Project: Vinyl Record & Cover
Class: Raster Graphics with Adobe Photoshop
One of my favorite projects I've yet to do was this Vinyl Record & Record Cover from 2025. Not only was it great getting to work on an album from one of my favorite bands for two weeks straight, but I also learned a lot about the vinyl making process!
The assignment brief was to create a record design and a cover that would match the album for one of our favorite artists. At the time, Mother Mother had just released their album "Nostalgia", and I was obsessed, to say the least.
I listened to the album front to back and back again, and pulling from the themes of the songs, I settled on a design that has childish and dream-like elements. Now, their album was already released, and their member and creative director (Molly Guldemond) had already put together the below imagery for the band's 10th album, incorporating the use of the unicorn (a theme in their current songs, and a recall to their first album).
This design incorporated so many elements of the album that were wonderful, how do I create something as interesting and accurate as what was created by one of the primary members of the band?
I wanted to keep the child-like element of the design, and the starry-aspect was very fitting. When I found the image on Unspalsh with the inflated unicorn, I felt it fit perfectly for what I needed.
Imitating the unicorn theme of the album and the original cover art, I felt the inflatable costume connected to the melancholy aspect of the album, reflecting on how we learn that our childhood fantasies are only costumes as we grow.
I let the image do the majority of the speaking for the design, but felt it needed something more than just the lettering. I went through a few variations (below) and landed on the final doodles you see in the mockup.
The white doodles are simple drawings within photoshop that I felt added to the sense of the silly-ness and whimsical play on childhood.
On to the best part - the vinyl!
I started playing with ideas based on the childish elements of the album, making ideas that were cute and funny and fun designs.
Then I realized - I don't know how vinyls are made.
So I went to YouTube. Turns out, you can't just past pictures on the vinyls! They're made from PVC (yep, the same stuff the Home Depot pipes are made out of). They're a liquid substance that is pressed with the grooves of the song. Because of this, flat designs, like the two on the left, are hard to accomplish and can't be can't be actually put into the vinyl. I moved the flat/graphic design of the vinyl to the center label that is able to be printed and added to the PVC after it cools.
I also learned that the change in color of the PVC can affect the quality of the vinyl, so the two on the right are out. If I was going to make a vinyl that looked cool, I wasn't going to make one that risked the music quality. So I focused on keeping the black/dark PVC for quality, and keeping in mind that the pressing of the PVC causes a lack of control for the design, I continued with the starry/galaxy design, that would allow it to form organically with the pressing of the vinyl, while still producing an atmospheric look.
And so my design was born :)
