Album Cover Research

Album Cover Research Ideas

After deciding on what song to use for our music video and also after analysing Snow Patrol's, existing album covers, we firstly decided to put together a mood board to help us focus all of our ideas. We evidently wanted to use features from the bands existing covers but we also wanted to introduce some of our own interpretations and ideas into designing the album cover.

The pictures of the mood board we created, were labelled A to E. This then made it easier to analyse and discuss each picture and how we could potentially use it on the album cover.

A = top image 

B= top right image

C= bottom right (horse and man) 

D= bottom image

E= far left image

Image A 

Image A is a good example of a dark, barren landscape which we agreed would act as a good backdrop if merged with other elements from other images. The darkness will be symbolic of negative emotions such as depression, which are heavily incorporated within the song we have chosen (‘You could be happy’) and also match the 'moody' persona given off by many of Snow Patrols songs.

Image B 

Again the backdrop for this image gave a depressing feel similar to Image A. However this image contains the silhouettes of two horses which adds to the eerie feel of isolation. One of our location possibilities, Acton Trussell Farm, has horses which is why we chose this picture. We considered using live animals and applying an artistic twist to the picture, for example, blurring, layering, editing or turning the image into a silhouette.

Image C

This picture is very different to A and B, and is far more colourful in comparison. The man in red walking a horse through a field is far more 'upbeat' and less depressing. We considered using elements of imagery like this (e.g man in red and horse) which is colourful and placing it against a dark background to make them stand out. This would then go with the theme that depression and sad emotions will always be there, but humans are resistant.

Images D and E 

A lone wolf is shown on a white background to represent the feeling of isolation, which again is another negative emotion, put forward by many of the Snow Patrol soundtracks. Our song, "You Could Be Happy", has continuous themes of sadness, depression and regret running through it. It could also be interpreted as one ex partner 'releasing' their ex and allowing them to move on. The lone animal in pictures D and E represent this very effectively. 

Overall, we felt that the appropriate imagery would be someone or an animal being on his or her own, when normally they would be in a group, signifying loneliness. Also, we wanted to create a paradox instead of blatantly stating the mood of the album. We thought of portraying a peaceful image on the album cover and then contrasting that with a completely different title layout.