3 cover stories in our archive
Behind the Covers' archive includes 3 album covers documented under the "digital manipulation" design theme, spanning the 1990s, 2000s, 2010s. These covers sit within the alternative, indie, electronic, hip-hop tradition and feature work by Tame Impala, Björk, OutKast. Each entry below includes the cover artwork, the designers and photographers behind it, and a short story about the visual choices that defined the release.
Australian designer Leif Podhajsky created this kaleidoscopic masterpiece by digitally manipulating a simple photograph of trees into a swirling vortex that perfectly captures the album's psychedelic introspection.
Björk's face emerges from a sculptural ruff collar like a futuristic Elizabethan portrait, created through painstaking digital manipulation that took months to perfect. The image merged high fashion with alien beauty, establishing a new template for electronic music artwork.
OutKast's Stankonia cover transforms Big Boi and André 3000 into otherworldly beings through extreme digital manipulation, creating one of hip-hop's most surreal and futuristic album covers that perfectly matched their genre-defying musical experimentation.