Did you know that there are over 70 million songs on Spotify? Music streaming apps have completely changed our listening experience. How do you get people to stop scrolling their liked playlist?
In this day and age, it’s crucial to create an album cover that grabs attention. A good album cover will be your first point of contact with the listener.
With a couple of simple tricks, you’ll have a striking album cover in no time. Keep reading to see our top album design tips!
Pick a Color Palette
If you pick an album at random, you’ll notice that the colors work harmoniously with one another.
Take “Low” by David Bowie as an example. The orange and black background overlayed with Bowie’s profile is a simple yet effective concept. Both his hair and his coat tie into the background.
Notice as well where the depth is based on the saturation of these colors. You want your album to be eye-catching, but too many bright colors can hurt you in the long run. Playing with color saturation and depth can completely change your album art.
No matter what you do for your album, try to keep color theory in mind!
Let Pictures Do the Talking
There are tons of ways to integrate photos into your album art. One of which is collaging them together to create visual intrigue.
Green Day had a lot of winners for album cover art, but have a look at their 1995 album. The chaotic hand-collaged cover of “Insomniac” grabs your attention right away. The surreal “i-spy” inspired cover is full of easter eggs.
The future is now for collage as an art form. Hand-collaging takes time, effort, and a lot of supplies.
To make collages now, use photo editing software to remove background components. Then you can go ahead and paste the images where you want them. Repeat this process until you’re happy with your collage.
If collage isn’t your style, try capturing motion in your photos. Remember that “anything can be an album cover” TikTok trend? Taking a frame from a video is perfect for catching that motion.
As a legal note, make sure you own the rights to the pictures you use!
Text and Typefaces
Typefaces are key when you create an album cover. Before you think about which typeface to use, think of all the places you’ll be needing text on the cover. If you’re releasing a physical album, you’ll also need to think about the back!
The common places will be for the artist name, the album name and the tracklist. It’s okay if the fonts are different, but try to stick fonts that go together.
As an example, MF DOOM’s “MM..FOOD” used two different street art styles on the cover. On the back cover for the tracklist, they use a futuristic sans serif typeface. It ties in perfectly with DOOM’s futuristic mask on the cover.
Understanding your niche as an artist will help you choose your typography. You can even turn your own handwriting into a font if you’re more into a script font.
Create an Album Cover Today!
Album covers are your first chance to impress your listeners. With these tips, you’ll be able to create an album cover that will draw in your listeners easily.
Look at your favorite album covers for inspiration if you’re ever stuck! You’ll be guaranteed to get great ideas.
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