Album Cover Backgrounds

Cream/off-white

While the colour of these albums keeps the design simple, the cream makes them seem to be ‘dirty’ compared to a pure white cover.

It also allows the images to blend into the background more than they would on a white background. I want my image to be the focus of the cover and poster, and to not to be compromised by the choice of background colour.

Colour

There are a range of bright and dull colours used in album art of all genres. The issue with using any colour other than white is the reduction in legibility once text is added to it.

I want to keep the design simple and the image bold, so lots of colours would make the design appear too crowded.

White

The legibility of the design will not be altered by the use of a white background if I use black text.

Plain white looks smoother than colour, as shown by The XX’s cover (top). The image added straight to a plain background makes it appear very crisp.

The RHCP’s album cover contains shadows, giving it more depth than the other cover. It may be more effective to have an image with shadows, rather than an image that looks out of place.