There's a fine line between minimalist album cover and lazy albums covers

i love æspa’s savage digital cover because like it’s just a futuristic set, but the fact basically all the tracks on the album have some sort of ‘futuristic’ elements to them it almost makes me feel like i’m imagining the song taking place in that set??? and using a set as an album cover gives like eerie vibes but in a good way like they’ve come, performed/made the album and left the set as is, like some backrooms shit.. idk if it makes sense but yeah 😭

The "Drama" album cover is the most low-effort trash. Like seriously did they make it in Paint? The font isn't even properly anti-aliased! It looks so cheap and doesn't even approach doing the song justice. My favorite minimalist album cover is "ANTIFRAGILE." I didn't understand it initially but once I realized that it was a reference to Kintsugi, I was totally sold on it. Especially with 40% of their group being Japanese, it's a very clever reference. Btw, the subs are still very easy to read in this format, even with the more informal font selection. Clearly the contrast background is a great deal more helpful than the chonky outlines were. Good to know!

nmixx has such good album covers tho i literally could stare at them for hours

yes! ive had this elegant posh concept and YG has always styled blackpink as private and exotic by not even letting them attend variety shows and events often so the detached aesthetic with minimal album covers works???

i need album covers to have real people on it. like red velvets russian roulette physical cover, nmixx roller coaster cover ate so good like UGHH

I also think that album covers deserve serious effort. Because it is the first visual representation of the album and it somehow has to represent the idea and motive behind the album. As a kpop fan I don't mind graphical album covers, I think they can embody the meaning and concept of the album easlier or even empower the message of the album sometimes(example: Le Sserafim Antifragile).

IVE’s Love Dive blue album cover is soo iconic, everytime I see that shade of blue or similar IVE came to my mind

I'm not the best photographic designer either, but looking at kpop album covers.. that brings shame to my profession. I'm legit embarrassed to see them quite often and it's such a huge missed opportunity. Album (cover) designs is what makes people actually get the album, because it's pretty on your shelves to display in your room. It adds to the fantasy of getting a good cd of music.

I love a good group photo as the cover. It helps recognize from wich group the album actually is. I think a good example is Red Velvet albums like The Red, The Perfect Velvet, The Perfect Red Velvet and Chill Kill. All of them have nice group photos and are still able to showcase the concept of the comeback well.

5:20 I'm kinda in the same territory as you. Sometimes I see covers that aren't terrible, they just lack that extra push, that little oomph to cross the line from functional to good

Personally for me Billlie’s album covers, especially the tbop series and the collective soul and unconscious album really do album covers justice, every single one has a personalized concept to them and even when the design is a bit more minimalistic it still gives a lot of depth to the presentation of the album. I don’t really know a lot about graphic design but i think a lot of the Billlie albums really are the cherry on the top of the cake.

0:04 That applies even more in kpop, considering the big emphasis on the overall visuals on any group/artists comeback

Without the whole packaging, Antifragile always looks like a ripped golden G-string to me.

i feel like lsrfms new album easy is rlly underwhelming

in my opinion, dreamcatcher’s album covers have been really, really amazing so far. their album covers always have a dreamcatcher as the centerpiece, but with the concept, the design of the dreamcatcher changes that really ties in with the concept. the utopia album? marbling and white pillars. tree of language? medieval branches and garlic. they are very satisfying to look at, and they don’t abandon the centerpiece during comebacks!

There is this thing with people hating real people on book covers and as somebody who agrees I also dislike a groupphoto of the members on albums😅

aespa missed out on the opportunity to have a cyberpunk album cover? they could’ve done sm and im only being hard on them bc they’re my ults but we could have had them all in that car in the mv that would’ve been so cute or the billboard shot!

I feel like as long the album captures the essence of a group’s debut and following cbs, I don’t mind that much whether it leans more on the minimal or maximal. The polar extremes can definitely be a problem though. To summarize, it’s all about moderation and what’s appropriate.

I also think sometimes the non-member album covers, can give some more appeal to non-kpop listeners. A lot of people hold not so good opinions about kpop, so not coming off so blatantly kpop could help ?

Another group where the simple album designs fit would be loona. Especially during their solo and sub-unit times it tied the group together and made a bunch of albums of different groups and soloists still feel loona. It helped them establish an identity and recognition value before even debuting! I have similar feelings about new jeans, they have an iconic style that every album includes (except for get up) it makes fans theorize what the next album could look like and it gives a color scheme to each release. I prefer loona’s way around this tho.

For album covers, I always feel like it should represent the essence of the group's comeback and it's concept, which i feel is a given for any album. Like for example, I really like G-idle and TBZ album covers (excluding some), because they give us an overview and an introduction to what kind of concept and music they have for that certain comeback

I think that one of the reason for these minimalistic album covers is that companies want to appeal to the western audience, especially through tiktok, and since the general public can be easily put off by the simple though of enjoying a kpop song, companies want to present these songs with more neutral album covers... And it did work for some songs like Love Dive or Cupid that went viral on Tiktok. Since then, everyone has been doing these simple ass covers which is so sad to see, especially for older groups like twice, this change of image is disappointing...

really agree with most of the things you said. IVE’s Eleven, Love Dive, After Like, I Am followed a simplistic designs and were really memorable for me but the recent one with Baddie was just… lazy or wasn’t matching with the concept at all. Lesserafim’s album covers were real cool imo, Fearless introduced the group to the public for the first time, Antifragile showed that their scars were filled with a shiny golden material, Unforgiven was their inner burning flame and it’s now getting outside of them. And now the triology had ended so they are stepping to a new era with Easy.

Personally, I find that minimalism works better for digital covers, while physical covers benefit from doing more. Digital covers are always displayed really small, so the detail is lost. My favourite digital cover is Kep1er's First Impact because of how efficiently it conveys a retro space meteor vibe with a coloured swoosh and a fancy font on a black background.

This is definitely an interesting topic, because, as you said there are great simplistic and also maximalistic album covers. For example, I love the physical album cover of Tri. Be's Veni Vidi Vici, both versions are gorgeous, simple and capture the vibe and concept well, but in this case I like it more than the digital album cover with members themselves, because it's just too flashy to a point it's a bit overwhelming. However, that's just my opinion. I definitely don't have any problems with Blackpink's and Ive's album covers as well, but I don't share the same sentiment about Le Sserafim's. Even though they're my ult group, I just don't feel like buying their albums, when they don't really radiate the same energy I love the girls for, but maybe that's just a me issue. Anyways, a great video, have a good day🥰

One thing I noticed, and I don't even know if that's just me being clueless and not knowing how to use internet anymore, but back then Fan Art covers were a HUGE thing, like they were used 50% of the time instead of the official ones. And there were quite choices for big artists especially, so if you didn't like the cover you could just replace it with anything. Of course that was before the streaming era, we had the songs downloaded and could change the cover like that with iTunes. Now that I say this, I guess maybe the streaming era is what killed the fan artwork culture. I mean there were whole sites dedicated to this and now whenever I look for a fanmade cover of a recent kpop song there is zero and it's so weird to me.

Very interesting discussion. I've often been surprised at how plain kpop album covers can look. Since I mostly listen to metal what I look for in an album cover is cool artwork. Some of my favorite album covers are from a band called Motionless in White. I feel like they choose very beautiful artwork that embodies the feel of the album. But that's just my personal preference :)

Off topic but your voice is really soothing and calming 😌

I definitely agree with you about TWICE's more recent albums. I will NEVER forget how gorgeous the Taste of Love album was... truly one of my most prized possessions; the concept is just chef's kiss and all the inclusions were amazing (plus, it came in a SOLID BOX...). However, I'm excited they're bringing back more interesting covers with their With YOU-th album! I'd imagine that they're going more all out with the album covers since TWICE is nearing their 10th year next year in 2025; it seems like the Between 1 & 2 and Ready to Be albums were a bit shaky considering they had just renewed their contracts with JYP and were preparing to roll out their worldwide tour respectively. As for what I look for in album covers, if I'm honest, I'm already happy if it's a photo of the idols. Nayeon's Im Nayeon album (I really did love the magazine concept for Nayeon's album) and Jihyo's Zone album both feature them on the cover and that was enough for me.

It's not really about being "boring" or "minimalistic". A lot of it is just optimized for primary use cases in the digital world. As a UX/UI designer I can see how the more toned down covers are better for human perception and they can be interpreted even when small, as for photography it can be very hard to recognize the image when it is on a smaller device like a phone screen (which most end devices are). It is nicer to look at and easier to recognize the artist when you are in the actual use case, especially if you aren't a super fan who cares about the imagery too much. As I would interpret it, it is to appeal the broader audience and their devices which are most likely casual listeners.

Le Sserafim Unforgiven cover is kinda mess, in a bad way. Maybe I don't get the message or intent behind it or the designer failed to deliver it. In short Unforgiven album cover could not overdo the Antifragile cover.

maybe something that also ties into this is spotify (idk if other music streaming platforms did this as well) no longer showing you the album cover of the song you’re currently listening to but instead a short video clip. so i guess digital album covers have become even less important through this but that’s just a random thought i had

While I am someone who mostly prefers graphic design covers rather than group photos covers cause I use albuns as decor (like magazines and books can be used for decor) I do think they could do so much better with the design, even if it's still minimalistic.

I think the aespa Drama album cover is in the word. Drama. Creating such a drastic and loud impactful color with a jarring font that read Drama encapsulates the concept of the comeback a lot.

To add to your comments on the effectiveness of the Empathy cover, most of the nct covers do not even feat. the members, but you know that it is an Nct cover, bc they have this specific style to their covers. Similar with Bts, they also have this iconic style. Like you know a cover design is great when you can do pixel art of it or just simplify it and it still works & it's still recognizable. And when it comes to covers with the members on them, I feel like Loona has to be at least in the top 10. Like even non Orbit recognize the XX and ++ Album covers. I feel like it is most important to pick a style and stay with it as best as possible, bc even if the newer Twice covers can look a little bland... I can still tell that it is a Twice album cover, so I would say it still works lol ^^

honestly i'm not a fan of when the group is featured in the album cover, especially if there are a lot of members (i do like some for ex: stayc staydom, xdinary heroes deadlock) i definitely prefer either graphic design or the red velvet photo example at the beginning, for me it just HAS to capture the vibes of the album + ofc look good and cohesive txt have some of my favorite album covers definitely i particularly love nmixx album covers, and i think the stray kids rock-star cover captures the vibes of the title tracks very well !! (ofc then we have exo covers who's main goal is to have the name of the group somewhere hidden/mixed in the design wich i think is cool!)

I wonder what are your thoughts on Weki Meki's "lock end lol" album (the pink and yellow one xd) I just realized that it's so pretty comparing their others album covers...

I'm not entirely sure if it counts as minimalistic but in my opinion, Dreamcatcher's entire album discography have the best overall minimal design from the first to the latest! It feels like collecting a series of novels.

in a way this conversation really brings us back to the "image of the group" talk and how a lot of groups do not have one. for nct, their covers almost always work well because their concept and imagery has remained consistent over the years and its rather the concept we want to be represented than the members. but it does not work well for every group (e.g., twice, because they're more known for the members and not any consistent concept as of late). and again, not all minimalism is lazy and not all lazy work is minimalistic - a cover should be minimalistic only when it is iconographic enough, either of thee group or the era's visuals. aespa's drama cover might have worked for the title track (with a heavy stretch), but the rest of the album????? absolutely not😭 YOLO is literally on the album. listening to the song and seeing the background lyrics in red on spotify is a terrible experience.

Somethings I genuinely think maybe there’s a cultural difference But I swear in the west the album cover is literally make or break over here and you get critiqued if it’s mediocre There’s times when iconic album covers and literally the pic used to represent the artist Like let’s not forget the Michael Jackson iconic leather album, The Beatles walking past the street, Nicki Minaj pink finger print, One Direction red phone box, Frank oceans Blond green hair album cover, Rihanna naked with white writing across her and short black hair, Drake childhood version facing him cloud album, Lil Wayne and Zayn tattoos on childhood faces, Lorde melodrama, Sza blue ocean sitting album, Olivia Rodrigo stickers album, like these are all straight from my head and define an era And a lot of K-pop is just some lazy ass writing, 0 effort this is why I can’t argue when people call K-pop the fast fashion of music industry because yes

i think you should discuss about how jype is always lazy and lack creative direction especially for twice concept photo like its always been the same like if not green screen its just plain background for example they should emphasize the red string of fate concept for i got you but all we got is boring nature background and im dissappointed with one spark concept photo released last week its not like they dont have resource, imo concept photo is a great way to build anticipation

One of the best kpop design for albums has to be SHINee’s The Story of Light. They’re a perfect blend of minimalism with artistry

I agree with this. Minimalistic albums worked based on the artist concepts. Like you said it works for lessrafim, ive and bp. How the album cover looks really draws my attention to check it out. I was disappointed in Dramas album cover, cuz based on Aespa’s previous album covers. It just looks like the designers didn’t put any creativity on it. With how story line based that comeback was, I was surprised they didn’t do more. Idk if it’s a type of thing but I’ve noticed. That the more simplistic the album covers are, the more complex the concept photos are within the album. Ofc it doesn’t happen with every album like this. I’ve seen amazing album covers with just okay photos. But it’s just a pattern I seem to notice. Especially with Lesserafim and Blackpink

my personal favourite kpop album covers have to be The Red by Red Velvet, Pink tape by f(x) (idk why it just compliments the songs so well) and jack in the box by jhope

THIS! I'm glad I'm not crazy for thinking that these designs are so boring for a genre that's all about showcasing aesthetics and visual elements. The packaging design too jyp/source music/starship I'm talking about you specifically. It's so tired! Also what happened to members being included on the album covers? When I saw IVE's debut album in person I was confused as hell.

there's minimalistic and then there's underwhelming. i feel like lots of people get that confused

We cannot talk album covers without mentioning f(x).

Amazing thoughts

Why do people have to complain abt simplistic album designs all the time?? Covers are supposed to be memorable, visible from far away (I mean mainly for the icon on spotify etc, not physical ones) and easy to read. As you said, IVE and BLACKPINK have simple covers, and they truly look great! As for "Drama" cover, I also think it fits perfectly. It ties really nicely with the MV, it's showing the main two colors of the song - red and black, the word "Drama" kind of looks like the red material was pierced with a sword (just like in the MV). It's simple and it honestly works!

rv definitely have one of the most interesting album covers in gg

honestly I wonder if sometimes digital album covers are bland/lazy in an effort to get people to buy the physical album! I've always thought that the priority for design/rollout has been for physical copies and sales, so the idea of a digital album cover being anything more than "Group Name - 3rd Mini Album" or whatever is just the companies being like fineeeeee stream this but LOOK AT THIS GORGEOUS ALBUM YOU CAN BUY!! similarly, ive always found it VERY strange that many kpop albums include stuff like "3rd Album" on it, that isn't a thing anywhere but kpop/some jpop.

i would like to know your opinion on LE SSERAFIM new album cover

Jesus you make such addicting content..

The album that comes to mind when I hear “bland” album covers is that one loona album with all their hairs on the cover.

billlies album covers are good i think, theyre definitely maximalism not simple at all but i think theyre fun.

I like Billlie's album covers. They're really beautiful, artistic, and have lots of details. That's what i like.

3:48 They need to stop this shit

for drama, idk if this is an unpopular take or not but i like drama’s cover with respect to the title track bc it just looks so rough and raw. but if we’re talking about the whole album im blaming the incoherence of the songs instead because how the fuck is you and and better things on the same album as the first three songs.

The group Billlie have amazing album covers they're so unique!

For the DRAMA album, they could've made it like that scene from their music video where it was bl**d on the window/wall! Okay, no bl**d for trigger warning but they could've atleast added the window/wall as a background....

I personally prefer album material /from which is made and the texture/ over the picture in front of it. Like, I don't mind BP plain coverage because the physical album cryes expensive vibes.

i believe aespa's drama cover it's done like that becuase compared with the others they have, it's unique and perfectly dramatic

i think the worst is from izone, specifically ssots. what the actual is thst album cover 😢😅

since we have talked about album covers why don't you talk about albums and all the stuff companies put into it. It literally bothers me, even tho I don't buy or own any physical album. The point I want to mention is that albums are bought either to collect rare photocard of a member or to win a chance to idols. and many more other problems. At the end of the day companies are manipulating fans to buy albums with different methods.

I Never Die is the best album cover🖤❤️✨🔥🔥

They just don’t make album covers like For Muzik by 4Minute anymore

I feel the same about K-Pop lightsticks these days. Today everything is so simplistic and bland looking, that fans literally eat it up without complaining. I feel like companies put a lot more effort in everything back in the day in comparison to now. It's a shame how album covers look so bland and boring in comparison to the old days of K-Pop. Like you said about something about text and concept related imagery, these are a few examples of older albums: - Chained Up by VIXX (the neck with a choker around it, the title and group name in the right lower corner) - One Shot by B.A.P. - Television by Zico (imagery of TVs are centered) - Fiction and Fact by B2ST (it's very black, but the album cover represents the group's name) - Midnight Sun by B2ST (physical album features a mask)

apink’s precent album cover makes me so mad lol

the easy album cover is just ugly lol, the 3 previous still kinda sits well with me tbh

in my opinion, underwhelming album covers just look low effort on purpose and by that it kind of makes the album feel 'chich' somehow. personally i don't think its a bad think, i think the covers are better off like that rather than with a lot of visual information and stuff cause kpop mvs are already so visually appealing so, the cover of the album being simpler can somehow captivate the curiosity about the songs of the album etc. idk it just looks classy and a bit chic in my opinion and i dont really mind about it

i LOVE sm album covers. sm always delivers with its graphic designers and they seem to just KNOW or predict trends. never too little and if its too much it FITS. i also love the cohesion of ateez albums a lot, it seems like they have their own style and they stick to it im personally very much a fan of actual graphic design on covers and not just a photo of the members

For me the best album covers are newjeans,idk why

I don't mind BP's but atleast IVE plays with fonts, backgrounds and textures. That Drama cover is my enemy though lol

4:06 sorry but drama cover looks cheap like it looks like it was made by a fan(like png placed ontop of a colored background)

I understand that some prefer to go with a minimalistic style but at least do it well. Ive cover in my opinion are always so ugly and messy

BLACKPINK always make trend

Minimalism exists yall

This is why im happy im a (G)-Idle stand! A good mix between simple but maximalist for all their covers! :D

your first mistake is expecting real artistry from kpop groups