To Die, To Live / Vinyl Album Cover
Cover Design
Overview
The project explores how graphic design can mirror inner psychological states. Using visual techniques like motion blur, halftone grain, and color inversion, the cover evokes themes of duality, fragmentation, and unresolved emotion. The warm and cool versions of the artwork represent two emotional extremes—rage and calm, grief and acceptance. Every element—from the type alignment to the texture—was intentionally chosen to leave space for the viewer’s own interpretation.
Project Thinking
At the core of the concept was a question: how does one visually represent the feeling of being emotionally displaced? The blurred face represents the self caught in motion—neither fully here nor gone. The textures nod to vintage analog print, suggesting memories long distorted. The clean serif type acts as an anchor in an otherwise unstable composition, grounding the chaos with quiet clarity. The dual versions of the artwork reinforce the album’s narrative arc—beginning in fragmentation and moving toward wholeness.
Aproach
The creative process began with raw portrait photography, which was then digitally manipulated to achieve a sense of kinetic disorientation. Layering grain, blending tones, and using motion blur helped create a visual metaphor for personal unraveling. The muted, dusty backgrounds help focus attention on the human form, while the vertical spine of repeating text slices through the composition like a fault line. The result is a piece that feels both timeless and contemporary, emotional yet restrained—designed to live comfortably in both gallery spaces and record crates.
