Let’s start with a real-life example. Here is Sia’s album Everyday is Christmas, in which she chose to catch an eye by using both red and green side by side to display contrast. Released in 2017, this was her first Christmas album, and she made sure it’s noticeable through the album cover. It is regarded as one of the better Christmas albums in recent times.
You can take inspiration from this to get an idea of how to design your holiday-themed album cover. Music and artwork can never stand apart, as there is no music without artwork. The artwork visually represents one’s music genre before the sound even reaches the eardrum.
Hence, it’s imperative for the artist to not just focus on building himself in a specific genre but also emphasize manifesting a brand image that reflects in his sound through an appropriate album cover. So that one can garner a greater audience to engage with the artist and his music by understanding the real emotion in his voice.
If you are about to release your holiday single but cannot fathom how to create an album cover for it, this article is your one-stop. It will take you through a step-by-step process to designing a perfect holiday-themed album cover that will make your music single stand out.
Identifying the vibes
The holiday season has arrived, and it’s that time of the year when spirits of joy are set free for people to celebrate the season by singing and welcoming the New Year. The basis for designing any art piece is understanding the emotion you want it to convey. Similarly, to create an album cover, take a step back and discover your band’s identity and the emotion you would like the listeners to feel with your music.
Try to identify the vibes of your song. If it is cheerful, romantic, or pop. But keep in mind that you are designing a cover for a holiday-themed song, so whatever vibe it gives—it must center on Christmas.
For that purpose, the artist could dress up in Christmas clothing, including snow in the background, or use Christmas stickers of wreaths and mistletoe. Like, the cover of the classic single Last Christmas by Wham! And Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas Is You. Both include the artists dressed for the festivity and giving off happy holiday vibes with their romantic music singles.
Imagery and Stickers
The cover’s imagery must be relevant to the holiday season. Many artists use an image of themselves with the right prop, editing, and background to represent their album.
In addition, incorporating Christmas stickers in album covers to sprinkle a festive touch is another modern way to embellish your album cover. Such as A Very Trainor Christmas by Meghan Trainor represents the proper use of imagery for a holiday-themed cover.
Color palette
Understanding color psychology is necessary to paint a picture that translates to the festive season. The Christmas color palette typically includes red, green, white, golden, and silver. You can choose a monochromatic theme like in the album ‘Wrapped in Red’ by Kelly Clarkson, in which she uses only red to highlight the festive season.
Otherwise, you can combine multiple hues if you want vibrancy in your album cover. In addition, one can also choose to go with a single color and its varying shades to add a soft visual.
Minimalist design
Minimalism can also be chosen as an approach to stand out. It directs the focus toward the music that lies within it. Minimalism is using a simple color palette like white or with minimum use of imagery and text.
The album Christmas: A Season of Love by Idina Menzel is a perfect example of a minimalist holiday-themed album cover. It has just the appropriate amount of red with a white background showing Menzel smiling in the snow.
The text
Choosing the text and its font is as important as designing the cover. Think of it as an elevator pitch. Imagine you are in an elevator and have 30 seconds to pitch your idea. What would you say?
Similarly, your cover should include a keyword that explains your album and the theme of the music that lies in it. The keyword can also be the name of the album. Notice every album cover has its name or a keyword that symbolizes the whole music of that album.
Use an online cover-maker
Go for PosterMyWall’s online album cover maker to make your ideas come to life. Their templates let you customize their album covers with limitless features, templates, drag-and-drop tools, colors, text, stickers, illustrations, images, and layouts.
The templates have made designing easy and affordable for anyone with minimal skills to create an outstanding cover for their music album. The best part is that this makes the work easier for you and also helps you save your precious time.
That summarizes the main tips you need to remember to create your perfect holiday-themed album cover. Good luck!
