Ever wondered what a 1974 record shop would look like if it had a brand system?

Kodama Shōwa is coming soon: one old shopkeeper, five inks, and a camera at knee height.

Nice!

Some people think having text on an album cover is tacky.

But I think it really comes down to how the typography is incorporated.

There's a difference between simply placing text on an image and making it an integral part of the artwork.

So I decided to explore this idea by designing a fictional album cover of my own.

For this concept, I used playful colors, handwritten text and hand-drawn elements to capture the album's imaginative and whimsical personality.

Rather than treating the title as a separate element, I wanted it to feel like a natural part of the overall design.

What do you think?

Treating the handwritten title as part of the artwork rather than a label on top is the right call. Email designers fight the same battle with hero images: text baked into the picture looks great until an inbox blocks images. Which came first for you, the lettering or the collage?