MARINE CRAB ALBUM COVER
Brief
Concept:
Design a compelling album cover for Marine Crab, an up-and-coming alternative rock band. Their sound blends moody surf rock with experimental indie and ambient influences. Visual direction can be surreal, gritty, or coastal-inspired — think atmospheric, with a mysterious edge.
Design Suggestions:
Explore hand-drawn typography or textured elements to evoke a DIY/indie aesthetic.
Incorporate subtle marine or crustacean motifs, abstracted rather than literal.
Play with layering, collage, or analog textures (scan real objects or use grain effects).
Design Overview:
Gritty and coastal-inspired were the words that stood out to me when reading the concept. I wanted to give that underwater yet rustic vibe to the album, as if it were a rock brought into shore by crashing waves.
To fulfil some of the design suggestions, I created handmade marbling paint patterns, scanned them in and layered them over each other to give the starting point for the background. I then created a handwritten page of typography to layer over the top, added in some gritty textures to really hit the design suggestion point.
The crab itself, I thought, could be the statement piece. As a debut album, it felt like the cover needed something to be at the forefront and really put the band name on the map. By doing so, the crab could be used for other album covers in the future.
