Many underappreciate and ignore the subtleties of graphic design. A large number of people view graphic design as something easy that could be passed onto an intern. But after countless public mishaps, most companies know they need professional help before breaking out Adobe Illustrator.
That being said, I find myself looking at a lot of designs and saying, “Really?” Sometimes, what gets published is simplistic or unprofessional. Other times, the design is just bad. In a world where design is constantly upping its game, questions often arise about what makes a good design.
Kanye West once again changed the name of his new album Feb. 10, this time to “The Life of Pablo.” West also released the album art for “T.L.O.P.” Thursday on his Twitter account. The cover, designed by Peter De Potter, was simplistic in design and features: “The Life of Pablo” was repeated in occasionally overlapping columns with a photo of a wedding party in the bottom left corner.
However, once “The Life of Pablo” began streaming on Tidal, a different album cover was shown, this time with the additional words “which / one” repeated and another image of a woman in bikini bottoms in the bottom left corner. Both covers were mocked online and in the media. Some criticized them for being too simple, and others thought they looked strange.
I think the album art is ugly. I am not the only one. Many artists said they disliked De Potter’s album art and designed their own covers instead. Ugly is not necessarily a bad thing — ugly makes you think about why West and De Potter would choose this design over countless others, and it makes you reconsider why it’s ugly to begin with.
West is not the only public figure to be criticized for poor design choice. On my WTBU radio show, “Class and Sass,” this week, the discussion of West’s album grew into a discussion on presidential campaign logos. The same question came up: What if the candidates really picked the best design they were offered? Republican candidate Jeb Bush’s logo “Jeb!” looks as if someone typed it on Microsoft Word, which is not a great design strategy.
Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign logo is an arrow crossing two lines in the shape of an “H.” After Clinton released the logo, many responded with disappointment and some offered up alternative versions, similar to the situation West was in after his album cover was released.
In fact, New York Magazine published an article entitled “Everything That’s Wrong With Hillary’s New Logo, According to the Internet.” If so many people were able to offer up alternative versions for a logo, the question that arises becomes: Why did these public figures choose these logos?
Bush and Clinton both have their own reasons. Most likely, the candidates wanted to appeal to as many voters as possible by using a neutral logo without much flair. Every other candidate has an equally boring campaign logo, so it can be assumed that there was some motivation behind these bland decisions.
West, known to be outspoken, wanted to be talked about. West’s art is not about the cover art — it is about the music. Kanye West is a musician, and he knows how to be famous. West knows he needs to be talked about, and talked about a lot, for his album to reach a large number of listeners who would have normally forgotten about it.
West, and every other musician, movie star or Instagram model, needs to reach new audiences to remain famous and successful. These new audiences are most easily reached through public discussion, and if album art can cause a new discussion, West only benefits.
That being said, Kanye West has high expectations and previously had many artistic, and even iconic, album covers. Despite that, there are motivations for West to ignore the criticism of his album and do whatever he wants, and there is still a part of me that misses the old Kanye.
