That’s Questionable!

Figure 7.1 (Page 95)

Stereotypical images can be seen in the strangest place. Men’s head are neatly arranged but women’s figures are haphazardly placed in a mannequin supply warehouse.

I think it is not stereotypical image. Because of the number of the men’s and women’s heads, the warehouse might be for men.  If I can see the same number of the heads and the positions of the heads were different, it would be a stereotypical image.

Analysis of the Album Cover

This album cover was Kobukoro’s one. Kobukuro is a Japanese famous band. Kobukuro consist of two members, Kentaro Kobuchi and Shunsuke Kuroda. I think the album cover is the simplest cover of what I have ever seen. The colors of the cover are black and white, but the cover has some strong meaning.

• Lighting
  • The spot light is coming from the left because of the cast shadows of the footprints. The fill light is coming from the right because of the cast shadows of the foot prints. It is fast fall off. I think the lightning way was really successful because the cover has a powerful impression even black and white colors were only used.
• Composition and Framing
  • The composition of the cover is kind of symmetry. Two pairs of the footprints make a good symmetrical design. Flaming is not so close-up, but we can see the detailed of the attached shadows of the footprints. The composition is really simple. The cover consist of the title of the cover and two pairs of the footprints. The contrast of the sizes of the foot prints is good because the footprints represent the personalities of the members. In fact, one member is much taller than other member. It is a good way to express the personalities. The letters and two pairs of the foot prints make a good triangular shape. It is also a good well-balanced composition.
• Meaning
  • The cover is their best album’s one. It is a kind of their corpus. Signifiers are the title of the album cover, the two pairs of the footprints and snow as a background. The footprints means their history or biography. It is connotation. Snow represents blank. Blank means zero. It is connotation. I think they want to remember their original intention when they release the best album. It is one of the successful album cover.

In short, the album cover has a good composition, a combination of the colors, and good meanings. I think the cover can be more effective. If I were the director of the album cover, I would use the footprints which are moving to forward. They did not dissolve the band and they continue with the band. The cover makes me think that they have already stopped their musical movement. The director should think of the listeners’ feeling.