Album cover designer in Paris

Questions

What you'll want to know before ordering

• 01 Why hire an album cover designer instead of using AI or a template? +

  Generative tools produce images. They don't listen to music. A designer who plays the record several times before the brief works from material those tools never see, and the cover that comes out of it translates this particular record rather than a general idea of its genre.

  For the visuals, composition, art direction, retouching and finishing are human work only. Takuya Studio may combine them, alongside other techniques (photography, collage, 3D), with a multi-model generative AI method developed by the studio.

• 02 What's the difference between a print designer and an album cover designer? +

  A print designer knows the constraints of printing: bleed, CMYK color, resolution. An album cover designer adds the formats specific to music, such as 12" and 7" vinyl templates, streaming platform specs and the relationship between image and lettering. The two trades are close, but their constraints diverge enough for the specialty to matter.

• 03 How do I choose the visual style of my album cover? +

  The record gets several listens before the brief and before any visual reference. Its mood, its tension, its era set the first constraint of the project. Your references then help adjust the register.

  On how each genre builds its visual codes: color psychology and typography by music genre.

• 04 What size should album artwork be for Spotify, Apple Music and Deezer? +

  The main platforms ask for a square image of at least 3000 × 3000 pixels, in RGB, as a JPEG or PNG. Apple Music accepts up to 6000 × 6000 px. These specs are built into every delivery, so there's nothing for you to adapt.

• 05 What are the print dimensions for a vinyl or CD cover? +

  For a 12" vinyl, the standard template is 314 × 314 mm with 3 mm bleed, so 320 × 320 mm goes to the printer. For a CD in a jewel case, the front cover is 120 × 120 mm and the booklet 121.5 × 120 mm. These measurements vary from one printer to another. Send their official template at the start of the brief and nothing has to be redone later.

• 06 How much does a professional album cover designer cost? +

  Designing an album cover costs €500 excl. VAT. That covers four original proposals in four different directions, up to two rounds of revisions on the one you choose, and high-definition delivery for print, vinyl, streaming and social media. Single cover as an add-on: €100 excl. VAT. Extra visual: €100 excl. VAT. Motion design to announce the release on social media: €200 excl. VAT.

• 07 How long does it take to design an album cover? +

  The four mockups are presented within ten days of receiving the complete brief and any existing graphic material. Revisions come back within 48 to 72 hours. The timeline can be shortened depending on the current workload; that gets discussed in the first exchange.

  For example, a recent jazz cover, black and white with condensed type, was wrapped up in twelve days from brief to delivery, revisions included.

• 08 Do I get the source files at the end of the project? +

  Source files (Photoshop or Illustrator, depending on the project) can be handed over on request at the end. The option is settled in the brief. Copyright in the artwork stays with Takuya Studio unless a transfer is agreed in writing beforehand.

• 09 Do you make versions for social media and merch? +

  Social media formats (Instagram square, YouTube banner, Facebook visual) are included in the delivery. Merchandise versions (poster, T-shirt, objects) are quoted separately, on top of the order.

• 10 How do I protect the copyright of my album artwork? +

  In France, a record's artwork is protected by copyright from the moment it is created, with no formality. For proof of date, you can register it with INPI (the French intellectual property office) or with a French authors' society such as SACEM or SCAM. When you commission the studio, the transfer of exploitation rights is set by contract. Moral rights, under French law, cannot be transferred.

• 11 What training does an album cover designer have? +

  There is no course dedicated to album covers. The specialty comes after a general graphic design education (in France: Gobelins, Estienne, MJM, LISAA), through practice and musical culture. What sets a designer who works with music apart is the ability to read a record before designing its image. More on this: the best courses to become an album cover designer.

• 12 Will my cover be readable on Spotify and other streaming platforms? +

  Thumbnail legibility is part of the design. Every cover is tested at the sizes platforms display it, 56, 100 and 300 pixels, to check that the focal point, the contrast and the type hold up. An overloaded image vanishes at those sizes, and the formal choices take that into account from the start. On this topic: why your cover has to stay readable on a phone.

• 13 Who are the most influential album cover designers? +

  Three names come up most often: Storm Thorgerson (Pink Floyd, Hipgnosis), Peter Saville (Joy Division, Factory Records) and Stanley Donwood (Radiohead). Each built a consistent body of work over several decades, recognized beyond the music industry as applied art. Their methods differ, but none of them treats the cover as mere packaging. Their careers and key works: the best album cover designers.

• 14 What technical specs should I know before designing an album cover? +

  Every format, whether vinyl, CD, Spotify or Apple Music, has its own dimensions, file formats and color space. One wrong spec and the distributor rejects the file, or the image comes out degraded. The technical data is gathered in a complete guide to album cover formats.