Creative Exercise: Album Art
Rachel Klein
Art Director
Creative Exercise: Album Art
To begin this creative exercise, I invited some of our team members to design an album cover for one of their favorite artists. There were no strings attached other than to complete our designs within the week. You’ll see how this exercise ties into the importance of finding fun projects, and making time to practice.
“We can fuel our brains with museums and study,
but if your taste grows faster than your skills,
that might turn you into a critic instead of a creative.”
The Importance of Practice
Practice makes perfect. We all keep that adage in mind as we learn a new skill or pursue a new interest, but once we consider ourselves proficient or reach a professional level, we tend to forget the importance of practice. Without practice, not only will we stop growing—our skills can deteriorate. Creativity is part of the brain, and that muscle must be exercised.
Staying Creative
We can fuel our brains with museums and study, but if your taste grows faster than your skills, that might turn you into a critic, rather than a creative. So, to flex our creative muscles outside work’s bounds, we need creative projects that don’t feel like a chore. The trick is to find fun projects! Maybe for you that means a competition, or something charitable in the service of others, or it combines several interests and will never see the light of day or public critique. I have dabbled in each of these project types over the last year, and while all of them challenged me, being free of themes and criteria and other people’s opinions is when I truly rediscovered the joy of making something that is 100% me and mine.
No Limits
Creative exercises have none of the limits imposed by commercial design. No specifics and no purpose. Design solves problems and communicates something specific but making album art for my favorite songs does exactly none of those things! It’s just fun and easy and gets me back in touch with the artist that often takes the back seat to my designer brain.
Keeping Momentum
Since our Inktober challenge produced so many fun sketches, I asked the Targa team to join me in a quick album art exercise to keep the creative momentum up. It was super cool to see how each person approached the task. We work so well as a team, almost a hive mind on some projects, unified by some brilliant concept or design element, that seeing my co-workers doing their own thing (while talking good tunes like we do) is insightful and a great reminder of the impressive creatives I am lucky enough to work alongside!
