Album Art of a Eye Over a Red Wooded Valley
They say to never judge a volume by its cover, and while we'd like to think that the aforementioned goes for albums—it'southward the music on the inside that counts—there'south something to be said for a well-designed anthology cover. It's your chance to catch the attention of new listeners and give a visual representation of the music within. A peachy album encompass tin inspire someone to fish your vinyl out of the stack, encourage a streaming listener to acquire more than about yous, and add a whole new layer of artistry to your piece of work.
Although having an original and expressive album cover design is important, the process itself doesn't take to be daunting. We've assembled a comprehensive guide to designing your album comprehend, from the early brainstorming stages to finding the design style that syncs perfectly with your music.
Contents
- Before you start your design process
- Go on an identity quest
- Notice inspiration
- Key components of designing your cover
- Colour
- Typography
- Imagery and style
- Don't forget the details
- Think big…and minor
- Finding the right designer/artist
- What's adjacent?
Before you offset your design process
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You might be tempted to immediately outset sketching your vision for your album cover, merely the first step in whatsoever pattern process should always be to take a few steps abroad from the design entirely. Instead of launching right into ideas for your cover, focus on doing a piffling identity quest first—it will help you later when it comes to thinking about design.
Go on an identity quest
1. Who are you?
You can get as existential with this one as you similar, but actually focus on who y'all are as an artist, band, musician, etc. How would yous define yourself?
ii. Who is your audience?
Before you lot jump to respond "everyone," remember well-nigh this one a little more securely. Who are yous trying to accomplish with your songs? Who are the kinds of people standing in the front row of your show? While information technology's a great goal to attain everyone with your music, you lot probable have a slightly narrower audition. Figuring out who that is can assistance yous cater your album design to their interests.
3. What do you want your listeners to feel when they hear your music?
Music can sometimes feel intangible—how could you depict it in words? Merely whenever someone makes music, they have an idea of how they desire people to respond to information technology. Think about the emotions y'all want your listeners to take when they hear your album.
4. Elevator pitch your sound: what are the cardinal words?
The lift pitch is only every bit of import for a band or artist equally it is for the founder of a company—you should be able to succinctly depict what it is you exercise. So, if you're in an elevator with someone and you've got 30 seconds to draw what your music is like, what would yous tell them?
Take notes
Take some notes from your identity question session. Write down the words that have the near meaning for you so that when it comes to thinking about design elements, yous'll already have a expert sense of what you lot're hoping to accomplish. Ultimately, your album embrace is a way for you to limited your band's identity—just like you do with your music—then information technology should exist in line with your sound.
Find inspiration
As a musician, you know that inspiration is of import. Music does not just occur out of zippo; it needs to be pulled from somewhere. When it comes to song writing, you may be inspired by an event, a piece of art, an image, a audio, a feeling, etc. You can think well-nigh designing your album cover in a like manner—what is inspiring that visual representation? Perhaps you'll think about the same inspirations that struck y'all in your song writing, effectively translating that musical inspiration into images.
In addition to thinking about the inspiration for your own work, it'south always helpful to think about who you lot admire and draw ideas from their work. What are some album covers that you are fatigued to? What do yous similar about them? Exist sure to accept some notes—combined with your identity notes, these will assist y'all narrow your blueprint process.
Fundamental components of designing your encompass
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There are several elements that come into play for every album cover, from the colors and imagery used on the front embrace to the typography and text on the back. Isolating each component will assist you take things pace by pace, rather than getting overwhelmed with the whole design all at once.
Color
Color selection is an of import aspect to all design, and the same is truthful of album covers. Even a black- or white-heavy anthology encompass represents a thoughtful conclusion on colour: information technology evokes a different feeling than a vibrant, multicolored cover, right? With so many colors to choose from in the spectrum, we've come up upwards with a few different ways to help you identify what colors to utilize in your design.
Color psychology
There is a lot more to color than might run into the center, and to learn more well-nigh colour theory and how it is used in branding, be sure to bank check out this in-depth guide. Only for at present, the quick explanation is that colors can make us feel a sure way. They take emotional attachments, which is why companies often utilize specific colors in their logos or product packaging. The aforementioned can be applied to anthology covers, because equally a musician, you want your audition to feel a certain way when they hear your music. The album cover—a visual representation of your music—allows you to enforce that feeling in another way. If, for instance, you want your listeners to feel happy and playful when they listen to your music, yous might desire to lean into xanthous and orange in your embrace design. For more subdued and melancholy music, darker colors, especially night blue and greyness, will help gear up the tone in your album cover blueprint.
Color scheme
If you've identified a color that you'd like to use in your album cover, you lot may desire to stick with it throughout—if it worked for The Beatles with the White Anthology, it could work for yous too—simply you may not exist looking for a minimalist, monochrome look for your embrace. Fortunately, color theory also identifies complementary colors to help you lot select secondary and third hues to proceed with your dominant color.
Monochromatic basically means using all 1 color—but it can be 1 colour in many shades to offering some more than dimension. The overwhelming feeling of a monochrome encompass is ane of simplicity and minimalism. Information technology can be selected to tap into a sure mood, or tin be used as a fashion for the artist to take the music speak for itself. This can cease up being a very assuming choice.
You've probably seen a colour bike before, which is a bully cardinal into choosing colors that work well together. For complementary colors, the rule is, the color directly beyond from the color on the bicycle is the most complementary—so if you lot've chosen yellow, violet would naturally represent. Complementary colors bring out the best in each other, and tin create dynamic visuals.
You tin also get for coordinating colors—colors that are shut to each other on the bicycle, then they naturally work in harmony. This gives you lot more dimension than monochrome colors, but they tin can still take a blending effect—they may non stand out as much every bit complementary colors.
Another option is picking triadic colors, which effectively describe from three equal sections on the colour wheel. These tend to be more stimulating than analogous colors, but the color meanings may not mesh as well if you're trying to tap into color psychology.
In improver to working with the color schemes above, some other choice a band or creative person can brand is to get for more anachronistic colors. Instead of adopting colors that piece of work in harmony with one another, you can opt for stark combinations to elicit a different kind of feeling. It can suggest nonconformity, throwback to psychedelic inspiration, or simply shock the viewer. Take a look at the clashing colors in the Foes album design past JETARTS—it certainly makes you lot feel visually shocked when you lot look at it. Of course, you lot'll want to become back to your identity questions and retrieve about what yous desire your listener to feel before adopting wild color combinations.
Typography
Just like colors, the fonts you choose for your album cover tin aid communicate your band'southward personality. Information technology's besides of import to call up virtually all of the different places you'll want typography—the anthology title and ring name, track list on the dorsum, and even the inner jacket, which is album cover adjacent.
Serif fonts are the former-standby when information technology comes to fonts. These are noted by their serifs—the lilliputian feet at the end of letters. Serif fonts are thought to exist more serious and traditional, Times New Roman and Cambria are common examples. Serif fonts pair well with classical, acoustic or operatic music.
Sans serif fonts are fonts without serifs, meaning fonts without the little anxiety. Helvetica and Arial are normally used sans serif fonts. These fonts are oft considered more mod and streamlined than their serif predecessors. Sans serif fonts can be used with a diversity of music, including electronic and indie rock—it's a versatile selection for modern music.
Script fonts are cursive fonts that emulate handwriting. These tin range from very traditional and ornate to playful and fifty-fifty messy. The unlike styles of script fonts mean they can be used to invoke a diverseness of feelings. Script fonts are used for a wide range of music types—scratchy, messy fonts might be used with alternative rock, where a precise signature style might be used for a gimmicky solo artist.
Equally the proper name suggests, display fonts are decorative and meant to brandish. They are also referred to as novelty fonts and tin can often exist institute on volume covers or signage. Like script fonts, there is a range of styles for this blazon of font. Gothic display fonts are ofttimes featured on heavy metallic album covers, and a playful, bubbly display font could be used for a children's music album.
Because y'all'll need to use text in different places on your album cover, y'all tin use a combination of font styles. For example, y'all could opt for a script or display font for the album title and ring name, and a more easily legible font for the runway listing and other pertinent information. The typography on the front of the cover tin can be more artistic than on the dorsum, where readability is more than important.
Imagery and way
After colors and typography, imagery is an important aspect to any album comprehend design. Musicians usually utilize photography, particularly of the band or primary artist, but almost anything is possible, from abstract graphics to drawings and collages.
We talked a flake near color psychology, and there'due south some psychology when it comes to images as well. Images of faces—whether a photograph or drawing—tend to leap out more than than other pictures. If you're trying to take hold of the attending of a potential listener, using an paradigm of a face up—forth with choosing the right colors and fonts—tin can help ensure that your cover gets noticed. Faces also convey expressions, which tin can reflect on the viewer's mood or feelings. This tin can help tie into the feelings you desire your music to inspire in your listeners.
And an important, legal note: If y'all decided to use photography or artwork for your encompass, be sure to accept the image rights!
Any graphics that are used on an album should communicate with the album itself, and so it's important to use them thoughtfully. A painted watercolor landscape might connect well with a mellow, instrumental anthology, only it would probably send a mixed point if the anthology was EDM. Similarly, the selection to non include graphics should experience purposeful, and not like y'all just couldn't call up of something to put on the cover.
Minimalism can also make a statement in album encompass pattern. Going simple allows the focus to ultimately prevarication with the music within the anthology. Minimalism is an on-trend anthology design style though, and so it'due south a expert idea to endeavor to stand out in a unlike fashion—mayhap y'all opt for an all-blackness cover, but instead of using white type, you opt for a colorful ombre.
Shown above, designer Artistic Spirit took the unproblematic graphic of a vintage microphone and bandage it in a punchy salmon colour, overlayed on mint dark-green. Although information technology's undeniably minimalist, the designer's color choices make the cover feel more than bold, while maintaining a balanced, uncomplicated design. For the encompass blueprint on the right, designer Edina plays with the album'due south title From Scratch and fabricated scratch marks the focal point of the minimalist cover.
The overall style of your album embrace is the combination of color, imagery, and typography. These three elements should work together in harmony to create the desired effect. Calling back to your identity questions and your inspiration, you should experience like your design is in line with that practise.
Don't forget the details
When designing your album cover, it'south okay to get swept away in the design—it tin can be really fun! Simply when you lot come down from your design fizz, exist sure to think the integral anthology components yous need to include.
i. Band and anthology name
You don't accept to include the band or anthology title on the front of your anthology cover, but it needs to be on the spine. Sometimes the album name or band name is the primary design element for the cover and in this instance, the proper name has to stand out. A reason why there's currently a trend to not include names on the encompass blueprint is considering people are now commonly listening via streaming services, where artist, title, and album proper name are all listed abreast the comprehend thumbnail. Then if graphics are of import, you can free up some necessary design space by leaving names out of the picture. This is a great option for digital-only album releases.
2. Rails list
The back cover of the album should include the album's track list. Although the typography can be unlike here than on the front of the cover, information technology should nevertheless communicate stylistically and exist like shooting fish in a barrel to read at the aforementioned time.
3. Licensing and legal information
Exist sure to take a space on the dorsum cover or inside for all licensing and legal information.
four. Easy on the Internet
Resist your impulse to put social handles anywhere on your album cover. While Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook are used regularly today, who knows what will be the dominant social trends in 5, ten, or even 20 years. Using handles tin unwillingly appointment your album. If you want to include your band's URL, do so on the back comprehend or liner annotation.
five. Liner note
While non technically office of the album cover, the inner jacket should exist designed with idea to the fashion of the album embrace—it should experience like an extension of the design. You'll desire to use similar fonts for song lyrics and ring information and choose a color scheme that communicates with the overarching design.
Think big… and small.
Designing an album encompass in 2017 is not similar it was in 1977. Y'all need to think about multiple formats when considering your design. For instance, if you're releasing vinyl, you need to call back of what your design will look like in that size, as well as the size of a CD. You also demand to consider how the cover volition await as a thumbnail, as people will probable encounter information technology on iTunes, Spotify, Pandora, and other platforms. The image should not require squinting or illicit confusion from the viewer.
Finding the correct designer
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Having idea through your band'southward identity and all of the necessary style points for your album, you're ready to hire a designer! Although you may exist wary of letting someone else have the reins of your album cover, a professional person designer is not only super capable and experienced in illustration and graphics, simply volition also ensure that your ideas are brought to life in the all-time way. They'll know what'southward possible, what will look the best, and they're efficient and effective. While DIY has its identify—say, a handmade Valentine?—investing in a well-designed comprehend will ensure yous're putting out the best production.
Communication is primal for both you and your prospective designer, so it's of import to make sure you're accurately relaying your needs. If yous're articulating what y'all're looking for, a professional person designer will be able to realize it for yous.
A potential designer red flag? Your designer seems more interested in their artwork than your vision. While it's helpful to take artistic feedback on your ideas, it's important that you practice not let your project drift away from the core of what your music is all about. Rather, yous should be working together to brand sure you're creating a product you're happy with.
Originality is important. You'll share your inspirations with your designer, just you'll also desire to stand out. Then, be open to suggestions and make sure that your designer can draw from inspiration while creating something new and fresh.
A good mode to get a design you lot feel good about is to launch a design contest. This will allow you lot to see different design options and provide feedback for what works for you.
What's next?
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Once you lot have your album cover blueprint complete, your anthology is ready to amaze your fans and obsess new listeners. Whether y'all're doing a digital-only release or a vinyl anthology, your album embrace tin can help you describe in the crowd. Time to rock!
Looking for a professional album cover that is in tune with your music? Start your anthology cover competition today!
Source: https://99designs.com/blog/design-other/how-to-design-album-cover/
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