Visual/ Textual Analysis: Behind the Cover Art

Cover art and album covers have been the center piece of all records and a main

marketing power behind all major labels. The combination of powerful visuals and strategically

placed text is the driving force behind a successful selling album which can make it more

memorable in the minds of the audience that listen to any particular album. Wiz Khalifas

Rolling Papers album cover accomplishes both of these factors which not only helped drive

his album to the top of the Billboards but also had an ever lasting impact on the audience that

listened to the songs in this album. Visually his cover art brings a lot of symbolism to the

Rolling Papers album through the colors found on the album as well as a clever promoting

technique. Textually the album creates an eye popping text as well as compliments the visuals

as one.

Visuals of any cover art is what helps create the story of what the album is about to

showcase. They are the illustration and backbone of any successful bestselling album as the

artwork pictured is what makes the particular album iconic. In Wiz Khalifas Rolling Papers the

artwork portrays everything that this album is about while still giving it its recognizable appeal.

When I first looked at this covers image, the biggest part of the picture that popped out at me

right away was the main image of Wiz in the dead center of the album. Although his face might

not be recognizable due to the smoke that hes engulfed in and the sunglasses that hes hiding

behind, it still gives an audience the feeling of putting a face to a name. This is a strategic move

on his part as now people know him and could potentially point him out if they were to ever

see him. I think he also used this image placement as a way to advertise himself as a rising solo

artist. The music industry is a competitive business with thousands of musicians and artist all

trying to take off as the next rising star. By doing this hes not only selling his successful album

but also showing that this is all his personal and hard work. The image plays a major role in how

the cover art is made up.

The smoke/ haze that engulfs Wizs face on the cover also plays a significant role in the

artwork itself as well as the album as a whole. Wiz Khalifa, at the time, was a rising hip-hop

artist who was widely known for his usage and condoning in smoking marijuana. I found this

edit to the visual appealing and creative but not overdoing the cover art at all. The smoke

seems to make the album come off a little eerie and mysterious yet intriguing making the

audiences want to listen to what this album holds. This added smoke visual helps bring out the

true character of Wiz and what he really represents as an artist. The smoke also helps play a

huge role in foreshadowing what much of the lyrics of this album are all about. Many of Wizs

lyrics involve recreationally smoking marijuana and rolling up joints hence the name of the

album. For example, in his song The Race he starts off the song by saying Good weed is lit on

this on which only further proves that the smoke on the cover art has a significant effect on

what the music is about and represents.

What really complete the album cover art as a whole are the colors used in the image

itself. The albums cover showcases mostly green which are used for the color of the smoke and

his face which is found mostly in the center of the album itself accompanied by a black

background which takes of the rest of the album. I think this color scheme that was used

compliments everything that Wiz raps about within his album and as well as what he had to go

through as a rising artist to get to where he is today. The color green is known to represent

nature, health, and tranquility.(Kendra Cherry. Color Psychology. AboutEducation.

22Apr.2015.) The color green, in this case, has numerous representations that are found all

within Wizs lyrics and lifestyle. Green could first represent the color of marijuana that he is

commonly known to use as well as rap about. I think it also represents money which he also

raps about often within every song such as in the song Black and Yellow when he says Got

a pocket full of Ben faces which is referring to a large amount of $100 bills. I also think the

green is representing his personal well-being or security that he finally has been given now that

hes an aspiring artist in the music industry. Green is also known for representing harmony

which might also signify the type of music melodies that Wiz is commonly known for. His

upbeat but slow rhythms help separate him from other artist in the hip-hop genera. The black

that surrounds the rest of the album could symbolize his come up to where he is now and the

journey he has taken from the slums of Pittsburgh to a multi-million record seller. The cover art

colors help bring the visual together as a whole while still being able to express what the album

cover is symbolizing.

Although visuals play a big part of any cover art, the text found on the album helps

distinguish artists and other albums which in turn help make any cover art memorable. Text can

help describe what cannot be expressed using just visuals which can in turn enhance the image

as a whole. Even though this album has minimal text it still has a profound influence on the

cover art as a whole. The first text that is depicted on the album is the artists name Wiz

Khalifa in big, yellow, crazy font letters that immediately catch the audience attention. The

font style used gives off a laid back and somewhat groovy feeling that helps symbolizes Wizs

true character which can be described at easygoing and relaxed. It also adds an everlasting

effect on the audience by being such a bright yellow and wild font that it becomes unique and

therefore memorable to anyone who has seen it. Below the artists name is the albums title

name called Rolling Papers which plays not only a significant role as being the albums title

but symbolizes much of what Wiz Khalifa stands for as well as the songs within the album too.

Rolling papers are used in rolling up tobacco or weed to smoke and are a signature for Wiz and

all his fans alike. In other words, Wiz Khalifa only smokes papers and not tobacco products. By

titling his album Rolling Papers hes connecting with his fans that follow his solely paper game

motto. Textual support for a cover art aids in the ability to express meaning where visuals

cannot describe.

Textual and visuals of this cover art have an unusual relationship when it comes down to

it. Its obvious that the visual part of this cover art occupies the majority of the album itself

while the textual part is designated to its little bottom, left hand corner. As well as the fact that

the albums title Rolling Papers is in fine, green print blending in with the background all

together as if it was hiding and not wanting to be seen. I found it odd that a rising artist with a

potentially top selling album would make his album title so unnoticeable to the audience. Isnt

the purpose of an album to remember what the name of it is? I believe what Wizs main

reasoning for this is that he wants to be the center of attention, literally. As mentioned before,

this was the album that got him where he is today so what better way to earn fame than to

advertise oneself by pasting a picture of your face in the dead middle of the cover art. Its a

clever way of promoting oneself to the new and old fans all together. I also think the text

conveys the visual nicely as its representing the name of the artist whose face is on the front

cover since it is really important that the text on your artwork match your artist name and

album title(Jacqueline Rosokoff. 3 Things you need to Know About Cover Art. TuneCore Blog.

12Dec2012. 22Apr2015.)

If I could redo the cover art for this album the one thing I would mainly focus on is the

text within the album. I thought the text was too small for how big the visuals were as well as

the placement of both the artist and album title. I would take the text with the artists name

and placed it above the face visual of Wiz and the album title below the face visual of Wiz. I

think this would be beneficial by creating more space around the album as well as creating a

better flow with the cover art. The album cover would read more like a book rather than

skipping from one section of the cover to the other just to read the artists name and album

title. Visually I would also try and include more of Wiz in the image such as hair and neck to get

a full complete picture of him.

When it comes down to it, the combination of visuals and text fully complete what the

artist is trying to sell to the audience. An albums cover is the first impression a record has

upon its fans. This comes before the first note is played, and is just as important.(Robert

Nicholson. Sonicbids Blogs. 15Nov.2013.Web.24Apr.2015.). This emphasizes the importance of

what a successful album cover must have to stand out among the crowd. Wiz Khalifas album

Rolling Papers does just that while still keeping an appropriate album cover. Visually Wiz uses

himself as the main visual but covered in smoke as to represent who he is as a person as well as

what he typically raps about. He also incorporates the colors green and black which contain a

lot of symbolism in it such as green representing marijuana, a main proponent of his songs, or

money which he also raps about often. Textually this cover art kept it simple and to the point

only saying the artists name and album title but still eye catchy at the same time. Together, the

visual and textual content of this cover art complement each other perfectly as one album.

Citations

"Color Wheel Pro - See Color Theory in Action." Color Wheel Pro: Color Meaning.

N.p.n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2015. .

Nicholson, Robert. "What Makes a Great Album Cover?" What Makes a Great Album Cover?

Sonicbids Blogs, 12 Nov. 2013. Web. 24 Apr. 2015. .

Rosokoff, Jacquelin. "3 Things You Need to Know About Cover Art." TuneCore Blog. N.p., 12 Dec.

2012. Web. 24 Apr. 2015. .

Paper 2 Reflection

For this paper I had a lot of new ideas to work with and much room for improvements

compared to the final. I didnt have much feedback to work with this time expect that the last

paper was completely off topic and didnt fulfill the assignment so I decided to go back and use

my original idea of analyzing visual and texts from Wiz Khalifas album Rolling Papers. I knew

this would be a challenging paper and that being specific would help me in the analyzing

process so I brainstormed on what elements that I should analyze from the cover art picture. I

decided to talk about the image as a whole, the layout, and color of the visuals and the font,

positioning, and color of the text. When analyzing both text and visuals I asked myself questions

along the lines of why and how rather than who/what/where which are too broad and dont

shed light on the image at all. I also incorporated a section of the relationship that both text

and visuals have on each other which helped explain the thought process of creating this cover

art. I still had trouble making the word count as there was not enough to elaborate about.