- I have a question for you.
These days when album artwork is confined
to a small little box on your phone
does it still have an impact?
Hmm.
To me it still does.
I mean, it's a different impact and it's no longer tangible
but it can still set an expectation,
position a theme or provide hints
about artist intention.
If you think about it, it's a way for the artist
to represent their music in a visual form,
and it's still the first thing we see when
an album is presented to us.
It's simple.
Provide something interesting
and you are more likely to get listened to.
Stick around and I'll show you how to design
album art in under 10 minutes.
(upbeat music)
Hi, I'm Jana, a tech specialist and DJ here at Canva.
If it's house music, deep house, disco, or funk,
I will play it.
I'm always making mixes of the tunes I love.
So in this video I'm gonna show you how easy it is to
create an album cover for your next mix project or release.
I'll cover what makes album art good,
what you should include,
and even how to design the back of your album,
Just in case you wanna go old school and get it printed.
Think about album art that has made a
positive impression on you.
The artwork acts like a billboard for the music.
It helps build a community of fans, signal the tone,
and create excitement before a song's even played.
It's a big responsibility when you think about it.
If you get it right, people might share it with friends
or even wear it on t-shirts,
or put posters of it on their walls,
and this might entice other people to give your music a try.
So how do you make it happen?
Well, that's easy.
Let's jump into Canva and I'll show you how.
Head to the Canva homepage and search album covers.
One of the best things about Canva, is the templates.
There are thousands of them and they make projects
like this super quick and easy.
There are album covers for the artsy album, the indie album
and the, I'm not too sure what this music will be album.
Good album art that's guaranteed to turn heads
considers the font, colors, and imagery
that reflect the music and the brand.
It also needs to include the artist's name
and the album title.
Okay, let's choose a design.
I'll start with this template.
Customize the text by double clicking.
I'll call it
Ground Control
and update the Artist to DJ Bloom.
Now, I really like this design
but I'll make a few small changes to to make it my own.
To start, I'm going to change the color pink to yellow.
Watch this.
By clicking this button it will change
all the elements to yellow.
Pretty smart, huh?
Next, I'll change the graphic down here
to something a bit bolder
like this dot pattern.
Finally, I'm going to update some of these icons.
They fit the brown identity of DJ Bloom.
I'll search for some fun stickers that look
like they have just been stuck on,
maybe some packaging stickers.
Okay, yeah, that's working.
See how easy it was to design and customize using templates
but maybe you have a design idea in your head already
and wanna build it from scratch.
Don't stress, Canva makes that easy too.
Head back to your search results.
But instead of choosing a template
we are going to create a blank album cover.
I want the background to be a photo
so I'm going to head into elements and select photos.
Let's say the genre is indie rock
and the album name is Free.
Hmm, maybe a retro motel sign will be the perfect aesthetic.
The idea of being out on the road on tour.
Do a search here.
Keep in mind the photos with the crown
are for pro subscriptions or Canva for Teams users.
If you know our photographer or maybe you're one yourself
feel free to use your own images.
This is a hundred percent guaranteed to make it unique
and Canva makes it easy to upload
and drag and drop the photos into your design.
I can crop like this so it fills the frame.
Now I'm going to add the text to take advantage
of the blank space in the photo,
I'm going to add the name F R E E
in a grid format around the sign.
Now I want a font that's bold and easy to read.
Ah, this one's perfect.
I'll let the artist's name on either side.
I'm just making this up.
Ranson Directive.
That sounds indie, right?
To make sure the text stands out from the imagery.
I'm going to change these colors using the color
palette found in the image.
This can be white and the artist a deep brown.
Sometimes to make a great album cover.
Less is more.
The back of the album can include details like
like the track list, producer's name, label name,
the band's website, and any contact information.
When designing the back the general style
should match the front.
It needs to fill part of the same narrative.
So, in the same document we're going to click add page,
search, motel in the photos again.
This time I want a photo from inside a room like this one.
I'll include the track list at the top.
And then at the bottom, a disclaimer
and a small Pegasus icon like it's a label logo.
Need to make sure the text stands out so I might drop
a gradient in between the photo and the text.
That's better!
That was super easy wasn't it?
Let me show you how to share and download it.
Say you wanna share it with your band mates or manager.
Get their feedback.
In this menu, you add their emails here
and then choose whether you want to give them
editing access, just commenting,
or maybe it's a view only for them.
You can look but you can't touch.
Another way to do this would be by hitting this button here.
This will give you a link that allows them to react
but not do anything else.
Great for just getting a sense check.
Now, if you want to download it, you can go here
and select the file type you need.
Print PDF, if you're printing it off at home,
or PNG or JPEG if you are putting it into a service
like SoundCloud, Spotify, Apple Music, et cetera.
Before we go, I'm going to show you one more thing
to really turn heads and grab attention.
I'm going to use a few features that are for
Canva for Teams or pro subscribers,
and let's say it's for a disco punk album.
Disco Punk.
That's the thing, right?
It should be.
I took this picture of a friend holding a disco ball
in front of their head.
I can remove the background by clicking here and then here.
Now I'll add a half tone filter
which can be found here, adjusted slightly by clicking here.
Yep, that looks good.
Now, change the color by applying another filter on top.
Move it into place.
Find a funky background.
Hmm, it's a bit clean.
I need to grunge it up a little.
I'll search for texture here.
Yeah, this one will work.
I'll drop the transparency back a little
so it's more of a suggestion.
Now, add the text.
Okay, nice.
It's disco, but is it punk?
Please ask your questions in the comments
and let me know what style of music you are creating for.
Wait, you could even create separate art
for each track so it shows up when it plays
and let me know if you want me to show you
how you could create GIFs that move with the music
or podcast covers.
It's the same idea.
So did you find that video helpful?
If the answer's yes, make sure you like and subscribe
to our channel before you head off.
We'd really appreciate it.
We release new videos every week
and there are already more videos
like this one available to watch.
In fact, you could check some of them out now.
Here's some of my faves.
I hope you like them, and thank you so much for watching.