Album Art 101: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

Close your eyes and think of your all time favorite album. What is the first thing that pops into your head? Do you see the title of your favorite track? A song lyric? The face of your album’s musician? A memory of you listening to the album? Do you associate a specific color with your album? Or maybe you see the album art?

There is no doubt that the visual component of an album can make or break the way people engage with an artists music. Having a strong visually branded album cover that is able to seamlessly capture the essence of a musician and their music is essential. A well thought out album cover utilizes deliberate design decisions and is ultimately able to stand the test of time. Unfortunately, there are musicians in the industry who don’t recognize or prioritize the importance of putting together quality album art. Art is subjective, but these are my opinions on the good, the bad and the ugly of album art. I would like to note that I am aware that rising artists don’t have the same access to renowned graphic designers as famous musicians do. But with websites such as Fiver, it has become even easier find decent designers on a budget.

The Good.
Willo Perron & Associates is a multi-media creative agency, founded by Willo Perron, that is behind most of the artist projects that we know and love to date. Their work ranges from the album cover of 808s and Heartbreaks by Kanye West to St. Vincents Masseduction. Everything that they touch is pure gold. They are inherently “good” because they create innovative pieces of work that directly convey the message of each artist they work with. The Willo Perron team works as a collective which means they have access to feedback and the ability to perfect their work. *Pro tip if you are starting to design album art, don’t be afraid to reach out to your peers and fellow creatives for constructive criticism. Good design is all about having a conducive design mindset, if you aren’t willing to adapt your skill set it will only stunt your growth as a designer. The amount of labor put into the work they put out is evident which is why I believe they reign in the top tier of design houses.

The Bad.
Just because something is bad doesn’t mean necessarily mean it isn’t redeemable. A person that is bad can better themselves and evolve. The same goes with album art. There are plenty of album covers from the 70’s and 80’s that come to mind when I think of bad album art, but I truly think the best example of bad album art has to be any of the Creed album covers. Human Clay is possibly the most horrifying album cover I have ever seen. That being said I think its important to acknowledge the lack of knowledge of 3d rendering in 1999 compared to now. These covers are so awful looking to the point where it makes them intriguing and almost comedic in a way.

The Ugly.
If I could give an award to the epitome of ugly album art it would most definitely go to Soundcloud rappers in a heartbeat. Not to put the Soundcloud rappers in a box because I definitely have seen some okay covers, but most of them have the same look. Nothing says ugly like poor Photoshop skills and a lack of design/ typographic direction. Album art is supposed to reflect the music not the ego of the muscian. These covers tend to be heavily effected and edited which makes it hard to take them seriously. You can clearly tell there is no intention behind the design decisions.

I hope you enjoyed my take on the good, the bad and the ugly of album art! Let me know your favorite or least favorite album art in the comments.