Contrast

Successful:

   

          This image of Adele's debut album, 19, shows a successful design that includes the element of contrast. The image has a pitch black background and intense shading on the artist's face. The most visible parts of the image are that of one side of Adele's face, her bangs, and the album artist and title lettering. The image uses a lot of light and dark contrasting colors. The background and shading are completely black, as dark as they could be, and Adele's face is very fair, all the while maintaining the element of color. The lettering is also of high contrast. The "ADELE" lettering in the lower right hand corner of the image are extremely noticeable due to the fact that they are white and the background is black. The same can be said for the "19" with the exception of the coloring of the numbers being the same color as Adele's skin rather than pure white against a black background.

Unsuccessful:

           This image is of the album artwork for Orion, entitled Reborn. This image is a complete failure in terms of contrast. At a first glance, it would appear that the entire image consists of a blue background with a black, orange and blue teardrop in the top center section of the image. The background is blue, and Orion's shirt and pants are both blue. The entire image is the same color with the exception of Orion's hair, which has a nice contrast against the blue background. The mask Orion is wearing somewhat contrasts against his skin and hair. However, it is so close in proximity to the rest of the blue picture. This image was badly designed. This album would not catch anyone's eye and has no element of surprise or complexity. Even the artist's expression seems to be disappointed with the result of this bad design.