Under the Cover is a column analyzing album artwork.
The clip art-chic of Vampire Weekends latest album cover wasmockedfor its resemblance to the frog meme.
Ditto Dua Lipa, whose Future Nostalgia single cover is embellished with the irony of 90s net art.
Credit: Illustration by EW
Taylor Swift has also been the recipient of album design-based insults.
Call it ugly, call it kitsch.
But graphic designers are refinding their passion and visualizing new ways of creating digital instead of handheld intimacy.
Valheria Rocha designed the artwork for Swift’s eighth album, Lover.Amazon
The way to do this is to incorporate the fans, by making the artwork look almost fan-made.
Theres a level of iconicness and relatability that made the cover influential.
Their fans engage with their social media as much as they engage with their music.
But Foudre sees it as a rebellion against social media and streaming platforms rigid design dimensions.
We almost feel compelled to push against those pre-set boundaries, she says.
I think modern album design is a creative visual response to the iron grid of the streaming media format.
When it was first adopted, digital design gave way to huge creativity in the industry.
We were able to do incredible, beautiful pieces of work, he recalled.
As Instagram shows, anyone can and everyone is encouraged to fit within the square-shaped mode of visual expression.
Album designers today are just combatting the professionalization and homogenization of visuals by attempting to scrawl outside the box.
