In the album cover of Tim McGraw’s, “Damn Country Music” some points of the visual text attract the eye of the viewer by using the clear and vivid presentation of the wording, the placement, the colors, and Tim McGraw’s clothing.  In this album cover there are a lot of comparisons between visual elements and how they go together. The viewer of the image will start to think about these things as they go along with seeing the different elements. Tim McGraw’s album cover urges the embracing of life because there will be highs and there will be lows. Through the comparisons of these visual elements in the album cover showing the identity of the feel in country music by using different color composition with bright and mellowed out colors. Especially by the way the words are written.   

 The first thing that really caught my eye was how Tim was in a box outside in a field. It came to my mind, that they put this box in a field because fields relate to country music. Their purpose was probably so you could get the feel of what they were trying to present by using those country effects. Some people might not look at it that way but in reality you have a country singer, you use country effects to draw in another country person. In this album cover there are a lot of colors thrown at you. There are bright and there are darks. I feel like they used the bright colors to show you that country music can be happy at times and sometimes it is sad. They give you a variety to look at and get different images from. The way they used the white box makes it stand out in the field because white is a very neutral color and a has very artificial structure. It complements the picture because white goes with everything. It correlates with the sky because there are elements of white in the sky and clouds. With the way they used dark colors like black which is a strong color, kind of points out how white and black contrast with each other being neutral to each other. When looking at the album cover, as a viewer you first notice the black wording. They use this broad color to throw at you, what the name of the album is. 

The way they wrote Tim McGraw’s name and how they wrote, “Damn Country Music”, makes you sit and think. What was their purpose of writing the name of the artist and album name differently? The name shows you a more formal look, like a name tag. It looks like someone used a name machine and printed out Tim’s last name. I think with it being the artist, they wanted you to fully get the image of professionalism. Tim McGraw is well known for his music so they are visually giving you that country artist image. His last name is a brand because the audience does not need to know the first name, they just look and already know who he is. You do not necessarily need a brand to know who Tim McGraw is because he is already so well known for his music. His name is more so stamped and uniformed by using the block letters. It pulls you in by using his last name so broadly to let you know who he is. It demonstrates more attention to the name than the album title because of the way they visually put it out there for you by making the name so bold and blocky. It makes it seem less realistic when they put the name tag rather than his signature. It is like someone else doing it rather than Tim McGraw. In the perspective of it, you imagine someone making a name tag for Tim and just going up and sticking it to the album cover. The way they wrote ‘Damn Country Music” would make you think totally opposite of professional. It is like they got a paint brush and threw paint onto a wall. I think their purpose was to really give you the feel that, not always will things be perfect or in order. The way they split up the two different writings visually makes me think that there are two different types of contexts that they are trying to get at. 

In the frame of Tim being in a box, I think his outfit complements the whole country look. The blue jeans stick out to me most those, because he is in an all-white box with a white tee on and cowboy boots. I think the blue jeans really stand for back in the woods, home grown as to the white tee stands for casual and representable. I think the point they are trying to get across is that country music can be both or it can be just one. It does not really matter. When looking at this album cover, I really think “why is there a window?” Visually it makes you wonder what was the purpose of putting a window inside of a box. If you really think about it as you look at it, it maybe that things come and go. In life you have people that come and go. In this album, some of the songs in Tim’s album are talking about life and how you need to keep proceeding forward or always staying true to yourself. With the window being in the box, life can be like a box. You feel closed up or alone or you can look at the bigger picture for instance the window and realize what you have in life and how blessed you are. The window is a good example as to looking at the brighter side. With that being said, I almost think the box is a representation of a recording room. Since Tim is a country singer, he spends most of his time in a recording room or something in that sort. Maybe the meaning of the window is Tim looking out at his co-works and communicating with them. There are many different things you can think about when it comes to the window in the box. 

The visual aspect of looking at the album cover presents multiply ways the album cover compares to the feel of country. When looking at the album cover there is a clear and vivid image of a field with a box in it. The way the image is so clear helps the viewer focus on the deeper meaning. The way the grass looks like it is moving looks real almost to the point of seeing bugs or insects in the grass. The purpose of this album cover is to bring focus on country music and all of the different ways emotion can be brought into the picture by the wording, the colors, Tim McGraw’s clothing, and the placement. 