'Freelancers : Locked & Loaded' - Album cover designs

A series of album cover designs for the band Freelancers, for an album titled 'Locked & Loaded'. The specification for the project was for a minimalist design, using a theme of photography and / or binoculars or a telescope. After a few initial sketches, it was decided that the view through a camera viewfinder actually meshed all of those concepts quite well. 

The first draft was of a basic viewfinder layout, using a modern DSLR aesthetic that should be familiar to most, with the name of the band at the bottom left and the album title beneath the image. However it was decided that this was a little unbalanced/asymmetrical.  

The next draft moved the band name to the top, with the album name take its place in the bottom left. This was decided to be an improvement as it gave the image a more balanced perspective, and was only tweaked for the final draft when the exposure compensation (-3..-2..-1 etc) information was moved, leaving space for the album title to be centred along the bottom. 

Other than minor tweaks to the locations and styling for the DSLR information, such as the movement of the exposure compensation meter and the HD and battery icons, the major change was to reduce the feeling of 'empty space' in the centre by adding the silhouette of a woman. This silhouette was chosen from a small selection, being the one with the most interesting and energetic outline. 

The colours of the piece remained minimalist, being mostly black and white, with a couple of small details in red as highlights of colour.