Deconstruction and Formal Analysis

The album cover I have chosen to analyse is called Shudder, An album by Bayside. I chose this album cover for many reasons. The main reason is it is very eye-catching because of the use of vivid colours. The colours used make it a lot more memorable for the viewer which in turn makes them think about the band and/or album more. The next thing I notice is the intricate pattern on the cover. It is almost like a montage of colours but the most effective part of the artwork is the hidden use of the band’s symbol in the pattern. It is not so hidden that you can’t even see it, but it is hidden enough not to see at a glance. It is effective because it almost plants subliminal imagery of the band’s symbol in the viewer’s mind.

The pattern interprets the name of the album very well; shudder by definition means to tremble, typically as a result of fear or hatred/dislike. Therefore, the colours used are perfect because the colour Red is associated with hate or passion and the colour Blue is associated with the cold feeling someone gets as a result of a shudder. Even the visual rhythm of the image as a whole looks like a shudder; the pattern looks like a tremble with the use of spontaneously drawn lines.

The typography used in this cover is also well thought out. The artist has used the contrasting colour Gold to emphasize the importance of the information: The name of the band and the name of the album. This makes viewers remember more and pass their information on easily, for example when someone has seen an advert of the album they might say to a friend “have you seen that the album being released by Bayside? It looks good!” If the text was not placed on the album art, this would not have occurred. The formation of the text also fits in well with the image as a whole, mostly because it contributes to the messy pattern of the main imagery. The border of the album cover helps the text blend in well with everything.