Strong Arm Steady "Arms & Hammers" Album Artwork

Most album covers consist of the artist, band, or group having their picture on the front, but Strong Arm Steady are one of the few people that decided to have original artwork for their release. I think this is a really cool and good piece of art, but although it may not say "hip hop" it says that this is eye catching. This was designed by Munk One(http://www.munkone.com/) I'm glad I came across the 2DopeBoyz blog where they had the album art and their latest song. Click here to listen

What do you think about this album art?

365 Days of Creativity -Day 25 & 26

Day 25 - Sketch.

 

Day 26- For this on, I created an instant band name and cd cover. Here were the rules for this. 

 Random Album Cover

1 - Go to "wikipedia." Hit “random... Read More”
or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2 - Go to "Random quotations"
or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.

3 - Go to flickr and click on “explore the last seven days” or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4 - Use photoshop or similar to put it all together. Make sure it’s a square. 500 x 500 pixels is ideal.

I played with a bit in Photoshop and it was fun to do. The quote came from comedian Mitch Hedber. It originally was, "I like rice. Rice is great if you're hungry and want 2000 of something."

 

The original photo was this.

Swollen Members CD artwork Contest

The Canadian hip hop group Swollen Members had a contest for their fans to recreate their album covers. They're planning on rereleasing these cds and giving the chance to give back to their fans. The deadline is Feb. 10, 2011, so there is time to work on it. The downside is they retain all the rights and you do win a pretty good package, but I'm not sure if you get credit for the album cover artwork, I would hope so. By the look of the submissions, it does not look like there's stiff competition, but at the same time I'm not sure if they have been updating the gallery. This is what the website has to say about their prize package:
"The prize packages will consist of SWOLLEN MEMBERS  CDs, records, a t shirt, a poster and stickers and hats and t shirt from RED DRAGON!! (RDS)….and of course…YOUR AMAZING COVER AS A PART OF THE SWOLLEN MEMBER’S LEGACY….Your art will be a part of our history!!!"

Here is a video to give you a little bit more detail on the matter and here is the link to view. http://www.swollenmembers.com/2010/12/03/attention-all-swollen-fans-family-and-friends/

 

365 Days of Creativity -Day 17

Well you the skull, but here's a more polished look. This is for the up and coming band "Mother". The whole thing was designed by me.

Kno of the Cunninlynguists album cover art by DIego Fernandez

The Cunninlynguists have used various illustrators for the art for their albums. The producer Kno continues to keep the art alive with his solo project "Death Is Silent".  Diego Fernandez is the Argentinian artist who created this cover. The well illustrated face of the woman is complete with the simple background that is her hair. Diego uses the negative space for some of his other pieces of work. This cover fits with the title of the album and think it is powerful. To view music by Kno and his group the Cunninlynguists visit Qn5.com To check out more work by Diego Fernandez visit DeviantArt page.

Army Of The Pharaohs-Ritual Of battle CD Cover Art

I've always liked this cover art and feel it's quite creative. Army of the Pharoahs is a hardcore underground hip hop group that was put together by Jedi Mind Tricks frontman Vinnie Paz. They always stuck with an Egyptian theme and I liked how for this album theyy did not use a tomb of a pharoaoh, but incorporated a skull. I like how it has that old grainy feel and how the microphones as a violent scepter. I think the font choice was a good selection. The placement of the album title "Ritual of Battle" was a good choice, because you had the warriors at the bottom preparing their ritual before battles. I like it and feel this is a very creative design worth looking at, possibly used for inspiration.

Graphic Design & Illustration Inspiration

Here is some images that I found through out that you can use for your own inspiration. I even have a folder on my desktop titled "inspiration" for me and I'll turn to it if I'm feeling like a creative block is near or I want to experiment with how someone else has done a technique. The designers range from Kyle of Electric Zombie, Monaux, and others. Some I do not know, but would love to give credit. You have to give credit where credit's due. Enjoy.