You May Be Good Looking but Youre Not a Piece of Art
They say to never guess a book by its cover, and while we'd like to call up that the same goes for albums—it'due south the music on the within that counts—there's something to exist said for a well-designed album cover. It'southward your gamble to catch the attending of new listeners and give a visual representation of the music within. A great anthology embrace can inspire someone to fish your vinyl out of the stack, encourage a streaming listener to larn more about you, and add a whole new layer of artistry to your work.
Although having an original and expressive album cover design is important, the procedure itself doesn't have to be daunting. We've assembled a comprehensive guide to designing your anthology 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
- Find inspiration
- Key components of designing your cover
- Color
- Typography
- Imagery and way
- Don't forget the details
- Call back big…and small
- Finding the right designer/artist
- What's next?
Earlier you kickoff your design process
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Yous might be tempted to immediately start sketching your vision for your album cover, but the first step in any design process should always be to accept a few steps away from the design entirely. Instead of launching correct into ideas for your cover, focus on doing a footling identity quest showtime—it will help you afterward when information technology comes to thinking nigh design.
Go on an identity quest
one. Who are y'all?
You can get as existential with this one equally you like, but actually focus on who yous are as an artist, band, musician, etc. How would you define yourself?
two. Who is your audition?
Earlier y'all jump to answer "everyone," think about this one a little more deeply. Who are y'all trying to reach with your songs? Who are the kinds of people standing in the front row of your show? While it'southward a not bad goal to reach everyone with your music, you likely have a slightly narrower audience. Figuring out who that is tin help you lot cater your album pattern to their interests.
three. What do you desire your listeners to feel when they hear your music?
Music tin can sometimes feel intangible—how could you lot draw it in words? But whenever someone makes music, they have an idea of how they want people to respond to it. Think about the emotions y'all want your listeners to accept when they hear your anthology.
four. Elevator pitch your sound: what are the primal words?
The elevator pitch is just every bit important for a band or artist as information technology is for the founder of a company—you should be able to succinctly depict what it is you do. So, if you lot're in an elevator with someone and you've got thirty seconds to depict 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 you so that when it comes to thinking well-nigh design elements, you'll already take a expert sense of what you're hoping to accomplish. Ultimately, your anthology cover is a mode for you lot to express your band'due south identity—just similar you practise with your music—so information technology should exist in line with your sound.
Detect inspiration
As a musician, you know that inspiration is important. Music does non just occur out of nothing; information technology needs to exist pulled from somewhere. When it comes to song writing, you may be inspired by an result, a piece of fine art, an epitome, a sound, a feeling, etc. You tin can think about designing your album cover in a similar way—what is inspiring that visual representation? Perhaps y'all'll remember nearly the aforementioned inspirations that struck you in your vocal writing, effectively translating that musical inspiration into images.
In improver to thinking well-nigh the inspiration for your ain work, it's e'er helpful to think virtually who you admire and draw ideas from their work. What are some album covers that you are drawn to? What practice yous like about them? Be sure to take some notes—combined with your identity notes, these will help you narrow your blueprint process.
Primal components of designing your cover
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There are several elements that come up 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 have things step past pace, rather than getting overwhelmed with the whole blueprint all at once.
Color
Color selection is an of import aspect to all design, and the same is true of album covers. Even a black- or white-heavy album cover represents a thoughtful conclusion on colour: it evokes a different feeling than a vibrant, multicolored encompass, right? With then many colors to choose from in the spectrum, we've come up with a few different ways to assistance you place what colors to apply in your design.
Colour psychology
There is a lot more to color than might come across the eye, and to learn more almost color theory and how it is used in branding, be sure to check out this in-depth guide. But for now, the quick explanation is that colors can make the states experience a certain manner. They accept emotional attachments, which is why companies frequently use specific colors in their logos or production packaging. The same tin can exist practical to anthology covers, because as a musician, yous want your audience to feel a certain fashion when they hear your music. The album cover—a visual representation of your music—allows y'all to enforce that feeling in another way. If, for case, y'all want your listeners to experience happy and playful when they listen to your music, you lot might want to lean into yellow and orangish in your embrace design. For more subdued and melancholy music, darker colors, specially dark blue and gray, volition help gear up the tone in your album cover pattern.
Color scheme
If you've identified a color that you'd similar to use in your album cover, you may desire to stick with it throughout—if information technology worked for The Beatles with the White Anthology, it could work for y'all too—but you may not be looking for a minimalist, monochrome await for your cover. Fortunately, colour theory also identifies complementary colors to help you lot select secondary and tertiary hues to go along with your dominant color.
Monochromatic basically ways using all one 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 exist selected to tap into a certain mood, or tin can exist used as a way for the creative person to accept the music speak for itself. This tin can cease up existence a very bold selection.
You lot've probably seen a color cycle before, which is a cracking cardinal into choosing colors that work well together. For complementary colors, the dominion is, the color directly beyond from the color on the wheel is the near complementary—so if yous've chosen yellow, violet would naturally represent. Complementary colors bring out the all-time in each other, and can create dynamic visuals.
You tin can also go for coordinating colors—colors that are close to each other on the cycle, so they naturally work in harmony. This gives you more than dimension than monochrome colors, but they tin all the same have a blending effect—they may not stand out as much as complementary colors.
Another option is picking triadic colors, which effectively draw from three equal sections on the color wheel. These tend to exist more stimulating than analogous colors, only the color meanings may not mesh as well if y'all're trying to tap into color psychology.
In improver to working with the color schemes above, another selection a band or artist tin make is to go for more anachronistic colors. Instead of adopting colors that work in harmony with one another, you lot tin can opt for stark combinations to elicit a unlike kind of feeling. It can suggest nonconformity, throwback to psychedelic inspiration, or just shock the viewer. Take a await at the clashing colors in the Foes album pattern by JETARTS—it certainly makes you experience visually shocked when you lot expect at information technology. Of form, y'all'll desire to go dorsum to your identity questions and recollect about what you want your listener to feel before adopting wild color combinations.
Typography
Just like colors, the fonts you cull for your anthology embrace can help communicate your ring'south personality. It's also important to recall most all of the different places you'll want typography—the anthology championship and band proper name, track list on the dorsum, and even the inner jacket, which is anthology encompass adjacent.
Serif fonts are the old-standby when it comes to fonts. These are noted past their serifs—the little feet at the terminate of letters. Serif fonts are idea to be more serious and traditional, Times New Roman and Cambria are mutual examples. Serif fonts pair well with classical, acoustic or operatic music.
Sans serif fonts are fonts without serifs, meaning fonts without the little feet. Helvetica and Arial are normally used sans serif fonts. These fonts are often considered more modernistic and streamlined than their serif predecessors. Sans serif fonts can exist used with a variety of music, including electronic and indie rock—it's 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 fifty-fifty messy. The different styles of script fonts mean they can be used to invoke a diverseness 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 fashion might be used for a contemporary solo artist.
As the proper noun suggests, display fonts are decorative and meant to brandish. They are also referred to as novelty fonts and tin often exist found on book covers or signage. Like script fonts, in that location is a range of styles for this type of font. Gothic display fonts are frequently featured on heavy metallic album covers, and a playful, bubbly brandish font could be used for a children'southward music album.
Because you'll demand to use text in dissimilar places on your anthology cover, you tin can utilize a combination of font styles. For example, you lot could opt for a script or display font for the album title and ring name, and a more hands legible font for the track list and other pertinent data. The typography on the front end of the cover tin be more artistic than on the dorsum, where readability is more of import.
Imagery and style
After colors and typography, imagery is an of import aspect to any anthology embrace blueprint. Musicians commonly utilize photography, peculiarly of the band or primary artist, simply almost anything is possible, from abstruse graphics to drawings and collages.
Nosotros talked a bit about color psychology, and there's some psychology when it comes to images also. Images of faces—whether a photograph or drawing—tend to jump out more other pictures. If you lot're trying to catch the attending of a potential listener, using an prototype of a confront—along with choosing the correct colors and fonts—can help ensure that your comprehend gets noticed. Faces also convey expressions, which can reflect on the viewer's mood or feelings. This can help tie into the feelings you want your music to inspire in your listeners.
And an important, legal note: If yous decided to use photography or artwork for your cover, be certain to have the image rights!
Any graphics that are used on an album should communicate with the album itself, so it's important to use them thoughtfully. A painted watercolor landscape might connect well with a mellow, instrumental album, just it would probably send a mixed signal if the album was EDM. Similarly, the pick to not include graphics should feel purposeful, and not like you lot just couldn't remember of something to put on the cover.
Minimalism tin can also make a statement in album cover pattern. Going elementary allows the focus to ultimately lie with the music within the album. Minimalism is an on-trend album pattern style though, so information technology'due south a skillful thought to endeavor to stand out in a dissimilar way—perhaps y'all opt for an all-black cover, merely instead of using white blazon, y'all opt for a colorful ombre.
Shown above, designer Creative Spirit took the elementary graphic of a vintage microphone and cast information technology in a punchy salmon colour, overlayed on mint green. Although it'due south undeniably minimalist, the designer's color choices make the cover feel more bold, while maintaining a balanced, simple design. For the cover design on the correct, designer Edina plays with the album's championship From Scratch and made scratch marks the focal bespeak of the minimalist cover.
The overall style of your album cover is the combination of color, imagery, and typography. These three elements should piece of work together in harmony to create the desired effect. Calling back to your identity questions and your inspiration, yous should feel similar your design is in line with that exercise.
Don't forget the details
When designing your album cover, it'due south okay to get swept away in the blueprint—information technology can exist actually fun! But when you come down from your design buzz, be sure to call up the integral anthology components you need to include.
1. Ring and anthology name
You don't have to include the band or album title on the front of your album cover, but information technology needs to exist on the spine. Sometimes the album proper name or band name is the primary design element for the cover and in this case, the name has to stand out. A reason why there's currently a tendency to not include names on the cover design is because people are now commonly listening via streaming services, where creative person, title, and album name are all listed beside the comprehend thumbnail. So if graphics are important, yous tin free up some necessary design space by leaving names out of the picture. This is a great option for digital-only album releases.
two. Track listing
The dorsum embrace of the album should include the anthology's rail list. Although the typography can be different here than on the front of the cover, it should still communicate stylistically and exist easy to read at the aforementioned time.
three. Licensing and legal information
Be sure to accept a space on the dorsum encompass or inside for all licensing and legal information.
4. Like shooting fish in a barrel 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 exist the ascendant social trends in 5, 10, or fifty-fifty 20 years. Using handles tin unwillingly date your album. If you want to include your band'south URL, do so on the back cover or liner note.
five. Liner note
While not technically part of the album comprehend, the inner jacket should exist designed with thought to the style of the album cover—it should experience like an extension of the blueprint. You'll want to utilise similar fonts for song lyrics and band information and choose a colour scheme that communicates with the overarching design.
Think big… and minor.
Designing an album encompass in 2017 is not similar it was in 1977. You need to think nigh multiple formats when considering your design. For instance, if you're releasing vinyl, you need to recall of what your pattern will look like in that size, as well as the size of a CD. You lot also demand to consider how the cover will look as a thumbnail, as people will likely encounter it on iTunes, Spotify, Pandora, and other platforms. The prototype should not require squinting or illicit confusion from the viewer.
Finding the correct designer
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Having idea through your band's identity and all of the necessary style points for your album, you're ready to rent a designer! Although you may exist wary of letting someone else take the reins of your album cover, a professional designer is not but super capable and experienced in analogy and graphics, merely will also ensure that your ideas are brought to life in the all-time way. 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 cover volition ensure you're putting out the all-time product.
Communication is cardinal for both you and your prospective designer, so it'due south of import to make sure you're accurately relaying your needs. If you lot're articulating what you're looking for, a professional designer volition be able to realize it for you.
A potential designer red flag? Your designer seems more interested in their artwork than your vision. While it's helpful to accept artistic feedback on your ideas, information technology's important that you do not permit your project drift away from the core of what your music is all about. Rather, yous should be working together to make sure you're creating a product you lot're happy with.
Originality is important. You'll share your inspirations with your designer, but you'll also desire to stand out. And then, be open to suggestions and brand sure that your designer can depict from inspiration while creating something new and fresh.
A good way to get a design you feel skillful virtually is to launch a pattern competition. This volition allow yous to run into different design options and provide feedback for what works for you.
What's next?
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One time you have your album cover pattern complete, your album is fix to astonish your fans and captivate new listeners. Whether you're doing a digital-only release or a vinyl album, your album embrace tin can aid you describe in the crowd. Fourth dimension to rock!
Looking for a professional album cover that is in tune with your music? Beginning your album embrace contest today!
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Source: https://99designs.com/blog/design-other/how-to-design-album-cover/
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