This mood board is consists of these following albums(From Top left to bottom right):
Laura Marling-<Once I Was An Eagle>
Belle and Sebastian-<Write about Love>
Joni Mitchell-<Blue>
Iron & Wine-<Our Endless Numbered Days>
Elliott Smith-<Figure 8>
Bob Dylan-<Self-Portrait>
Kings of Convenience-<Quiet is The New Loud>
Leonard Cohen-<Songs of love and hate>
The Weepies-<Hideaway>
From the above list, it showcased that the mood board I have created are consists artists from different eras and countries, I believe that through a wide ranged research I will gain some conventional and trends knowledges about album artwork of folk music.
Throughout the research, I realized that the album artwork of folk music could be summarized and categorized into three major types which is self-portrait of the singer or band, portrait paintings of the singer or band and cartoon works.
First of all, the self-portrait style album cover is definitely the conventional and mainstream of the folk music industry, from the Joni Mitchell's <Blue> of 70s till most recent Laura Marling's <Once I was an eagle>, the self-portrait style of folk music album artwork didn't change much. Self-portrait style album artwork is indeed effective for folk music albums, a massive photograph of the singer or band could creates the visual memories for the audiences and eventually sells more albums. On another hand, because of the conventional folk music is consists of various themes such as politics, poetries and self-awareness, but unlike the other genres of music, folk music is more about the singer him/herself's emotions and feelings, those legendary folk singers are always crosses over into various aspects and fields, for instance Joni Mitchell is a writer and painter at same time, and leonard cohen is a famous poet before he became a singer, therefore a massive self-portrait picture of singer him/herself could expresses more personalities of them in order to make the audience have a depth understanding of their music. Unlike the album artworks of pop music or rock music that often attaches many special effects and props into the self-portrait photograph of the album cover, these self-portrait photographs on the album covers of folk music are typically remains simple and meaningless throughout the decades, in my opinion it's because conventionally folk music is about simplicity and personal feelings, the instrumental playing part of folk music is usually only contains one or two types of instruments, therefore album cover as the extensions of the content of the album is supposed to be simple and tidy.
The second major category is self-portrait paintings, this kind of album artwork is particular popular around 70s, for instance such as Bob Dylan's <Self Portrait> and Joni Mitchell's <Both Sides Now>, it has the very similar effect and just as effective as the self-portrait photography. The difference between self-portrait photograph cover and self-portrait painting cover is that painting is usually more personal and contains more connotations and personal feelings than self-portrait photograph, a lot of self-portrait painting cover are actually created by the singers themselves. Also a self-portrait painting album cover is more artistic and meaningful, therefore it follows the genre conventions of folk music.
Interestingly I realized that in these two categorizes whether it's photograph or painting it always only includes the singer's face or half body(Except band), I think the reason might be that singer's facial expressions and body languages in the front cover always contains so many emotions and connotations.
The third major category of folk music album artwork is cartoon works, cartoon album cover is becoming increasingly popular at recent years, a lot of independent bands and youth bands prefer to use a cartoon drawing as their album artwork, and those indie musicians/bands especially prefer cartoon drawing album covers. For instance the album I have chosen in my mood board which has a cartoon album cover is produced by Indie-Folk duo band The Weepies. Although in my opinion cartoon artwork album won't be able express much about the singer/band themselves as the self-portrait does, and also because of it won't be able to provide the audience a visual memory of singer/band, therefore it's definitely not a commercial success strategy. But on the other hand, those cartoon album covers are always focusing on the content of the music in the album, therefore cartoon album artworks is always a metaphor of the content of the music in the album and also the artists themselves. Also because of the simplicity of the cartoon album artwork's design, it's also follows the genre conventions of folk music, and the cost of produce a cartoon album artwork is always lower than a studio photograph of the artists, therefore it's also a good choice for those low budget independent artists/bands.
The colour choice and using of folk music album artwork is quite conventional and similar, throughout the research I realised that the most popular kind of colour choice of album artwork is Black & White with a single colour filter(Or without), such as Belle and Sebastian's <Write About Love>'s album cover is simply consists of a Black & White picture with a single colour filter, this kind of colour choice suits the design of the whole album and also follows the conventions of the folk music which is simple and nostalgic. Another kind of colour choice is a colourful photo or paintings/cartoons, this kind of colour choice is usually contains two or three major colours and looks very simple and refreshing. I found out that conventional colour choice of folk music album artwork is always blue or green, I assume the reason is that folk music is always brought a harmony and peaceful feeling to listeners, and that's what colour blue and green brought to people.
The font use and choice of folk music album artwork is quite conventional and similar as well, likewise the colour choice. In all the nine albums of my mood borad the font is quite similar and in the exactly same white colour, all the font within it is quite nostalgic and simple, interestingly I realised that the font be used in 60s albums are still be using in nowadays album. And these fonts all follows the genre conventions of folk music which is simple and nostalgic.
In general, throughout the research of producing this album artwork mood borad I realised that the two themes of folk music album artwork is simplicity and expressive, it usually tends to be very simple but also contains lots of personal thoughts and comments of the singer/band themselves, it says so much by saying so little. In addition, it also inspired me as well, I have basically developed some initial ideas of my album artwork throughout the research process, I think I will produce a conventional mainstream self-portrait photograph of the singer, it will contain both simplicity and connotations, and also expresses the emotions and feelings that the song I have chosen(Bright Eyes-Jason Mraz) provided to me.