Creating album cover art. Where to start and what to know before contacting an artist.

An article about creating album covers. There are some tips for fellow artists and useful information for people who are thinking about purchasing an album cover.

Creating album cover art is a process where you need to consider many things before starting. A captivating album cover is a result of good communication, planning and choosing the right visual artist whose work suits the music.

Let's start with the first step:

finding a visual artist whose previous work looks like it could represent the music. From the visual artist's point of view, this is very important, as it's easier to start work with themes and subjects that the artist is familiar with. It's the same thing with techniques.

And that's the next step:

Techniques. The first visual aspect to think about if it's going to be colorful, black and white or something in-between. That is a good indicator to define which technique could be suitable. Some visual artists create with only one or two techniques, some work with more. Take a look at their references and previous work, and see if there's a specific technique that could fit your project. It's also good to think about the album as a whole, will there be a second image for the back cover? Often times close up images of the front cover work quite well in the back cover and in the booklet. That's also cost efficient. As an artist I'd like to point out, that it takes the same amount of work to draw two separate images as it does to draw one long and wide image that covers both the front and back.

Third step:

The image itself. There are as many ways of illustrating a project all the way from the idea to the final piece. Maybe you've already got an idea of the theme and visual elements. Perhaps all you've got is a feeling or some adjectives to describe the visual side of the project. Some people even have a clear sketch ready. All of these are great starting points. My working process starts with sketching the image, until the composition and details are approved by the band/musician. One thing that I want to point out, that I find very important at this point of process is the location of the logo and the album name. I like to create calm space for them, and avoid adding any important details close to them.

In the era of digital music, the images are often viewed on a screen in a small size. Gladly in metal scene many publish music also in vinyls and other formats such as cassettes. It might be a good idea to consider how the design will fit in different formats and merchandise materials.

Fourth step:

The actual process of creating the album cover. I can't stress enough how important it's to communicate about the artwork while creating it, and showing the work in process. Maybe some new ideas pop up while starting to work with the final piece, there could be some changes in the colors or perhaps some element just doesn't seem right anymore. It's so important to point out these kinds of things, and have discussion about changing things or altering the piece. Constructive criticism is a friend. Of course, some techniques can't really be altered, but it's always important to try our best. We all work for the same goal; a satisfying result that is a visual extension of the music.

The last step and things to think about: When the work is ready, who is responsible of photographing it and who will have the original piece? Those are things that might affect the price, and some record labels might have requirements about the quality, color profiles, resolution and file formats of the photograph. Photographing, creating the layout and placing logo on the cover art aren't automatically something that visual artists do, so all this should be negotiated beforehand.

Some artists like to keep the original themselves, and some are willing to give it to the band. That's also something to negotiate, as well as the possible postage fees that could be expensive, especially in international mail. I like to collect cd's, vinyls and other merch that has my illustration on it, so at this point it's good to ask if those will be available.

I hope this article was helpful and enlightening. If you are considering an album cover for your band or a fellow artist who wants to share thoughts, feel free to contact me!