‘It really does feel surreal’: Alberta graphic designer wins Juno award for album art

Stony Plain, Alta. artist Keenan Gregory won a Juno for album artwork of the year for his collaboration with Royal Tusk. CTV News Edmonton's Connor Hogg has his

A graphic designer from Stony Plain is celebrating a Juno win in a category that some fear is becoming obsolete with the rise of artificial intelligence.

Keenan Gregory won the Album Artwork of the Year for his cover art on the Royal Tusk album Altruistic.

• Sign up for breaking news alerts from CTV News Edmonton, right at your fingertips

“It’s nuts, overwhelming, humbling … it really does feel surreal,” Gregory said.

The design features two women from the back as they embrace and hold hands, with the colours of their arms overlapping and changing.

Cover art is an integral piece of an album because, especially in the past, it’s often the first impression people have of a band or album, according to Gregory.

Now, with the internet and artists having large presences online, the importance and the purpose of album artwork has changed.

“In an age where every single song that ever existed on the planet is available at our fingertips through music streaming services like Spotify and iTunes and YouTube, artists have to come up with ways to get different and stand out from the crowd,” said Eric Alper, a music publicist

“When you’re an independent artist or an artist in the middle of the road, visual branding is always a really great way to stand out.”

With 120,000 songs being uploaded to Spotify each day, the story and the personal touches of a song or album, including the accompanying art, can help make it memorable nearly 50 years later, according to Alper.

The cover art is also just that, art, and is often used only for that purpose.

“Study after study has shown that at least 50 per cent of the people who buy vinyl on a regular basis don’t even open it up, they’re using it to not only support the artist, but they’re using it as album art to hang on their walls, to look cool, just like people buy way too many books and never have an opportunity to read them,” said Alper.

Technological advancements have done a lot of good for the music industry, from improved speakers to being able to tour the world.

Other emerging advancements and trends, like AI, are more of a concern for some in the industry.

“(Music) artists are using AI a lot these days because, quite frankly, they just simply can’t afford to have a graphic designer,” Alper said. “Which is really bad news for graphic designers.”

“It doesn’t matter if there’s no soul there. It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t sound human. For a lot of artists, they just need to get this done in order to start the next steps of building their career.”

The concern around the use of AI to develop album and singles cover art goes beyond the people who currently do that for a living to the people who are training to take over that industry.

“For students who want to get into graphic design, who want to create something from the heart and the brain and the soul, this is what you’re up against,” Alper said.

“I’m just afraid that more and more people are going to use it because it’s faster, it’s cheaper, and in some cases, it’s kind of a little bit better than what we’re able to process and do right now.”

Gregory, who studied illustration and print design at MacEwan University, is also a musician and designed his own cover art before he was a professional artist.

At the time, he wanted to work with a professional, but now encourages musicians to design their own art and they can learn and improve, like he did.

“Just get started, jump in right away,” Gregory said. “The more you do it, the better you’re going to get at it.”

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Connor Hogg