Dj Wiz Sic of Being Ova Looked Album Cover Art
They say to never judge a book by its encompass, and while we'd like to call back that the aforementioned goes for albums—it'southward the music on the inside that counts—there'due south something to be said for a well-designed album embrace. It's your chance to catch the attention of new listeners and give a visual representation of the music within. A smashing album cover tin can inspire someone to fish your vinyl out of the stack, encourage a streaming listener to learn more than nigh you, and add a whole new layer of artistry to your work.
Although having an original and expressive album cover blueprint is important, the process itself doesn't accept to be daunting. Nosotros've assembled a comprehensive guide to designing your album cover, from the early brainstorming stages to finding the blueprint way 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 style
- Don't forget the details
- Think big…and minor
- Finding the right designer/creative person
- What's next?
Before you start your design process
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You might exist tempted to immediately start sketching your vision for your album cover, but the get-go step in whatsoever design process should e'er be to take a few steps away from the blueprint entirely. Instead of launching correct into ideas for your cover, focus on doing a little identity quest offset—information technology will aid you later on when it comes to thinking about design.
Go on an identity quest
1. Who are you?
You can become as existential with this one every bit you like, only actually focus on who you are every bit an artist, band, musician, etc. How would you define yourself?
two. Who is your audience?
Before y'all leap to answer "everyone," retrieve about this one a niggling more than deeply. Who are y'all trying to achieve with your songs? Who are the kinds of people standing in the front end row of your bear witness? While it's a great goal to reach anybody with your music, you likely accept a slightly narrower audience. Figuring out who that is can help yous cater your album design to their interests.
iii. What do yous want your listeners to feel when they hear your music?
Music can sometimes feel intangible—how could you depict information technology in words? But whenever someone makes music, they have an idea of how they desire people to respond to it. Think nearly the emotions y'all want your listeners to have when they hear your album.
four. Lift pitch your sound: what are the cardinal words?
The elevator pitch is just as important for a ring or artist as it is for the founder of a company—y'all should be able to succinctly describe what it is you do. So, if you're in an elevator with someone and you've got 30 seconds to draw what your music is like, what would you lot tell them?
Take notes
Accept some notes from your identity question session. Write down the words that have the most pregnant for y'all then that when information technology comes to thinking nearly design elements, you'll already have a adept sense of what you're hoping to accomplish. Ultimately, your album cover is a way for you to limited your band's identity—just like you do with your music—so information technology should be in line with your sound.
Find inspiration
Equally a musician, you lot know that inspiration is important. Music does not merely occur out of nada; information technology needs to exist pulled from somewhere. When it comes to song writing, y'all may exist inspired past an outcome, a piece of fine art, an prototype, a sound, a feeling, etc. Y'all tin can call back about designing your anthology cover in a similar style—what is inspiring that visual representation? Perhaps you'll think nearly the same inspirations that struck you lot in your song writing, effectively translating that musical inspiration into images.
In addition to thinking about the inspiration for your own piece of work, it's always helpful to recall about who y'all admire and depict ideas from their work. What are some album covers that you lot are drawn to? What do you similar about them? Exist sure to have some notes—combined with your identity notes, these volition help you lot 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 encompass, from the colors and imagery used on the forepart embrace to the typography and text on the back. Isolating each component will help you take things footstep past step, rather than getting overwhelmed with the whole design all at once.
Color
Color selection is an important aspect to all design, and the aforementioned is truthful of album covers. Even a blackness- or white-heavy album embrace represents a thoughtful decision on color: it evokes a different feeling than a vibrant, multicolored cover, right? With then many colors to choose from in the spectrum, we've come up up with a few different ways to assistance you identify what colors to use in your design.
Color psychology
There is a lot more to color than might run across the heart, and to larn more than near colour theory and how information technology is used in branding, exist sure to cheque out this in-depth guide. But for now, the quick explanation is that colors tin can brand u.s.a. experience a sure way. They take emotional attachments, which is why companies oft use specific colors in their logos or product packaging. The same tin be applied to anthology covers, because as a musician, you want your audience to feel a certain way when they hear your music. The album encompass—a visual representation of your music—allows yous to enforce that feeling in some other way. If, for instance, you want your listeners to feel happy and playful when they listen to your music, you might want to lean into yellow and orange in your cover design. For more than subdued and melancholy music, darker colors, peculiarly dark blueish and gray, will aid set the tone in your anthology cover pattern.
Colour scheme
If you lot've identified a colour that you'd like to use in your album cover, you may desire to stick with it throughout—if it worked for The Beatles with the White Album, it could work for yous as well—only you may not exist looking for a minimalist, monochrome wait for your cover. Fortunately, color theory also identifies complementary colors to assist you select secondary and tertiary hues to continue with your dominant colour.
Monochromatic basically means using all one color—simply it tin can exist 1 color in many shades to offering some more dimension. The overwhelming feeling of a monochrome comprehend is one of simplicity and minimalism. It can be selected to tap into a certain mood, or tin be used as a manner for the creative person to take the music speak for itself. This can end up existence a very bold choice.
Yous've probably seen a color wheel before, which is a cracking cardinal into choosing colors that work well together. For complementary colors, the rule is, the color directly beyond from the color on the wheel is the most complementary—so if you've chosen yellow, violet would naturally correspond. Complementary colors bring out the best in each other, and can create dynamic visuals.
You can also become for analogous colors—colors that are close to each other on the wheel, then they naturally work in harmony. This gives you more than dimension than monochrome colors, but they can even so have a blending effect—they may not stand out as much equally complementary colors.
Another selection is picking triadic colors, which effectively depict from three equal sections on the color wheel. These tend to exist more stimulating than coordinating colors, but the colour meanings may not mesh as well if you're trying to tap into color psychology.
In addition to working with the color schemes above, another choice a band or artist can make is to become for more anachronistic colors. Instead of adopting colors that work in harmony with one some other, you tin can opt for stark combinations to elicit a unlike kind of feeling. It tin can suggest nonconformity, throwback to psychedelic inspiration, or simply daze the viewer. Have a look at the clashing colors in the Foes album design by JETARTS—it certainly makes you feel visually shocked when you look at it. Of course, you'll want to go back to your identity questions and think about what you want your listener to feel before adopting wild colour combinations.
Typography
But like colors, the fonts you choose for your anthology cover tin assist communicate your band's personality. Information technology's also of import to recollect almost all of the dissimilar places you'll want typography—the album title and band proper noun, track list on the back, and even the inner jacket, which is album cover side by side.
Serif fonts are the former-standby when it comes to fonts. These are noted by their serifs—the piddling feet at the end of letters. Serif fonts are thought to exist more than 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 fiddling anxiety. Helvetica and Arial are commonly used sans serif fonts. These fonts are oftentimes considered more modern and streamlined than their serif predecessors. Sans serif fonts can be used with a variety of music, including electronic and indie rock—it'due south a versatile choice for modernistic music.
Script fonts are cursive fonts that emulate handwriting. These can range from very traditional and ornate to playful and even messy. The dissimilar styles of script fonts mean they tin can be used to invoke a multifariousness 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 artist.
Every bit the name suggests, display fonts are decorative and meant to brandish. They are besides referred to as novelty fonts and tin often be found on volume covers or signage. Similar script fonts, there is a range of styles for this blazon of font. Gothic display fonts are often featured on heavy metal album covers, and a playful, bubbly display font could exist used for a children'due south music album.
Because you'll need to use text in different places on your album cover, you can utilize a combination of font styles. For example, you lot could opt for a script or brandish font for the album title and ring name, and a more easily legible font for the track list and other pertinent information. The typography on the front of the cover can exist more than creative than on the back, where readability is more important.
Imagery and mode
After colors and typography, imagery is an of import aspect to any anthology cover design. Musicians usually use photography, especially of the ring or primary creative person, but near annihilation is possible, from abstruse graphics to drawings and collages.
We talked a flake about color psychology, and there'south some psychology when information technology comes to images every bit well. Images of faces—whether a photo or drawing—tend to jump out more other pictures. If you're trying to catch the attending of a potential listener, using an image of a face up—along with choosing the right colors and fonts—can help ensure that your cover gets noticed. Faces besides convey expressions, which can reverberate on the viewer's mood or feelings. This tin assistance tie into the feelings you want your music to inspire in your listeners.
And an important, legal notation: If you decided to employ photography or artwork for your comprehend, exist sure to have the image rights!
Any graphics that are used on an album should communicate with the album itself, so it's of import to use them thoughtfully. A painted watercolor mural might connect well with a mellow, instrumental album, simply it would probably send a mixed signal if the anthology was EDM. Similarly, the option to non include graphics should feel purposeful, and not like you just couldn't think of something to put on the cover.
Minimalism tin can also make a argument in album cover design. Going simple allows the focus to ultimately lie with the music inside the album. Minimalism is an on-trend album design mode though, so information technology'south a expert thought to try to stand out in a different way—peradventure you lot opt for an all-black cover, but instead of using white blazon, you opt for a colorful ombre.
Shown higher up, designer Artistic Spirit took the elementary graphic of a vintage microphone and bandage it in a punchy salmon color, overlayed on mint light-green. Although it's undeniably minimalist, the designer'south color choices brand the cover feel more bold, while maintaining a balanced, simple pattern. For the cover pattern on the right, designer Edina plays with the anthology's title From Scratch and made scratch marks the focal point of the minimalist cover.
The overall fashion 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 upshot. Calling back to your identity questions and your inspiration, you should feel like your pattern is in line with that exercise.
Don't forget the details
When designing your anthology embrace, it's okay to get swept away in the design—it can be really fun! But when you come down from your design buzz, exist certain to think the integral album components you lot need to include.
1. Ring and album proper name
You lot don't take to include the band or album title on the front of your album cover, simply it needs to exist on the spine. Sometimes the anthology name or band name is the primary design element for the comprehend and in this case, the name has to stand out. A reason why there's currently a trend to non include names on the cover design is considering people are now commonly listening via streaming services, where artist, title, and album name are all listed beside the cover thumbnail. And then if graphics are of import, you tin gratuitous up some necessary design infinite by leaving names out of the picture. This is a great option for digital-just album releases.
2. Runway listing
The back cover of the album should include the album'south runway list. Although the typography can be different hither than on the front of the cover, it should still communicate stylistically and be piece of cake to read at the same fourth dimension.
iii. Licensing and legal information
Be sure to have a infinite on the dorsum cover or inside for all licensing and legal data.
four. Easy on the Cyberspace
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, x, or fifty-fifty 20 years. Using handles tin unwillingly date your anthology. If you want to include your ring's URL, practise so on the back encompass or liner note.
5. Liner note
While not technically part of the album cover, the inner jacket should be designed with thought to the style of the album encompass—it should experience like an extension of the design. You'll desire to use similar fonts for song lyrics and band information and cull a color scheme that communicates with the overarching design.
Think large… and small.
Designing an anthology cover in 2017 is non like it was in 1977. You need to think about multiple formats when considering your blueprint. For example, if you're releasing vinyl, you lot need to think of what your design volition look similar in that size, as well every bit the size of a CD. You lot too need to consider how the cover will look every bit a thumbnail, as people will likely see information technology on iTunes, Spotify, Pandora, and other platforms. The epitome should non require squinting or illicit confusion from the viewer.
Finding the right designer
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Having thought through your band'southward identity and all of the necessary style points for your album, you're prepare to hire a designer! Although you may exist wary of letting someone else take the reins of your album comprehend, a professional person designer is not merely super capable and experienced in illustration and graphics, but volition besides ensure that your ideas are brought to life in the all-time fashion. They'll know what'south possible, what volition look the best, and they're efficient and constructive. While DIY has its place—say, a handmade Valentine?—investing in a well-designed cover will ensure yous're putting out the best production.
Communication is key for both you and your prospective designer, and then it's important to make sure yous're accurately relaying your needs. If you're articulating what you lot're looking for, a professional designer volition exist 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 have creative feedback on your ideas, it'due south important that you exercise not let your project drift away from the core of what your music is all about. Rather, y'all should be working together to brand sure y'all're creating a product you're happy with.
Originality is important. You'll share your inspirations with your designer, only yous'll also want to stand out. So, be open to suggestions and brand sure that your designer can draw from inspiration while creating something new and fresh.
A proficient way to get a design you feel skillful nearly is to launch a design contest. This will allow you to run across different design options and provide feedback for what works for y'all.
What's next?
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In one case you lot have your album cover design complete, your album is prepare to amaze your fans and captivate new listeners. Whether you're doing a digital-only release or a vinyl anthology, your album embrace tin can assist you draw in the crowd. Time to rock!
Looking for a professional album cover that is in tune with your music? Start your anthology embrace contest today!
Source: https://99designs.com/blog/design-other/how-to-design-album-cover/
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