Who Is the Person on the Goog Cover Art?
They say to never judge a volume by its comprehend, and while we'd similar to think that the same goes for albums—it's the music on the inside that counts—there'south something to be said for a well-designed album cover. Information technology's your take a chance to catch the attention of new listeners and give a visual representation of the music inside. A dandy anthology cover can inspire someone to fish your vinyl out of the stack, encourage a streaming listener to larn more almost you, and add a whole new layer of artistry to your work.
Although having an original and expressive album cover design is of import, the procedure itself doesn't have to be daunting. We've assembled a comprehensive guide to designing your album cover, from the early on brainstorming stages to finding the design style that syncs perfectly with your music.
Contents
- Before you offset your design process
- Go on an identity quest
- Detect inspiration
- Key components of designing your cover
- Color
- Typography
- Imagery and style
- Don't forget the details
- Think large…and small
- Finding the right designer/creative person
- What's next?
Before you beginning your blueprint process
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You lot might be tempted to immediately start sketching your vision for your album embrace, simply the outset step in any design procedure should ever be to take a few steps away from the design entirely. Instead of launching right into ideas for your cover, focus on doing a fiddling identity quest outset—it will help you later when it comes to thinking about blueprint.
Become on an identity quest
1. Who are y'all?
Yous tin can go as existential with this 1 equally you like, only really focus on who you are every bit an artist, ring, musician, etc. How would you ascertain yourself?
ii. Who is your audience?
Before you jump to answer "anybody," remember about this one a little more deeply. Who are yous trying to reach with your songs? Who are the kinds of people continuing in the front row of your evidence? While it'due south a great goal to reach everyone with your music, you likely accept a slightly narrower audience. Figuring out who that is can help y'all cater your album design to their interests.
three. What do you want your listeners to feel when they hear your music?
Music tin sometimes feel intangible—how could you draw it in words? But whenever someone makes music, they have an idea of how they want people to respond to it. Retrieve almost the emotions yous want your listeners to have when they hear your album.
4. Elevator pitch your audio: what are the key words?
The lift pitch is merely every bit important for a ring or artist as it is for the founder of a visitor—y'all should be able to succinctly describe what it is you do. And then, if you're in an lift with someone and yous've got 30 seconds to describe what your music is like, what would you tell them?
Take notes
Take some notes from your identity question session. Write down the words that have the most meaning for yous and so that when it comes to thinking about design elements, you'll already have a expert sense of what yous're hoping to attain. Ultimately, your album cover is a way for you to express your band'due south identity—just like you practise with your music—then it should exist in line with your audio.
Find inspiration
As a musician, yous know that inspiration is important. Music does not just occur out of nothing; it needs to be pulled from somewhere. When information technology comes to song writing, you may be inspired past an event, a slice of fine art, an image, a sound, a feeling, etc. You can remember most designing your album cover in a similar way—what is inspiring that visual representation? Perhaps you'll think about the aforementioned inspirations that struck you in your song writing, finer translating that musical inspiration into images.
In addition to thinking about the inspiration for your own piece of work, it's e'er helpful to think about who you admire and draw ideas from their work. What are some anthology covers that you are drawn to? What exercise y'all like nearly them? Exist sure to take some notes—combined with your identity notes, these volition assistance you narrow your design procedure.
Key components of designing your cover
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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 end cover to the typography and text on the back. Isolating each component will help you take things step by step, rather than getting overwhelmed with the whole design all at in one case.
Color
Colour selection is an of import aspect to all blueprint, and the same is truthful of album covers. Even a black- or white-heavy album cover represents a thoughtful decision on color: it evokes a different feeling than a vibrant, multicolored encompass, correct? With so many colors to choose from in the spectrum, we've come upwardly with a few different means to help you identify what colors to use in your design.
Colour psychology
There is a lot more to colour than might run across the eye, and to learn more about colour theory and how information technology is used in branding, be sure to cheque out this in-depth guide. Only for now, the quick explanation is that colors tin make us feel a certain way. They have emotional attachments, which is why companies often use specific colors in their logos or product packaging. The aforementioned can be applied to album covers, because every bit a musician, you want your audition to feel a sure style when they hear your music. The album cover—a visual representation of your music—allows you to enforce that feeling in some other manner. If, for example, y'all desire your listeners to feel happy and playful when they listen to your music, you lot might want to lean into yellowish and orange in your encompass design. For more subdued and melancholy music, darker colors, particularly dark blue and grey, will help gear up the tone in your album cover design.
Color scheme
If y'all've identified a color that you'd like to use in your album cover, you may want to stick with it throughout—if it worked for The Beatles with the White Album, it could work for you too—only you lot may not be looking for a minimalist, monochrome wait for your embrace. Fortunately, color theory also identifies complementary colors to aid yous select secondary and 3rd hues to go forth with your ascendant colour.
Monochromatic basically means using all ane color—only it can be one color in many shades to offer some more dimension. The overwhelming feeling of a monochrome cover is one of simplicity and minimalism. It can be selected to tap into a certain mood, or can be used every bit a way for the artist to have the music speak for itself. This can end up being a very bold choice.
You've probably seen a color wheel earlier, which is a groovy key into choosing colors that piece of work well together. For complementary colors, the rule is, the color directly across from the color on the wheel is the most complementary—so if you lot've chosen yellowish, violet would naturally correspond. Complementary colors bring out the best in each other, and tin can create dynamic visuals.
Yous can besides go for analogous colors—colors that are close to each other on the bike, then they naturally work in harmony. This gives you more dimension than monochrome colors, but they can still have a blending outcome—they may not stand out as much as complementary colors.
Another option is picking triadic colors, which effectively draw from iii equal sections on the colour wheel. These tend to be more stimulating than coordinating 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, another selection a band or artist can make is to become for more than anachronistic colors. Instead of adopting colors that work in harmony with one another, you can opt for stark combinations to elicit a different kind of feeling. Information technology can suggest nonconformity, throwback to psychedelic inspiration, or simply shock the viewer. Take a await at the clashing colors in the Foes anthology blueprint by JETARTS—it certainly makes you feel visually shocked when you look at it. Of course, you lot'll want to go back to your identity questions and think about what you desire your listener to feel earlier adopting wild color combinations.
Typography
Only like colors, the fonts you choose for your album cover can help communicate your band'south personality. It's as well important to call back about all of the different places you lot'll want typography—the album championship and band proper name, track listing on the back, and even the inner jacket, which is album cover next.
Serif fonts are the former-standby when it comes to fonts. These are noted by their serifs—the little feet at the end of letters. Serif fonts are idea to be 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, significant fonts without the petty anxiety. Helvetica and Arial are commonly used sans serif fonts. These fonts are often considered more modernistic and streamlined than their serif predecessors. Sans serif fonts tin can be used with a variety of music, including electronic and indie rock—it'southward a versatile option for modern music.
Script fonts are cursive fonts that emulate handwriting. These can range from very traditional and ornate to playful and even messy. The different styles of script fonts mean they tin can exist used to invoke a variety of feelings. Script fonts are used for a broad range of music types—scratchy, messy fonts might be used with alternative rock, where a precise signature style might be used for a contemporary solo creative person.
As the name suggests, display fonts are decorative and meant to brandish. They are too referred to as novelty fonts and can often be found on book covers or signage. Like script fonts, there is a range of styles for this blazon of font. Gothic display fonts are frequently featured on heavy metallic album covers, and a playful, bubbly display font could be used for a children'due south music album.
Because you'll need to use text in unlike places on your album cover, you can use a combination of font styles. For example, you could opt for a script or display font for the album title and band name, and a more easily legible font for the rail list and other pertinent information. The typography on the front end of the cover tin can exist more artistic than on the back, where readability is more important.
Imagery and manner
Subsequently colors and typography, imagery is an important aspect to any album embrace pattern. Musicians commonly utilize photography, especially of the band or primary artist, simply almost anything is possible, from abstract graphics to drawings and collages.
We talked a chip about colour psychology, and at that place'southward some psychology when it comes to images as well. Images of faces—whether a photograph or drawing—tend to leap out more than other pictures. If you're trying to grab the attention of a potential listener, using an epitome of a confront—along with choosing the right colors and fonts—tin help ensure that your embrace gets noticed. Faces also convey expressions, which can reverberate on the viewer's mood or feelings. This can assistance tie into the feelings y'all desire your music to inspire in your listeners.
And an important, legal note: If you decided to use photography or artwork for your cover, be certain to have the image rights!
Any graphics that are used on an anthology should communicate with the anthology itself, so it's important to use them thoughtfully. A painted watercolor landscape might connect well with a mellow, instrumental anthology, merely it would probably transport a mixed signal if the album was EDM. Similarly, the selection to not include graphics should experience purposeful, and not like yous just couldn't think of something to put on the comprehend.
Minimalism can also brand a statement in album comprehend design. Going simple allows the focus to ultimately lie with the music within the album. Minimalism is an on-trend anthology design way though, so it's a expert idea to try to stand out in a unlike mode—perchance yous opt for an all-black embrace, simply instead of using white type, you opt for a colorful ombre.
Shown in a higher place, designer Creative Spirit took the elementary graphic of a vintage microphone and cast it in a punchy salmon color, overlayed on mint green. Although it's undeniably minimalist, the designer's color choices make the cover feel more bold, while maintaining a counterbalanced, simple design. For the cover design on the correct, designer Edina plays with the album's title From Scratch and made scratch marks the focal indicate of the minimalist encompass.
The overall style of your album comprehend is the combination of colour, imagery, and typography. These three elements should piece of work together in harmony to create the desired issue. Calling back to your identity questions and your inspiration, you should feel like your pattern is in line with that practise.
Don't forget the details
When designing your album encompass, information technology'southward okay to get swept abroad in the design—it can be really fun! Just when you come down from your design buzz, be sure to recall the integral album components you demand to include.
1. Band and album proper noun
Y'all don't have to include the band or album title on the front of your album cover, but information technology needs to be on the spine. Sometimes the album proper noun or band name is the primary blueprint chemical element for the cover and in this case, the proper name has to stand up out. A reason why in that location's currently a tendency to not include names on the encompass design is because people are at present commonly listening via streaming services, where artist, title, and album proper noun are all listed beside the cover thumbnail. So if graphics are important, y'all can free upwards some necessary design space by leaving names out of the film. This is a great option for digital-only anthology releases.
2. Track list
The back cover of the anthology should include the album'southward track list. Although the typography can exist different here than on the front of the cover, it should yet communicate stylistically and be easy to read at the same fourth dimension.
3. Licensing and legal information
Exist certain to have a space on the back cover or inside for all licensing and legal data.
four. Piece of cake 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 v, ten, or even xx years. Using handles tin can unwillingly appointment your album. If you want to include your band's URL, do and so on the dorsum cover or liner notation.
5. Liner note
While not technically role of the album cover, the inner jacket should be designed with thought to the style of the album comprehend—information technology should feel like an extension of the pattern. You'll want to use similar fonts for song lyrics and band information and choose a color scheme that communicates with the overarching design.
Think large… and small-scale.
Designing an album cover in 2017 is not like it was in 1977. Y'all need to recall nearly multiple formats when considering your blueprint. For instance, if you're releasing vinyl, yous need to retrieve of what your blueprint will look like in that size, besides as the size of a CD. You also demand to consider how the cover will await equally a thumbnail, as people will probable see information technology on iTunes, Spotify, Pandora, and other platforms. The prototype should non require squinting or illicit confusion from the viewer.
Finding the right designer
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Having thought through your ring'south identity and all of the necessary mode points for your album, y'all're ready to rent a designer! Although yous may exist wary of letting someone else accept the reins of your anthology comprehend, a professional designer is non only super capable and experienced in illustration and graphics, only volition also ensure that your ideas are brought to life in the best manner. They'll know what's possible, what will look the best, and they're efficient and effective. While DIY has its place—say, a handmade Valentine?—investing in a well-designed comprehend will ensure you're putting out the best product.
Communication is central for both you and your prospective designer, so it's of import to make sure you're accurately relaying your needs. If you lot're articulating what you're looking for, a professional designer will be able to realize it for you.
A potential designer red flag? Your designer seems more interested in their artwork than your vision. While information technology's helpful to have artistic feedback on your ideas, it's of import that y'all do not let your projection drift away from the core of what your music is all about. Rather, y'all should exist working together to make sure you're creating a product y'all're happy with.
Originality is important. Y'all'll share your inspirations with your designer, merely you'll also want 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 fashion to get a design y'all feel good well-nigh is to launch a design contest. This will permit you to run into different design options and provide feedback for what works for you.
What'southward next?
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In one case you lot accept your album cover design complete, your album is set to amaze your fans and captivate new listeners. Whether you're doing a digital-only release or a vinyl album, your anthology cover can assist you lot draw in the crowd. Time to rock!
Looking for a professional person album cover that is in tune with your music? Start your anthology cover competition today!
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Source: https://99designs.com/blog/design-other/how-to-design-album-cover/