Design Prompt 2 • Album Art

May 13

Music fuels creativity and is able to transport one emotionally. It’s only appropriate that we chose to design album art for our current or past favorite songs/albums/artists.

The brief :

01
Pick a favorite song, album, or artist and recreate their album art.

02
There are no rules – let the music guide you!

03
Showcase your process & design elements through various compositions and mockups.

Tones and I, The Kids Are Coming • Designed by Alicia

I designed the album cover for “The Kids are Coming” by Tones & I, released in August of 2019. I chose to design for this particular artist, not only because I love her unique voice and musical approach, but also her inspiring back story. I played this album on repeat while designing so that the visuals I created related to the feelings I got from her music.

The vibe of her music and her overall style led me to explore photo manipulation techniques to create a bold, fun background using neon-colored photography. I came across a Skillshare class that went over various Photoshop manipulation techniques and it offered a new lens to what was possible. This step of exploration and experimenting was a lot of fun! As far as my typography choices, I landed on a clean, extended sans-serif and a playful handwritten font. I felt that these fonts best reflected the bold, raw energy that Tones and I brings to her music and fashion.

Here’s the Skillshare class I watched for Photoshop photo manipulation

– A

Cannons, Fire for You • Designed by Genevieve

Do you ever hear a song and it just stops you in your tracks? I’ve probably listened to “Fire for You” by Cannons way too many times, but hey, I just really love it. This song instantly puts a smile on my face and gives me all the nostalgic, chill, seductive vibes. Everything from inspiration to colors, shape/form and imagery were chosen purely based on the way this song makes me feel. To me, it symbolizes a new flame – that feeling of being alive – heart-sinking, melting desire and spontaneity – simplicity and bliss – and sometimes, heartbreak.

For this prompt I chose to use shape manipulation to achieve a 2-D melting effect. Along the way I stumbled upon another interesting short command in Adobe Illustrator (shift + ~) that creates repeating shapes as you click & drag (SO COOL!). I’ve always wanted to explore digital collage and felt this prompts was a great opportunity to do so. It’s always been my opinion that when you remove or don’t include eyes in a composition you’re able to place yourself in – making the image feel more relatable, triggering certain feelings/emotions and memories. Overall, my intent was to create album art that felt sexy and deep.

Check out the Skillshare class I used for the 2-D shape warping & repetition!

– G

The Cranberries, Dreams • Designed by Rylie

I went for nostalgia and chose my favorite song from the soundtrack of my early childhood: Dreams by The Cranberries, released in 1993. I drew much of my inspiration from David Carson’s grungy and experimental design work that defined the alternative music scene of the 90s. It’s a love song, so that’s my rationale for the imagery. I sourced and scanned the photograph from a stock photo book that was appropriately published in the 90s. I tried to keep it relatively authentic to the time period. I altered it in photoshop by converting it to a texturized bitmap, then went for a color palette that looks like something out of a dELiA*s clothing catalog. I used this exercise as an opportunity to experiment with incorporating traditional media digitally. I got messy with charcoal, and the result is very maximalist. It’s layered, heavy, and light all at the same time — just like the song.

– R