Doorway to my Comfort by Daniel DiSessa
Doorway to my Comfort by Daniel DiSessa
Abstract
Abstract
Abstract
This thesis explores the role of graphic design for album covers, the emotional impact of sound, and its influence on my internal world. The objective was to design a comprehensive album package that unites these three dimensions which were explored in my research. I investigated what album covers mean and why they are still important today, even in the digital streaming era.
Album covers can be interactive, and they help transport people mentally to a place of comfort. Album design often acts as a visual portal. The album cover that I designed for my thesis reflects a comfortable space and invites viewers to enter it. I used color, typography, and imagery to create a set including a record cover, sleeve, and supplemental ephemera.
This thesis is important because it deepens understanding of the designer's multi-dimensional role in the representation of meaning, and it explores the relationship between emotion, design, and sound. By translating sound into visual form, it highlights how design shapes perception, memory, and cultural understanding. In an era dominated by digital streaming, physical album design remains a tactile and conceptual framework that deepens engagement with music and reinforces the enduring cultural importance of visual storytelling.
This thesis explores the role of graphic design for album covers, the emotional impact of sound, and its influence on my internal world. The objective was to design a comprehensive album package that unites these three dimensions which were explored in my research. I investigated what album covers mean and why they are still important today, even in the digital streaming era.
Album covers can be interactive, and they help transport people mentally to a place of comfort. Album design often acts as a visual portal. The album cover that I designed for my thesis reflects a comfortable space and invites viewers to enter it. I used color, typography, and imagery to create a set including a record cover, sleeve, and supplemental ephemera.
This thesis is important because it deepens understanding of the designer's multi-dimensional role in the representation of meaning, and it explores the relationship between emotion, design, and sound. By translating sound into visual form, it highlights how design shapes perception, memory, and cultural understanding. In an era dominated by digital streaming, physical album design remains a tactile and conceptual framework that deepens engagement with music and reinforces the enduring cultural importance of visual storytelling.
This thesis explores the role of graphic design for album covers, the emotional impact of sound, and its influence on my internal world. The objective was to design a comprehensive album package that unites these three dimensions which were explored in my research. I investigated what album covers mean and why they are still important today, even in the digital streaming era.
Album covers can be interactive, and they help transport people mentally to a place of comfort. Album design often acts as a visual portal. The album cover that I designed for my thesis reflects a comfortable space and invites viewers to enter it. I used color, typography, and imagery to create a set including a record cover, sleeve, and supplemental ephemera.
This thesis is important because it deepens understanding of the designer's multi-dimensional role in the representation of meaning, and it explores the relationship between emotion, design, and sound. By translating sound into visual form, it highlights how design shapes perception, memory, and cultural understanding. In an era dominated by digital streaming, physical album design remains a tactile and conceptual framework that deepens engagement with music and reinforces the enduring cultural importance of visual storytelling.
Journey
Journey
Journey
I've always seemed interested in album covers. So I thought of the idea of creating a vinyl package that explores the history of album cover design
After a semester of research i figure out that I wanted to change the idea to a album vinyl package that explores how music represents a place of comfort for me.
Started with looking at other album covers and redesigning one in particular. What I learned from that I will put into making my own album vinyl package
I've always seemed interested in album covers. So I thought of the idea of creating a vinyl package that explores the history of album cover design
After a semester of research i figure out that I wanted to change the idea to a album vinyl package that explores how music represents a place of comfort for me.
Started with looking at other album covers and redesigning one in particular. What I learned from that I will put into making my own album vinyl package
I've always seemed interested in album covers. So I thought of the idea of creating a vinyl package that explores the history of album cover design
After a semester of research i figure out that I wanted to change the idea to a album vinyl package that explores how music represents a place of comfort for me.
Started with looking at other album covers and redesigning one in particular. What I learned from that I will put into making my own album vinyl package
Original
Original
Original
1st Iteration
1st Iteration
1st Iteration
LIFE’S A TRIP a Studio album by Trippie Redd ‧ Released in 2018.
LIFE’S A TRIP a Studio album by Trippie Redd ‧ Released in 2018.
LIFE’S A TRIP a Studio album by Trippie Redd ‧ Released in 2018.
1st Semester
1st Semester
1st Semester
When starting my research I found John Connell’s and Chris Gibson’s article “No Passport Necessary: Music, Record Covers and Vicarious Tourism in Post-war Hawai‘i.’ They talk about album covers as a cultural representation and how “virtual tourism” which means that album covers let listeners imagine places and experiences from looking at the album cover. For example, if the album cover of an album is tropical and the music is similar to that you would probably think and imagine of tropical places when looking at the cover and listening to the music.
When starting my research I found John Connell’s and Chris Gibson’s article “No Passport Necessary: Music, Record Covers and Vicarious Tourism in Post-war Hawai‘i.’ They talk about album covers as a cultural representation and how “virtual tourism” which means that album covers let listeners imagine places and experiences from looking at the album cover. For example, if the album cover of an album is tropical and the music is similar to that you would probably think and imagine of tropical places when looking at the cover and listening to the music.
When starting my research I found John Connell’s and Chris Gibson’s article “No Passport Necessary: Music, Record Covers and Vicarious Tourism in Post-war Hawai‘i.’ They talk about album covers as a cultural representation and how “virtual tourism” which means that album covers let listeners imagine places and experiences from looking at the album cover. For example, if the album cover of an album is tropical and the music is similar to that you would probably think and imagine of tropical places when looking at the cover and listening to the music.
Hip Hop Album cover example:
Looking just at the album cover alone, without looking at the name of the album and listening to the music. I can imagine myself in a trip or a hallucination, which is 100% what the artist was intending to make us as consumers/listeners feel.
The floating heads, bright clashing colors, fantasy elements like the unicorn and symbolic figures like the pyramid with the eye and Benjamin Franklin, this whole album cover gives off a surreal, psychedelic, almost dreamlike vibe, and listening to the music adds more to that.
This represents "virtual tourism” because when you look at the album cover you imagine yourself experiencing some type of psychedelic trip. Connecting yourself to the cover on a mental journey, which makes it virtual tourism of the mind rather than a place, like an experience.
Hip Hop Album cover example:
Looking just at the album cover alone, without looking at the name of the album and listening to the music. I can imagine myself in a trip or a hallucination, which is 100% what the artist was intending to make us as consumers/listeners feel.
The floating heads, bright clashing colors, fantasy elements like the unicorn and symbolic figures like the pyramid with the eye and Benjamin Franklin, this whole album cover gives off a surreal, psychedelic, almost dreamlike vibe, and listening to the music adds more to that.
This represents "virtual tourism” because when you look at the album cover you imagine yourself experiencing some type of psychedelic trip. Connecting yourself to the cover on a mental journey, which makes it virtual tourism of the mind rather than a place, like an experience.
Hip Hop Album cover example:
Looking just at the album cover alone, without looking at the name of the album and listening to the music. I can imagine myself in a trip or a hallucination, which is 100% what the artist was intending to make us as consumers/listeners feel.
The floating heads, bright clashing colors, fantasy elements like the unicorn and symbolic figures like the pyramid with the eye and Benjamin Franklin, this whole album cover gives off a surreal, psychedelic, almost dreamlike vibe, and listening to the music adds more to that.
This represents "virtual tourism” because when you look at the album cover you imagine yourself experiencing some type of psychedelic trip. Connecting yourself to the cover on a mental journey, which makes it virtual tourism of the mind rather than a place, like an experience.
I decided to listen to and re-design using my ideas Trippie Redd’s "LIFE'S A TRIP” album cover Released in 2018. When listening to this album I made notes of when he talked about fighting his demons and all this pressure on him because life is hard.
When making this album I wanted to make sure that I still kept the very bright clashing colors. But I wanted to add that the majority of the eyes on each object were staring at Trippie, to make it feel like he's being paranoid which could be a symptom when on drugs and are in a trip/hallucination. I tried to make the background multiple colors to make it feel more like a hallucination because the main thing being thought of when it comes to being in a hallucination is a lot of colors. I also tried to keep it more geometric for the most part and add symbolic figures like the illuminati pyramid, the moon, and the sun.
So when I look at my idea for the album cover I feel like I represented the Artists intention, because I feel like I'm on a trip when I look at my version of the album cover which is the same feeling I had for the original album cover. I feel like I accomplished how I felt when listening to the music because just like how the album cover is supposed to make you feel, the music does the exact same thing. I felt like I was on a mental trip when listening to this whole album. So with that I tried to make the cover based on being on a trip, being paranoid, and seeing so many colors.
I decided to listen to and re-design using my ideas Trippie Redd’s "LIFE'S A TRIP” album cover Released in 2018. When listening to this album I made notes of when he talked about fighting his demons and all this pressure on him because life is hard.
When making this album I wanted to make sure that I still kept the very bright clashing colors. But I wanted to add that the majority of the eyes on each object were staring at Trippie, to make it feel like he's being paranoid which could be a symptom when on drugs and are in a trip/hallucination. I tried to make the background multiple colors to make it feel more like a hallucination because the main thing being thought of when it comes to being in a hallucination is a lot of colors. I also tried to keep it more geometric for the most part and add symbolic figures like the illuminati pyramid, the moon, and the sun.
So when I look at my idea for the album cover I feel like I represented the Artists intention, because I feel like I'm on a trip when I look at my version of the album cover which is the same feeling I had for the original album cover. I feel like I accomplished how I felt when listening to the music because just like how the album cover is supposed to make you feel, the music does the exact same thing. I felt like I was on a mental trip when listening to this whole album. So with that I tried to make the cover based on being on a trip, being paranoid, and seeing so many colors.
I decided to listen to and re-design using my ideas Trippie Redd’s "LIFE'S A TRIP” album cover Released in 2018. When listening to this album I made notes of when he talked about fighting his demons and all this pressure on him because life is hard.
When making this album I wanted to make sure that I still kept the very bright clashing colors. But I wanted to add that the majority of the eyes on each object were staring at Trippie, to make it feel like he's being paranoid which could be a symptom when on drugs and are in a trip/hallucination. I tried to make the background multiple colors to make it feel more like a hallucination because the main thing being thought of when it comes to being in a hallucination is a lot of colors. I also tried to keep it more geometric for the most part and add symbolic figures like the illuminati pyramid, the moon, and the sun.
So when I look at my idea for the album cover I feel like I represented the Artists intention, because I feel like I'm on a trip when I look at my version of the album cover which is the same feeling I had for the original album cover. I feel like I accomplished how I felt when listening to the music because just like how the album cover is supposed to make you feel, the music does the exact same thing. I felt like I was on a mental trip when listening to this whole album. So with that I tried to make the cover based on being on a trip, being paranoid, and seeing so many colors.
Thesis Poster
Thesis Poster
Thesis Poster
Poster I made to present my thesis at conferences
Poster I made to present my thesis at conferences
Poster I made to present my thesis at conferences
Presented at Fitchburg States University Undergraduate 2026 Conference
Presented at Fitchburg States University Undergraduate 2026 Conference
Presented at Fitchburg States University Undergraduate 2026 Conference
Presented at MassURC 2026 Conference at UMass Amherst
Presented at MassURC 2026 Conference at UMass Amherst
Presented at MassURC 2026 Conference at UMass Amherst