![]() Make sure you’re sourcing stock images from an appropriate source, securing whatever permissions might be needed, and including appropriate credits. If you get something that’s 72 dpi - a resolution often used for web images - your picture will end up pixelated when printed and will be all but unrecognizable if enlarged. So, if you’re making vinyl LPs and you have an image that will take up the entire cover, that means you need an image that’s at least 12.5” x 12.5” at 300 dpi. That means 300 dpi at the size you plan to print. File sizeįirst off, make sure that any files you supply are appropriately high resolution. If you want to use photographs or artwork on your album art, there are a couple key things to keep in mind. If it looks good and translates in both contexts, you’re on the right track. Not sure if it will work in the end? Try viewing your draft album art as a one-inch thumbnail and as a blown-up, full-screen image. That means avoiding fonts that are overly ornate or difficult to read, minimizing the amount of text overall, and making key words and phrases as large as reasonable without compromising your overall design. In short, make sure that any text you include is legible in all the above. As a larger graphic on a laptop web browser.As a tiny thumbnail on Spotify on a smart phone.On a physical CD in Digipaks, jewel cases, or other format.Here are some key formats in which people may be viewing your album art: Pick fonts and typography for multiple formats That said, if you don’t have design experience, your best plan will be to seek professional design help, like the professional designers at Disc Maker’s design studio. There are no hard and fast rules to choosing the right colors to suit your music, and sometimes album art can shine by doing the unexpected. Or, if your music is more in the direction of wistful and melancholy folk, perhaps something less aggressive - shades of blues and purples, or earth tones - could be a good place to begin. In that case, you may want to edge towards a color palette that signals those qualities for listeners - stark, high-contrast colors including black, gray, and red might be traditional places to start. Suppose your album is dark, aggressive industrial metal. Three key components go into your album cover:Ĭhoose colors that reflect the vibe of the artist and music ![]() What are the key components of your album cover? You just need to use the advice in this post to create an awesome CD cover that makes your artistry shine. You don’t need to dumb down your vision or pander to do that. What it does mean is approaching your design from the standpoint of what will draw new listeners to your music and what will pique their curiosity about you and your album. Seeing your album art as a marketing tool doesn’t mean selling out - far from it. While many indie artists may wish to create their music completely outside the world of commercialism, if you want to expand your audience and make money off of CD and vinyl sales, downloads, or streams, it’s important to view your album cover design as a marketing asset as well as an expression of your creative vision. An album cover is both a work of art and a marketing tool Luckily, there are specific strategies to increase your chances of making an iconic album cover that will blow your existing listeners away and attract lots of new ones, too. That may seem like a hefty list of goals - and even when you do your due diligence, you’re not always going to hit all of them. Good album art is easy to read and appreciate across all formats and media.An effective album cover is memorable, instantly identifiable, and can stand the test of time.Strong album artwork amplifies your artistic vision and reflects the character of the artist and music.Great album covers grab people’s attention and make them want to find out more about the artist and music.Here are three easy steps to help you get there. How do you make it happen?įrom color and typography to imagery and style, the choices you make when creating your album cover art can help your music shine. One last major step? Creating cover art that will communicate your artistic vision and grab listeners’ attention in multiple contexts. Your songs are mastered, your tracks are ordered, you’ve got a killer album name picked out, and you’re just about ready to send your master to Disc Makers for CD manufacturing and disc duplication.
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