Iconography of the Album Cover

Iconography of the Album cover,' is an article which talks about album covers with an interview with an album designer, Julian House. Together they deconstruct album artwork, its conventions and vaguely analyse iconic artwork. Some interesting points i found were:

"I tend not to think of designs in terms of genre; each specific job exists in its own world."
 This quote caught my attention because usually the artwork would stick to its target audience, which in turn restricts the creative opportunities the designer has. Typically, the album art work suits the genre to appeal to the target audience.

(The artwork) "Can be extremely varied, utilising photos, graphics, typography or any combination of those."
Shows the options I have when creating my digipak, that the focus does not have to be on an image of the artist.

"Who the audience is and how they may respond to it."
The quotes emphasises the importance of the audience, and though the genre does not have to be followed, the designer should be aware of the audience at all times. The audience is the one investing in the artist and buying the album, therefore the album should appeal to them.

He talks about the importance of shadows, light and colour. Showing how they should be acknowledged during the shoots.

"Inspiration from things that they may find interesting, like books, films etc.."
That anything can be used to gather inspiration for the digipak.