Text on album covers

[COOOK 76,406]

What's your opinion on album covers: with or without text?

 

I generally prefer without, it's aesthetically pleasing. Having text imo doesn't make sense anymore (unless it's really justified with a unique font style that reflects the album's concept, or manages to blend in perfectly), now that music is mostly consumed through streaming platforms their template already shows you the name of the artist and album. If done right some font styles become memorable but let's face it, many of them either look tacky or get outdated pretty fast.

Some with text that I think look good:

    

Taylor Swift is a good example to me because every one of her album designs that have text is tragic, whereas the ones that don't are more elevated and stylish:

[bionic 43,367]

It depends. The cover art really needs to stand alone and speak for itself.

Teenage Dream is a good example of this (so is Madonna's True Blue).

All three TV covers are bad examples of it. They'd look better with text.

[Guillaume Hamon 6,024]

Well-integrated text can be a plus.

But it often feel useless visually.

And sometimes it's a bad text on a bad picture.

[tomsches 17,319]

Don't care as long as it looks good.

[weed 71,387]

I also generally prefer without but it all depends. Motomami is amazing the text, Born This Way, Random Access Memories, etc. If it's hand-written then I like it a lot more 

[bluemonkey 639]

I like when a stunning photograph is left on its own without text but I do appreciate when the text or font fits into the design seamlessly. 

[numb the flame 7,316]

Imo, it really depends. 
Chromatica visually speaks for itself. With any sort of text, the artwork that we got for Chromatica it would’ve been overkill imo. 

BTW standard works great for text while I think the special edition artwork could work without the text as the text is already so small. 
 

TFM brunette works well with artwork, on the other hand the blonde artwork could work without. 

[monstrosity 3,925]

It depends I’d say without but also ARTPOP exists 

[Illuminati 15,797]

I generally prefer textless unless it's somehow inseparable from the album design.

Streaming has made cover art text largely redundant because you can see the artist name and the album title right beside the cover art anyway, so it only makes sense if it's incorporated in a way that makes the album cover more appealing.

[Nite 4,935]

Usually without, but there are exceptions where I like it, ARTPOP is one of those. Or when the artist has a really iconic font like Metallica does. Or when they're part of the image like in Breakfast in America: 

 

[Nathaniel Arven 1,597]

 

enters the chat 

 

[bluemonkey 639]

1 hour ago, Nathaniel Arven said:

 

enters the chat 

 

I think graphic designers are just getting lazy a lot of thought used to be put in designing where they got a whole art department working on the cover but now they are going for minimalism cuz it’s cheaper 

[Zedd 5,776]

Depends on the font, and if it covers most of the artwork, it's gonna look bad. 

[nATAH 42,946]

42 minutes ago, bluemonkey said:

I think graphic designers are just getting lazy a lot of thought used to be put in designing where they got a whole art department working on the cover but now they are going for minimalism cuz it’s cheaper 

or maybe it just looks nicer lol

[Galvon 1,857]

On streaming services it's not really needed, but when you buy a physical copy, it's nice see what album you buy.

Also I apreciate a graphic designer who can make an albumcover look good with a font. It can look very nice and makes it more complete imo.