6 Pro Tips for Designing Your First Album Cover

Your album cover could make or break the success of your music. In the ideal world of a musician, it should be all about the music. It’s a horrible thought to consider that someone might overlook your album because the artwork doesn’t grab their attention.

But that’s just the way we’re wired as humans. Visuals grab our attention.

But if you’re not creative in that way, the concept of coming up with album artwork can be a daunting one. Never fear; we’re here to help. Keep reading as we give you some tips on creating eye-catching album covers.

Make It Unique

It sounds like an obvious statement to make, but there will always be the temptation to look at what has worked before and copy it.

While it’s great to take inspiration from things around you, make it unique to you, your style, and your message.

Match Your Brand

Do you have previous releases? Merchandise? A logo? If you can pull parts of each of these and display them on your album covers, it’ll add consistency to your brand and make you easier to recognize.

Using an album cover generator can be a great way to insert your ideas and get a result that matches the rest of your brand from album cover templates.

Make It Easy to Read, Or Don’t!

There may be a trick here if you’re really clever with it—making it easy to read is a great way to engage people straight away and deliver a clear message.

At the other end of the scale, if you can make it interesting enough to look at, you could make it more difficult to read so that it causes someone to pick it up/zoom in and therefore engage.

Less Is More

We get it; you’re a complex individual, and you have a lot to say. Your music is passionate, simple, complicated, and emotional all at the same time.

Keep those things within the music, and keep your album cover simple. Too much information will turn people off—minimalist album cover designs look great and might just grab more attention than one loaded with all of your ideas.

Keep It Timeless

There will be a temptation to say things like “New Release” or “Exclusive” to try and grab people’s attention, but this isn’t the best idea.

Stating a time frame gives your album a shelf life, and we don’t want that!

Keep Digital Art In Mind

Before you add lots of text to your album cover, remember that most people who see it now will see it on a phone or tablet screen.

Try to imagine the picture being 1 inch in size. This will prevent you from making it too hard to read or interpret.

Create a Killer Album Cover

Album cover ideas can be hard to come up with if you’re not creatively inclined. But by using the tips in this guide, you should be well on your way to catching the eye of those listeners you crave.

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