For my senior thesis project, I decided to create 4 album covers that represent my time at college. Each album represents a year, the first is freshman year and the last is senior year. The albums contain a mix of songs I listened to that year, which I used to form the designs for my covers.
My freshman year was during the COVID era, so I had rather than doing typical college activities I was often in my dorm or in my two in-person classes. Wherever I was, however, I was listening to music. A popular genre in 2020 was hyperpop, a genre filled with autotune and experimental beats. I loved this type of music, especially artists like 100 gecs and SOPHIE. This music inspired the cover. I used lots of colors and textures to make the design unique and experimental. You can find the playlist here.
My sophomore year was a lot more reflective and melancholic. I was listening to Phoebe Bridgers or Taylor Swift to fuel my emotions. Inspired by Clairo's "Sling" album and Taylor Swift's "Folklore," I created this minimalist cover featuring an image with vines around it. Unlike my first design, this one uses one main color so it doesn't distract from the image. For the title, I added tape so it would look handwritten and also stand out against the dark background. You can find the playlist here.
Junior year was an especially musical year for me since I attended 10 concerts throughout the semester. Because of this, my music taste ranged from Pitbull to My Chemical Romance. To reflect the alternative style of most of the artists, I created a colorful album meant to represent a playing card. The design is a nod to The Garden's album "Mirror Might Steal Your Charm" and features me in jester makeup I did for their show. This is my favorite album design due to my use of color and unique concept. You can find the playlist here.
My senior year was rather tumultuous, I had two eye surgeries that prevented me from coming to class for the first two weeks. Being thrown into the semester forced me to stay vigilant about my assignments and my fall internship. While my school life was crazy, I loved listening to new music such as Allie X's "Girl With No Face" and Chappell Roan's "The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess." The alt-pop music I listened to and my eye issues led me to my final design. This design features a close-up of my eyes, with a large circle covering my bad eye. I used smaller circles on the other side of the composition to balance the visual weight. You can find the playlist here.
