RECORD DESIGN

Problem statement

This was a challenge to design an album playlist cover that reflects the music held within it.

Final solution

I chose to reflect on my personal song preferences and curate a design that aligned with the feelings of freedom, tranquility, and momentum. My person playlist, called GoldenTracks, is for driving or running carefree on the open road towards the place I want to be. This “place” changes based on the day and time, but typically it ends in New York City – the place I truly feel at home, inspired, and ready to take on the world.

Design Process 

Ultimately, this album was meant to be represent the music that I can drive miles too. As a hyperactive person, I rarely am in position of sitting still, unable to answer emails or work on my designs. Driving and running are the two things that truly prohibit me from multitasking and for that reason I cherish them both. This playlist needed to reflect that sense of calm stability that keeps me sane on a long solo drive or jog. Moving into the playlist design, the color choices, imagery, and illustrative touches aim to extend this feeling. The eclectic, vibrant style is carried out consistently from the front to the back cover.

Designing this cover required several steps, the first being choosing the style. Questions that I addressed included: 1) Do I want to include imagery? 2) Do I want to illustrate anything?, 3) What is my color palette? 4) How do I want to incorporate the album title and song names into the design? After exploring several potential solutions to these questions, I decided to collect imagery, which would capture the look-and-feel that these songs inspire, and then stylize it with Adobe Sketch and Procreate to create an illustrative quality. Subconsciously, I gravitated to the warm tones of red, yellow and purple-maroon in contrast with turquoise and Prussian Blue hues. The front cover became an integrated collection of elements that collectively represent me, the music, and the future. Here, the future is represented on the back cover, which depicts an artistic rendering of my beloved New York City with its constant movement and opportunity.

With my final design complete, the final steps was to create the PSD mockups and physical construct the album – definitely a trial and error experience that resulted with successful fully sized album cover. Overall, this was an enjoyable design challenge that forced me to look inward and self-evaluate. I was able to solve, craft a design with physical materials and digital media, and work within tight physical constraints. Most importantly, when I look at this album cover hanging in front of my desk, I am reminded that it is okay to just be in moment, calm, and without a definite destination.