oppositely on the "Eminem Show", there is no one there other than Eminem showing media interest has moved on and the conventionally ridiculed and contraversial artist remains that we know today.

What I aim to do after this post

I think my research is detailed enough to start moving on to producing drafts of my products. Filming will intervene posts as and when I do it which should be in the next week or so, this is because I am wating for my camera to arrive as I've ordered one for another reason and it has HD capabilties, so I thought I may as well use it to get a fantastic picture quality overall. So I will start on my CD first then move onto my poster and hopefully the first shots of my music video will be posted and maybe even edited so I can post something to show you what I'm aiming for.

Colour scheme feedback

I got some feedback from peers about my colour schemes. Some people thought they would work on a cover but others thought they really didnt suit eachother and "I would need to be more accurate in determining the colours."

Lee: the purple schemes aren't very Eminem like. He had colourful albums yeah but they're red and blue both darker shades as well, purple doesn't look particularly girly but I don think think you could get both products or even one on the purple schemes. Do one with a far darker scheme with either one or no colours in.

Charlotte: I agree with Lee, don't do a really colourful one unless you can design something really outstanding. Stay with simple and visually easy.

Brad: Don't make the colour scheme completely boring, mix one colour with shades of dark colours like black, grey and white.

Colour Schemes

Below are some possible colour schemes I could use for my products, I will try some colourful ones firstly and then I will move onto simple shades of darker colours as much of my research into the covers themselves has led me to believe that this is a better quality in my products concerning my theme. However, many of them feature one or two bright colours which stand out on a dark background so I may need to consider combining both.

Here are some schemes I've created:

I have created these schemes by looking at album covers both in my research and looking at random other hip-hop/rap album covers. This is just to help me get a general overview of what colour schemes match so I can pick my own.

Fonts

I liked this font a lot when I found it, it's not boring but its a more plain font that wont attract more attention than it needs, I think it's a likely candidate for my products.

This font I didn't like as much, I thought it was too graffiti like and chavvy. It also actually looks slightly 80's like so I think this one is better avoided.

This had some negative feedback from classmates (more feedback below), they called it "Gothic" and "emo" like. Additionally, I think it's the sort of font that could attract more attention to itself than maybe what it says. Although I wouldn't rule it out, When I make my products I may at least try to put it on to see what it looks like.

This ones my second favourite. The font name itself has relevance to my theme of song and it (like the first font) is simple and shouldn't attract more attention than other fonts, again even if I decide not to use it I could still try adding it to my product at some point and see the outcome.

This font I feel is similar to the "Loserboi Grunge" font, It may work on one level but on a CD cover it may not, I would have to feature it but a smaller less important role on my poster possibly.

Above are the fonts I have chosen using the Dafont site, I typed in keywords like rap/hip-hop, and after some time I found these, I have also asked for some feeback from people in my class to see what they thought of my choices. This is what they said:

Lee: I like the "hitman" font. It looks far more sinister, cool and adaptable to products. The only other one I would use is the "V-DUB" font because it looks like it has more relevance to your theme and products will therefore be easier to produce.

Leanne: I think the "raslani hip hop" font is too chavvy for the products your going to make, it almost looks 80's and I don't think it would suit anything to be honest. I'd personally agree with Lees' choice.

Brad: The "Loserboi Grunge" font is too Gothic or emo-like to be the right font for your product, A lot of the album covers I see for rap/hip/hop album covers are far cleaner cut, defined and simplistic within reason. This would look too out of place on a cover that should potentially be very simple.

After this feedback it is obvious which one I should pick, the favour is heavily swung for the "Hitman" font and "V-DUB", however I think the "V-DUB" font is too simplistic and the "Hitman" font just has the edge on aesthetics. So that is the one I will use.

Researching fonts and colour schemes

Whilst my filming of my video is in progress and other events/posts are being dealt with I need to start thinking about the construction of my two other products which are my CD cover and poster. So I will research my fonts first then my colour theme, shortly after this I will hopefully have the first stages of my video done.

Actors, actresses, locations and clothing

Actors and actresses are an important role in my video because they need the right body language and clothing. Not only this but I need to get the different locations right including what's in them, for example, I might try to get either a very expensive and exotic car in the background but although I know of one locally to me I will need to owners permission and he/she may not let me anyway.

So for my main actor (Eminem) I have my good friend, Tom Jones.
He's familiar with the song, has the dress sense that is similar to what I'm after and has a few ideas of his own which I can try out and see where it takes us. For the other actors and actresses I'll ask some slightly younger girls and boys if they will do their bit in the video, I'll post their faces as soon as I get the OK from them but for now at least I have my main character sorted out, some clothing and one or two locations.