Wendy Day breaks down why artwork matters for music releases and what actually works. You need 3000 × 3000 pixels minimum, your name and title on the cover, and a consistent visual style like Russ's solid backgrounds or Pig Face's recognizable logo. Professional artwork isn't optional if you want your music taken seriously.
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Hi guys, today let's talk about artwork. So whether you put out a full-length project or you— whether you put out a single, you need to have great artwork. And the artwork needs to convey the image of who you are and the message that you're trying to send about yourself. Um, it needs to be professional, it needs to be clean. Um, and it needs to be the best art that you can possibly get or afford, right? Um, when you upload it to your distributor, more than likely it's gonna have to be about 3,000 by 3,000 so that it's big enough to be clear, high enough resolution that it won't look, um, fuzzy. And you want to have your name on it and the name of the song or the name of the album. If it's not a clean version, you're going to have to put a parental advisory logo onto the, um, artwork. And you need to decide relatively early in your career, is all of your artwork going to be different, or is it going to have the same feeling or vibe. Um, and the best example I can give you is Russ. Like, all of Russ's artwork was on— it was a smaller square with the actual artwork, and then it was sitting within a background that was a solid color. So as you put all of them next to each other, you could tell that it was Russ without even knowing that it was Russ. It just sort of fit a pattern. And you need to decide whether you want to do something like that or whether you want all of your artwork different. Um, you should definitely have a logo for your name. I work with some artists who don't want a logo, so they just put their name in a different typeface on, uh, you know, a different typeface on every cover. The only problem I have with that is it doesn't really translate to merchandise. You know, if you've got a logo, you can sell merch, you can sell t-shirts that have your logo on it. And I'm wearing a Pig Face shirt right now. And even though I see it, um, in different typefaces out there— and Pig Face is, um, a group that I went out on tour with in November just so I could help educate some artists that went out along with them to learn how to, uh, tour manage. It was really kind of a cool thing. Um, I wrote an article about it. You can see it on my blog. Anywho, um, even though they sell a ton of merchandise, they have a logo. And their logo— their logo is their brand, and it really stands out. So when you see it, you know that it's them, even if you see it from across the room and you can't really read it. You know by the shape and the, um, design of it that it's their logo. And I just think that everybody needs to have a logo. But again, I work with some artists that don't really want a logo, and they just use different typefaces to put their name. Um, Little Donald is one of those artists. He just likes to have his name in all different types of, um, of lettering. He doesn't really commit to any one style. You'll see it on his album covers in script. You'll see it in serif and sans serif and bold and italic. It's just different on every album cover. I'm a big fan of having a logo and keeping it uniform, and I also like the idea of when line up your album covers, that they have the same feel. Not necessarily quite as, as rigid as Russ was doing it when he first came out, although I like the uniformity of that. Like, I knew when I saw the artwork that Russ had a new song out, and that was kind of cool. So just make sure that your artwork is clean, it has everything on there that's necessary. If you have a company that is investing in you, or if you're signed to a label, their logo needs to be on it. Um, I really like the covers that say, you know, produced by whoever the producer is. I think that producers don't get enough light, so I love when that's on the artwork as well. And I guess that's about it. That's really all I had to say about artwork. Just get you some great artwork. Okay guys, bye!
