Album Covers – Gaga VS Weeknd 🕺🏽💃🏼

Below are some album cover designs from two successful music artists, The Weeknd and Lady gaga. Both cover designs display effective uses of tones and textures which strongly appeal and stand out. The designs capture part of a story, that is told throughout the music of each artist.

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The first cover was designed by the American artist ‘Jeff Koons’ for Lady Gaga’s Artpop album. The concept was based around Greek art and was described by Gaga as “a celebration and a poetic musical journey” The overall design concept for the cover is a true work of art. I’m a big fan of the montage/collage look, it’s very aesthetically engaging and detailed. The compositions and typography are structured in a vivid; distorted way ensuring the focus is all on the image of Lady Gaga in the centre.

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The second album cover was created by the artists Aleksi Tammi and Anton Tammi for The Weeknds After hours album. The artwork and aesthetic for the albums cover has been described as psychedelic and being inspired by various films, such as: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Joker, Casino, and Uncut Gems. 

The design concept for this cover is very captivating as various elements have been incorporated to display the journey and story behind this album. The use of the dark, distorted effect and a grain creates a very sinister, sleek outcome. This is also consistently shown throughout the music videos for each song on the album.

Overall, both covers are very appealing and demonstrate successful uses of design elements. My favourite would have to be the Lady gaga Artpop cover, I think it’s very intriguing in terms of what’s going on, as the viewer would stare at the cover for a long time to look at the image. 

©Lady gaga Art Pop (2013) Interscope Records [Jeff Koons]. http://www.mtv.com/news/1717125/lady-gaga-artpop-album-art-jeff-koons/

©The Weeknd After Hours(2020) Republic Records [Tammi brothers] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/After_Hours_(The_Weeknd_album)