After going through a trial and error phase, through the exercise we were given to practice developing our covers, I decided to start some real research. I began looking at websites for the most popular album covers. I thought it wise to go straight to the most popular music magazine sites I knew, hoping they would have released articles featuring their favourite album art. My initial instincts led me to NME and Rolling Stone Magazine.

www.rollingstone.com

The first website I visited was Rolling Stone, and found they had released an article named '100 Classic Album Covers' in November 1991. I began to scroll down the list of artwork in front of me, and whilst skimming through a very odd 20 albums I realised that these albums were of an aquired taste. What I mean by this is, although Rolling Stone had labelled and grouped them as 'Classic Album Covers', it didn't necessarily mean they would be appealing to everyone. I found a few that interested me greatly. For instance, New Order - Power, Corruption and Lies. The album cover was surrounded by eye-catching rock albums, featuring weird and uncomfortable art, wherein this particular cover, I found exceptionally attractive. It exhibits warm colours, through a simple picture of roses in a basket, which looks hand-drawn and extremely detailed. The font is white and basic but compliments the detail and colour of the picture in perfect fashion.

Furthermore, I also became engrossed in a Beatles album cover from 'The White Album', obviously through it's complete dissimilarity to every other album on the page. The whole canvas is completely white, with simply the print of the words 'The BEATLES' on it. What further interested me is the lack of alignment on the product. The only text on the page is shifted to the right, and very slightly slanted. This gives the cover an overwhelmingly blasé effect, but moreso, makes it noticeable through its difference and breaking of tradition and unwritten rules. This album cover really inspired me, and I later based my work on it. 

www.nme.com

I found the following website much more approvable than the first. NME had released an article named '10 Beautifully Designed Album Covers' posted by Phil Cook on the 24th October 2011. The webpage featured less photography, which was an enjoyable change, as I found I appreciated the work so much more when it had been handmade or designed in front of a computer screen. Two out of the 10 really appealed to me; The Strokes - Is This It, and Pet Shop Boys - Yes. Interestingly, both covers, like the Beatles album, featured a white canvas. Definitely a step up in terms of content from the Beatles album, both of these covers still remain very plain, with little colour. Additionally, both albums relate to their title, which is a similar trait of the Beatles album named, The White Album.

I found that both websites were very rock and pop orientated, so I decided to search more contemporary artwork and found the artwork from the top 20 albums on the Billboard charts. Again, a simple album cover appealed to me. This was RnB/Hip-Hop/Soul artist Frank Ocean's recent, highly acclaimed release - Channel Orange. Once again, the title had simple but effective resemblance through artwork. The plain orange canvas is really eye-catching, with the contrasting fonts, as well as lowercase and uppercase, giving some character to the cover. Furthermore, their is a blue blood splat in the word channel which also serves as a random, but intriguing characteristic. In contrast to 'The White Album' the font used in this cover expressed its contemporary sound, which is a notion surrounded by Ocean's music, who represents a bricolage of music genres. The Beatles font however, looks like a print from a typewriter, showing that they are a band from an older decade. 

I took all of this research into account, and decided I wanted to imitate the covers that inspired me most, and go for an idea that resembles the phrase 'simple is more'.