Background Info

Halsey is the stage name of New Jersey native Ashley Frangipane. It is an anagram of her first name and reference to the Halsey Street subway stop and street in Brooklyn where she used to live.

With over 14,000 friends on MySpace as a tween, she began posting covers of songs on YouTube. In 2012, she posted “The Haylor Song,” a parody of Taylor Swift’s hit song “I Knew You Were Trouble” that created controversy over the nature of the lyrics. Nevertheless, she had accumulated a respectable amount of online attention, reaching 16,000 subscribers on YouTube at the age of 18.

Halsey posted her first single “Ghost” on Soundcloud in 2014, which turned heads in her direction. Her close friend Anthony pretended to be her manager, accompanying her in various meetings with different record labels. After being signed to Astralwerks, she released her EP Room 93 in late 2014, with four of the five tracks carrying accompanying music videos, giving the EP a “visual” feel. She was the most mentioned artist online at SXSW 2015, which was evident by her ever-increasing fanbase – over half a million followers on Twitter at the age of 20!

In anticipation of her debut effort, Badlands, “Hold Me Down” was released as a pre-order single, followed by “New Americana,” the anthem of today’s diversified generation. Badlands was officially released on August 28th, 2015, which Halsey described as “an angry female record.” It also represents her mental state.

Main Image

The main image contains the artist Halsey in front of a cliff facing away from the camera and title of the album is over her face. The image has been manipulated and has a filter over it which emphasises Halsey's blue hair and fur jacket and the text has been placed on top of her face. The photo has a slight blue tone to it and the colour is is aesthetically pleasing to look at Halsey is central in the photo as well as the title which draws attention to her. The image has a 3D effect too as we can see the sky slightly crumpled as if it is on paper.

Title
Title is on top of Halsey's face, concealing her face. It is almost a cream colour which contrasts nicely with the bright colours in the image. It also compliments the blue and pink. It is central and bold making it clear to read. The title of the CD also follows the same design as the front.

Layout
On the front cover, Halsey is photographed in a closeup directly in the centre and the title is also central. The composition of Halsey is pretty central and equal yet we are still able to see the cliff behind her and the sky behind the cliffs. The CD has the text positioned near the top making it easy to read, and the CD itself is one colour which keeps the style very simplistic. The back cover follows a similar style to the front as we can see a small area of the cliff face near the top however is covered up by a white area that looks like it is torn from the album art. The background of this is the same as the font colour on the front. The font on the back is central leaving enough composition from the white background.

Font
Font on the front is capitalised and bold, this follows the same style on the CD and on the back cover. The colour of the font on the front matches the background on the back cover. The font on the back cover is central as in a brown colour which matches the colour of the mountains/cliff face.

Colour Scheme
Colour scheme consists of pale pinks and teal blue, colours that compliment each other well. We also see a lot of brown and cream from the cliff and the font which helps emphasise the bright colours. Colours throughout the scheme are consistent with each other and in some way all match the colours in the main image. Such as the blue CD matching the sky on the front and Halsey's hair, the brown font on the back matching the mountains in the main image, the title on the front matching the colour of the background on the back cover.