The best-loved albums of all time only seem to stand out in our memories (and the shelves) when they are wrapped in bright and beautiful album art.

有史以来最受欢迎的专辑似乎只有在被明亮而美丽的专辑封面包裹时才在我们的记忆(和书架)中脱颖而出。

Think Fleetwood Mac’s Rumors, depicting Mick Fleetwood and Stevie Nicks in black-and-white chiffon, en-pointe and tight-trousered underneath a swirling album title. Or how about Gorillaz’s 2005 offering, Demon Days, with heavily-stylised portraits of their cartoon alter-egos in a quadriptych staring moodily off-cover.

想想弗利特伍德·麦克(Fleetwood Mac)的《 谣言》(Rumors) ，在黑白相间的雪纺中描绘米克·弗利特伍德和史蒂夫·尼克斯，对位并紧身着漩涡状专辑标题下的长裤。 或Gorillaz在2005年发行的作品《 恶魔天》 ( Demon Days)如何 ，在四联画中郁郁葱葱地呆呆地盯着他们卡通漫画的人物形象。

David Bowie appears with his iconic red coiffure and red and blue lightning bolt on the front of Aladdin Sane, The Beatles are sugar-coated, flower-laden and surrounded by cult-figures on the front of St Pepper’s Lonely Hearts and the prismatic triangle of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon are all images that spring to mind when we pose the question: what makes a good album cover?

大卫·鲍伊(David Bowie)的标志性红色发型和红色和蓝色闪电出现在阿拉丁·桑尼 ( Aladdin Sane)的正面，披头士乐队披着糖衣，盛满鲜花，并在圣佩珀尔的《寂寞之心》 ( St Pepper's Lonely Hearts)正面和当我们提出以下问题时，Pink Floyd的《月之暗面》就浮现在脑海：是什么让专辑封面出色？

In the new and ever-expanding age of streaming and digital downloads, it wouldn’t be frowned upon to say that it may feel pointless for musicians to invest so much time into the aesthetics of their products. But that would go against the age-old link between visuals and audio.

在流媒体和数字下载这个新的且不断扩展的时代中，可以说，音乐家将大量时间投入到产品的美学中可能是毫无意义的。 但这与视觉和音频之间的古老联系背道而驰。

When we look at how we consume music in the present, whether it be on smartphones, YouTube or streaming services like Spotify, each platform still highlights the space for aesthetics. Even the resurgence of vinyl has strengthened this link between the importance of art and the music it is encompassing.

当我们看一下当前如何消费音乐时，无论是在智能手机，YouTube还是Spotify等流媒体服务上，每个平台仍然凸显了美学空间。 甚至黑胶唱片的兴起也加强了艺术的重要性与其所包含的音乐之间的这种联系。

Seeing visuals stretched across twelve inches of a cover, as opposed to the four inches of a CD case, draws the eye. From there, the listener can begin to form their own opinions over how they’d expect the artist to sound or how it will represent their lyrical-content and mood – as humans have similarly done with book covers for hundreds of years.

与CD盒的4英寸相反，看到覆盖在12英寸的封面上的视觉效果吸引了人们的眼球。 从那里开始，听众可以开始就他们期望艺术家发声的方式或如何表现出他们的抒情内容和情绪发表自己的看法-就像人类数百年来所做的那样。

那么，音乐家自己在调试专辑封面时会寻找什么？ (So what do musicians themselves look for when commissioning album art?)

The relationship between a musician and artist working on creating pieces for a particular album can be a close, collaborative one.

致力于为特定专辑创作作品的音乐家和艺术家之间的关系可以是紧密的合作关系。

Both want to produce something that usually reflects a lyrical “story” that an album often tells, or poses a nod to the musician themselves through a depiction of something personal. Alternatively, it could be a purely aesthetic process, with the both parties aiming to create something that looks good and will actively stand out on the shelf or in the charts.

两者都想创作出通常反映出专辑经常讲述的抒情“故事”的东西，或者通过对个人事物的描绘来向音乐家本人致敬。 另外，这可能是纯粹的美学过程，双方的目的都是创造看起来不错并且会在货架上或图表中脱颖而出的东西。

It can be a laborious and long task, especially when an artist has to translate something transient into a very visible, physical product.

这可能是一项艰巨而艰巨的任务，尤其是当艺术家必须将某些瞬态转换为非常明显的物理产品时。

Natalie McCool is a BBC Radio 1 Award-Winning artist, musician and singer-songwriter. The artwork for her newest album, ‘The Great Unknown’ came from working closely with a commissioned artist and photographer and openly discussing key themes from her music that would shine through visually.

娜塔莉·麦库尔(Natalie McCool)是英国广播公司(BBC)第一台获奖艺术家，音乐家和创作歌手。 她最新专辑《 伟大的未知》的艺术作品来自与一位受委托的艺术家和摄影师的密切合作，并公开讨论了她音乐中的关键主题，这些主题可以通过视觉传达。

“I think both visual artist and music artist need to start the conversation about the songs, about the atmosphere of the record, the record title and what it all means to the musician.

“我认为视觉艺术家和音乐艺术家都需要就歌曲，唱片的气氛，唱片的名称以及对音乐家的意义进行对话。

“During this conversation and trade of ideas, I found a central theme, image or metaphor starting to crystallise – but it needs to be original, attractive and give an audience a clear idea of what kind of music or emotion the music artist is creating.”

“在进行这种对话和思想交流过程中，我发现了一个中心主题，图像或隐喻开始形成结晶，但是它必须新颖，吸引人，并让听众清楚地了解音乐艺术家正在创作哪种音乐或情感。 ”

McCool decided she wanted her album to utilise photography as opposed to illustration, which is just one of a number of creative choices that musicians can choose between when creating a visual representation of their album. Typography, colour, shade and even physical touches such as paper or glossing are also options available – one of the many perks of the return of vinyl and rising popularity of physical music.

McCool决定她希望自己的专辑利用摄影而不是插图，而这只是音乐家在创建其专辑的视觉表示时可以选择的众多创意选择之一。 字体，颜色，阴影甚至是纸张或上光之类的物理触感也是可用的选项，这是黑胶唱片回归和物理音乐日益流行的众多好处之一。

“For ‘The Great Unknown’ the keywords I gave the artist and photographer were: Light, Shadow, Contrast and Space,” she continues.

她继续说道：“对于'The Great Unknown' ，我给艺术家和摄影师的关键词是：光，影，对比度和空间。

“I built a mood board based on that theme on Pinterest and sent it over. Ben, the artist, came up with the idea of using white building blocks over a white infinity curve to create different levels, different shadows, creating space and depth in the image.

“我在Pinterest上基于该主题构建了一个情绪板，并将其发送了出去。 艺术家Ben提出了在白色无限曲线上使用白色积木来创建不同级别，不同阴影，在图像中产生空间和深度的想法。

“I loved the photo of the set-up he sent me in his studio – so we went in and did the shoot. I love the colour purple and always try to weave it into my images. Knowing this, also tinted the cover art in post-production. There’s so much in terms of personal details that goes into a finished piece.”

“我喜欢他在工作室里寄给我的照片，所以我们进去拍摄了。 我喜欢紫色，并且总是尝试将其编织到我的图像中。 知道这一点，还可以在后期制作中设置封面色彩。 在完成个人作品时，有太多个人信息。”

图形艺术家如何才能创作出令音乐家和听众满意的作品？ (How exactly does a graphic artist go about creating a piece that has to please the musician and the listener?)

Arguably, the visual artist has their work cut out for them when creating an album cover. So much rides on having an aesthetically cohesive piece, which works for both the commissioning artist and listeners old and new.

可以说，视觉艺术家在创建专辑封面时会为他们剪裁作品。 制作具有美学凝聚力的作品非常重要，它对调试艺术家和新老听众都适用。

Knowledge of what to create in order to stand out is paramount, but also knowing when to stray away from “trendy” movements when creating the finished piece is key – lest the album becoming a visual representation of a particular era as opposed to timeless, which is often the underlying goal.

了解如何脱颖而出是至关重要的，但知道完成成品时何时偏离“时髦”的动作是关键-避免专辑成为特定时代的视觉代表，而不是永恒的事物。通常是基本目标。

Kaye Wilson is an artist and graphic designer who has created album covers and single art for indie alternative singer Seafoal. She is a long-time-lover of album art in a painfully digital age, stating that there is something wonderful about someone justifying purchasing a physical copy when they already have access to music.

凯伊·威尔逊(Kaye Wilson)是一位艺术家和图形设计师，曾为独立另类歌手Seafoal创建专辑封面和单张艺术作品。 在一个痛苦的数字时代，她是专辑艺术的长期恋人，她说有人在已经可以访问音乐的情况下证明购买实物副本是一件很了不起的事情。

Often surrounded by “uninspired covers from artists who play it safe,” her artistic process is all about taking leaps of faith and never underestimating the power of visuals.

她的创作过程经常被“放心使用它的艺术家的无灵感封面”所包围，她的艺术创作过程全是围绕着信念的飞跃而从未低估视觉效果的力量。

“So, the first very obvious step in the designing process is to actually listen to the music, but also understand the artist in terms of direction and their aesthetic.

“因此，设计过程中的第一步非常明显的步骤是实际听音乐，同时还要根据方向和美学来理解艺术家。

“Music itself for me has a lot of visual associations, so I like to know that it matches with how the musician/band brand themselves. It’s normally not far off, but that definitely useful for tweaking or if you need a bit of guidance. If it’s a lose brief, I would then do some visual research.”

“对于我来说，音乐本身具有很多视觉联想，因此我想知道它与音乐家/乐队自身的品牌相匹配。 通常距离并不远，但是对于调整或如果您需要一些指导时绝对有用。 如果这是一个简短的介绍，那么我会做一些视觉研究。”

Wilson also stresses that there can be snags in communication between clients and artists, due to a “frustrating language barrier when they know something isn’t right about your work, but can’t vocalise it in a way that’s understandable to me.”

威尔逊还强调，客户与艺术家之间可能存在沟通障碍，这是因为“当他们知道某些不适合您的作品但无法以我可以理解的方式发声时，就会遇到令人沮丧的语言障碍。”

The process is often long and can be tiresome, with some artists creating upwards of ten concepts for album art… which end up scrapped.

这个过程通常很漫长，而且可能很累人，有些艺术家为专辑封面创作了十多个概念……最终被废弃了。

But Wilson says that seeing the final product — when it is the best that it can be and when the musician loves it — is the best and most rewarding feeling you can get in the industry.

但是威尔逊说，看到最终产品(什么时候可能是最好的，而当音乐家喜欢它的时候)是您在业内可以得到的最好，最有意义的感觉。

“There is also so much room for experimentation and art-styles with album art. Take Grace Jones’s Island Life. It’s a cover you only need to see once to have it ingrained in your head and you totally buy that Grace Jones’ body could just bend that way,” she adds.

“专辑艺术还有很大的实验空间和艺术风格。 以格蕾丝·琼斯的《 岛屿生活》为例。 这是一张封面，您只需要看一次就可以将其根深蒂固，您完全可以购买Grace Jones的身体可以那样弯曲，”她补充道。

“Lorde’s Melodrama has absolutely beautiful album art, and it’s a perfect accompaniment to the music.

“ Lorde的Melodrama具有绝对美丽的专辑封面，是音乐的完美伴奏。

“I personally love a lot of Riot Grrrl covers but that’s definitely not to everyone’s tastes. Lunachick’s Luxury Problem is one that always stuck with me as it’s just a really fun cover (I think I just want to be on it with them), and Huggybear’s Taking The Rough With the Smooch has a really nice DIY zine style finish to it despite looking quite polished.”

“我个人很喜欢Riot Grrrl的许多封面，但这绝对不是每个人的口味。 Lunachick的《 Luxury Problem》一直困扰着我，因为这是一个非常有趣的封面(我想我只是想和他们在一起)，而Huggybear的《 The Soughoch with the Smooch》具有出色的 DIY风格的Zine看起来很精致。”

但是专辑艺术的未来会怎样？ (But what will happen to the future of album art?)

Music and visuals do not always run in a linear fashion, or even sometimes alongside each other, but both artforms have stood the test of time and innovation by interlinking. As consumers become more impressed and concerned with the aesthetic value of the items they buy, from clothes, cars and even homes, the way their music is packaged has to be good enough to capture their attention.

音乐和视觉效果并非总是以线性方式运行，有时甚至不是彼此并存，但两种艺术形式通过相互联系经受了时间和创新的考验。 随着消费者的印象越来越深刻，他们开始关注从衣服，汽车甚至房屋中购买的商品的美学价值，其音乐包装方式必须足以吸引他们的注意力。

Album art is crucial because it is borne from the relationship between the aural and visual. It has lasted because it has evolved with generations of musicians, artists and graphic designers who want to create something that will impact the general public. Music is beautiful – it only makes sense that it should look beautiful, too.

专辑艺术至关重要，因为它源于听觉和视觉之间的关系。 它之所以能够持续下去，是因为它与一代代的音乐家，艺术家和图形设计师一起发展，他们希望创造出对公众有影响的产品。 音乐很美–它也应该看起来很美。