Memphis Street Academy Arts: Album Cover Art

by Mr. Kilpatrick, Art Room 100

Project Objective: Students will be able to design a 12" x 12" album cover for a musical artist or group of their choosing in order to apply past lessons of primary and secondary colors, complementary colors, and warm and cool colors.

In March, I brought my tabletop record player and several albums into Art Room 100 to show students the value of album cover art. Students agreed that packaging for LPs gives a musical artist a great opportunity to connect with a listener visually as well as auditorily.

First, we watched a "How Its Made" video about vinyl records.

The project took approximately 5 class periods. Every day, 5th and 6th grade students were allowed to pick different records to listen to - some old, some new. A lot of the music was weird and alien to these young scholars, but they kept an open mind. We discussed many different genres of music, touching on lessons they already covered in Ms. Gould's music class earlier in the year. I was impressed by the vast amount of musical knowledge students had comprehended since last semester.

Guest DJs:

Ashlynn and Jordyn chose the Beatles.

Raymond chose Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong.

Jade played the sounds of Philadelphia with Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes.

Janeliz was very curious and excited to hear the Flaming Lips & Fwends covering the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper album. She especially liked the songs Miley Cyrus sang on.