3 cover stories in our archive
Behind the Covers' archive includes 3 album covers documented under the "emotional" design theme, spanning the 1970s, 2020s. These covers sit within the r&b, hip-hop, folk, pop tradition and feature work by SZA, Denzel Curry, Joni Mitchell. 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.
SZA sits alone at the end of a white diving board above a vast dark-blue ocean on the cover of SOS. SZA said the composition grew from a 1997 photograph of Princess Diana sitting alone on a yacht's diving board because she wanted to capture the same feeling of isolation.
Denzel Curry's introspective masterpiece features a striking close-up of the rapper's face split between shadow and warm light, creating a powerful visual metaphor for the album's themes of mental health and personal transformation.
The close-up of Mitchell's face bathed in monochromatic blue transforms a portrait into an emotional statement — her sadness and longing literally coloring everything. She described making the album as feeling 'like a cellophane wrapper on a cigarette pack.'