Design communicates the music’s message visually and contributes to the artist’s branding.

Written by Madison Kelly

Jud Haynes album cover design for Chris Hadfield album in Canada, on Oct. 9, 2015.

When shuffling through music apps or going to a vintage record store, we search through dozens of album covers, unaware of the effect they have on us. Album covers reveal to listeners hidden details about the artist themselves and the music they have created.

“Albums are the start of the love affair that leads to fans screaming at concerts, buying t-shirts and telling their friends they were a fan of the band before they were big,” says graphic designer Jud Haynes. Haynes has designed for artists such as Arkells, Blue Rodeo and singing Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield.

Haynes proudly resides in St. John’s, Nfld. He was once a full-time musician with the band Wintersleep, but he now dedicates all his time to graphic design and illustration. Haynes specializes in illustrations, layout and website design all over North America.

Jud Haynes album cover design for Blue Rodeo in Canada, on Oct. 26, 2016

Each album cover is a piece of art designed to reflect the artist’s hidden stories and impact its listeners. Yet, listeners tend to be unknowing that album art can change the way people perceive music.

'“Album art speaks to audiences in so many ways. It lets folks know what genre of music is on the album -- most people can determine what style of music a record is by the cover. They can tell if the music is sexy, scary, soothing, fun, relaxing,” says Haynes.

When designing album covers for artists, graphic designers are the ones who take the artist’s ideas and create a visual representation of them. The process can be extensive as many questions have to be answered in order to get each artistic element right.

Each graphic artist has a different approach to gathering the first bits of information from the musician. For Haynes, it consists of asking many crucial questions. “I ask them a lot of questions about the music, story of the lyrics, the personality of the band members, etc.”

Bronwin Parks is a creative director for artists such as Serena Ryder and Blue Rodeo. With 16 years of graphic design and marketing experience, Parks has produced a multitude of projects for the Canadian Country Music Association and even received the honour of redesigning the CCMA award statue.

Bronwin Park’s album cover design for Jann Arden in Canada, on April 29, 2014.

For her, the beginning process consists of some questions, but she prefers to listen to the record herself and get its vibe before diving in deep with the artist.

“The first phase of the design process for me involves a kind of meditating with the record… I like to actually close my eyes and sit in my office with my studio headphones on … I really try and absorb the narrative, the melody, and really pay attention to how the album makes me feel,” says Parks.

Graphic designers also need the music’s documentation to produce album covers. Then comes the questions a lot of musicians don’t consider themselves about the details of creating an album cover.

“I have a checklist of sorts that I send them of things I will need as well - things like tracklisting, barcode, spine number, copyright info for the back, lyrics to songs, any logos for record labels or funders,” says Haynes. “A lot of bands haven't thought of these things before reaching out to me.”

For many designers, it is essential to make the record covers authentic for the artists they are designing for, and not just appear as a marketing scheme to get more people to buy the album.

“When you’re able to create something that’s a little bit more outside of the box, those are the covers that make the best of this list,” says Parks, “And those are the one’s artists and fans gravitate towards.”

Parks says that as visual creatures, album art is one of the easiest ways for humans to connect to the music. “It can be very impactful, and it can become iconic.”

Bronwin Park’s album cover design for The Washboard Union in Canada, on April, 24, 2020.

Besides conveying the emotions of the music, album art also allows audiences to visualize the stories behind the music they are listening to.

Roberta Landreth is a Juno award-winning graphic design artist who likes to integrate her artist’s stories into her album covers. In 2014, Landreth left the agency she was working to pursue her dream of working independently; she has since designed 75 different album projects. Not only has she received a Juno award for her work, but she has also received three Western Canadian Music Awards and two Covenant Awards.

Landreth has designed an album cover for her husband, David Landreth, and his band called The Bros. Landreth, which is made up of David and his brother Joey. For one of his albums, titled 87’, Roberta designed the cover to represent the meaning of the album.

“His album is all about them being brothers, and so on the artwork, I have actually done little vignettes of moments in their childhood that were really important… Just little vignettes of their actual history” says Landreth.

“So those make references to the actual songs… When you’re looking at the cover, the story will come through.”

For many artists, album art is a representation of who they are and what they want to be known as. “Albums are like their babies,” says Haynes. “Album covers also act as stylists and business cards for the bands themselves.”

Roberta Landreth’s album cover for Joey Landreth and Roman Clarke in Canada on April 19, 2019.

Above all, professionally-done artwork can make artists look more legitimate from a business perspective.

“It’s the way you present yourself. It automatically puts you at a certain level of professionalism,” says Landreth. “As soon as you have someone do your artwork professionally, it automatically makes people take you seriously.”

For many artists, album art is a representation of who they are and what they want to be known as. “Albums are like their babies,” says Haynes. “Album covers also act as stylists and business cards for the bands themselves.”