Caroline Records used Neue Helvetica 95 Black for their logo between 1997 and 2019.

Ben Folds Five is an American alternative and piano rock trio formed from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, named after the lead singer Ben Folds. They formed in 1993 and were active through 2000, reuniting in 2011. The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner was their third studio album, released on the 27th of April, 1999. This was their last album before their break-up.

The typeface used across the album cover is a bold Garamond – a digital version of ATF Garamond or Garamond No. 3, possily American Garamond – whilst the track list and other details on the back are set in Bank Gothic.

[More info on Discogs]

CD label. The “No Turn” sign in the background also uses Bank Gothic whilst everything else is in Garamond.

Back cover of the CD case. The text relating to Sony Music’s ownership is written in Helvetica Condensed.

The New York Philharmonic’s rendition of The Planets under the guidance of Leonard Bernstein was recorded December 7, 1971. The original release came with a cover featuring an illustration of an angel by Christian Piper.

The variant shown here was designed by Ikuo Niida 新居田郁夫, and it’s spectacular. I can make out stylized planets on concentric orbits, but I’m not quite sure what I’m looking at, and what techniques Niida employed – some parts remind me of Max Ernst’s grattages.

The title is set in the open style of Cinema a.k.a. Hollywood, with the lines below added in bold caps from ITC Avant Garde Gothic.

[More info on Discogs]

A better view on the type

For the release party of music artist Goldielocks—following her breakthrough year and standout success at UMK—we designed a poster built around her primary typeface, Windsor Roman, with Windsor BT’s Light Condensed for the smaller texts. As the event took place close to Halloween, the concept introduced a subtle, atmospheric Halloween influence layered onto the official promotional and press imagery for her debut album, Two of a Kind. The album marks Goldielocks’ emergence as one of Finland’s most promising new international pop artists.

Graphic design, typeface visualization, and album visuals were created by Jirka Väätäinen, with photography by lumiilo. The typeface for the album titles and tracklist is Podium Sharp, which name suits the stage-craving aura and danceable mood on this album and cover.

About the working-class vibe, showing that even when times are tough, we can still find joy and strength in laughter and music.

This showcase highlights the art direction for Finnish rapper Aste’s releases from 2023 to 2025, leading up to his album Nuori & Kuolematon.

A key element in the visual identity is the use of Sequel 100 Black – a bold, modern typeface that reflects Aste’s strong presence and the mix of hip hop and pop in his music. The typeface gives the artwork a clear and confident look, inspired by the clean aesthetics of 1990s Finnish pop and hip hop visuals.

We used Sequel 100 Black consistently to build a recognizable style across covers, social media, and videos. It brings structure and energy, much like Aste’s lyrics — direct, emotional, and powerful.

For the single “Duunarit”, we added DNS Gibsons Two, a more technical and industrial-looking font. It fits the theme of the song, which connects everyday work life with music. While Sequel stands for identity and legacy, Gibson Two brings contrast and highlights the working-class vibe of the song.

Together, these two fonts tell a visual story: strong, clean, and rooted in both past and present – just like Aste’s music.

About dealing with inner turmoil, finding energy, and pushing through life’s chaos. The phrase “chakrat on sekasin” emphasizes this struggle.

About the energetic celebration of summer romance. A nostalgic 90s techno-pop inspired cover.

Strength and resilience of the working class, where music and art rise from even the most industrial, blue- or red-collar roots

Nuori & Kuolematon album tracklist

Nuori & Kuolematon album art

“ANDRÉ” is a new interpretation of Marita Taavitsainen’s old pop song.

Weapons of Mass Destruction is the fifth studio album by American rapper Xzibit. It was released on December 14, 2004, through Open Bar Entertainment, Columbia Records and Sony Urban Music.

The Xzibit logo is by Mister Cartoon a.k.a. Mark Machado. The album name is set in eroded lowercase letters from Flyer Release (by House Industries). On the right of the cover, the stencil font is Phantom Stencil (by Mark A. Klein), with additional effects.

[More info on Discogs]

The song list is set in Flyer Release, combined with Alternate Gothic. The anti-piracy warning uses Bell Gothic Black.

The credits are set in ITC Franklin Gothic Condensed, combined with Flyer Release and Alternate Gothic.

Side note: this is one of my favorite albums by the artist, so many great songs, it made me document the fonts in use. “LAX” was featured in the soundtrack of the video game Need For Speed: Underground 2.
“Klack” was featured in the soundtrack of the video game Juiced 1.

From Genius:

Japan Best is Mariah Carey’s 4th compilation album and her 4th greatest hits album. This collection is unique, as it is a lineup of hits for the Japanese market.

Japan has always loved Mariah. Her releases are some of the best-selling albums over there. Mariah’s 1998 compilation album #1’s remains the best-selling release of all time by a foreign act in Japan.

The typography uses both the Medium and Light style of Largo. In contrast to the former, the latter features no top serif on the A.

[More info on Discogs]

2010 collection from the U.S. boyband featuring the unmistakable talent of future solo star Justin Timberlake. The album has 15 tracks including “Girlfriend”, “Tearin’ Up My Heart”, “Pop” and many more. It was released through Camden. The cover was designed by British studio the-unknown, using all-caps Neue Helvetica 96 Black Italic.

[More info at Discogs]

From Wikipedia:

Hitorie, sometimes stylized as hitorie (ヒトリエ), is a Japanese rock band formed in 2011 by lead vocalist and guitarist wowaka along with bassist Ygarshy and drummer Yumao under the name hitori atelier (ひとりアトリエ). Backing vocalist and fellow guitarist Shinoda joined in 2012, and the band renamed to its current name the same year.

In April 2024, Hitorie released two digital singles, “Sense-Less Wonder after 10 Years” and “On the Front Line”. The latter song was used as the second opening to the anime Mushoku Tensei. The Yuta Ichinose used Trajan for both covers.

Artwork for Catch-Wave, an album of solo improvisations for violin, electronics, and voice by Fluxus artist Takehisa Kosugi. The cover features a vibrating op art treatment of a photo by Tamotsu Fujii designed by Aritsune Terada & Shizuo Ishizuka. Released on CBS/Sony Records in 1975.

The title is set in caps from the left-leaning Alfereta. The artist’s name uses Futura Bold.

[More info on Discogs]

“Sounds speeding on lights” appears to be Trade Gothic. The other fonts on the back cover including the Japanese ones are unidentified.

“Neben mir”, October 2021

For the past two years (from 2021 to February 2023), Julian Grönberg had the pleasure of working on the art direction and some cover art designs again for German rap-singer Nina Chuba’s releases, stage visuals and merchandise. Nina delivered the most streamed song 2023 in Germany with “Wildberry Lillet”, as well as a number 1 album, which showcased a great and diverse selection of modern and classic typefaces that resemble her musical influences.

Nina’s first album in her native language, Glas, was released on February 24, 2023. At the begin of this success story, he chose a manual stretched version of Lucky Feelings by SilverStag for the first half of the songs released at the end of 2021. The look not only ties in with the previous releases featuring WT Monarch and Baskerville, but also combines the artist’s futuristic and diverse approach in her genre.

Once again Grönberg focused on minimalist retouching and innovative typography. For the second half of the releases, he used Motter Femina, which has the same sound as the name of the single that started it all, “Femminello”, to launch the first summer sound single of this album. After that, Nina released “Tracksuit Velour” (cover photo by Jakob Marwein) with Roc Grotesk.

After getting recognized by Spotify’s biggest newcomer playlist GSA, which was displayed on Times Square at the beginning of 2022, Nina delivered the biggest and most streamed hit of Germany 2022, “Wildberry Lillet”. The cover itself became unique with the use of the up-and-down letters from Agharti. The image was taken at a Vevo session and is the only one without a full-length music video.

The label then released a Wildberry Lillet Remix EP, which featured German rapper Juju and the EDM duo twocolors, with the same design used for those releases.

“Molly Moon”, 2021

“Alles gleich”, 2021

“Nicht allein”, 2022

“Femminello”, 2022

“Tracksuit Velours”, 2022

“Wildberry Lillet”, 2022

Wildberry Lillet Remix EP, 2022

“Wildberry Lillet Rave Remix” ft. twocolors, 2022

I, Julian Grönberg, had the honor to create and design the corporate design for Sony Music Finland’s “Glögarit” event last week – a rare case for a Christmas party. The word “Glögarit” refers to the famous mulled wine called Glögi or Glühwein. The highlight of the event: UK rap artist Headie One.

The typeface for the logotype is called Aurora Lights, like aurora borealis, the northern lights. At the same time it got adjusted to look more like melting ice for the winter reference. For the artists line up list a classic urban bold of Druk Wide, which has been an all-time favorite for rap designs in this community.

The design was placed on the invite, posters everywhere at the event, Christmas cards, as well as an ongoing animation on the stage for the live performances and a large “Glögi” package near the entry.

Find the design case including a video and animations on Instagram.

Reissue by Great Tracks / Sony Japan (MHJL-151)

Pacific is an album featuring instrumental compositions by three great names of Japanese jazz and funk; Haruomi Hosono 細野晴臣, Shigeru Suzuki 鈴木 茂, and Tatsuro Yamashita 山下達郎. It’s a summer-themed album with titles reminding of the ocean: “Coral Reef”, “Nostalgia Island“, “Cosmic Surfin’”, …

The design of the cover by Tsuguya Inoue 井上嗣也 is simple: a photo taken by Shimpei Asai in helicopter view and a title without particular design in italic Futura Condensed. We find several times the design of Pacific often at the top of the visuals and in big sizes.

[More Info on Discogs]

Reissue by Victory from 2017 (V25AH426)

Reissue by Victory from 2017 (V25AH426)

Back cover of the reissue by Victory from 2017 (V25AH426)

Norwegian rapper, singer and songwriter Stig Haugen aka Unge Ferrari changed his artist name to Stig Brenner with the release of his album Hvite Duer, Sort Magi in 2021. As part of the new identity, a custom serif called UF–SB was developed by Gregory Page and used in combination with TWK Everett by Nolan Paparelli. Graphic design by Gregory Page, photography by Jonathan Vivaas Kise and Oktawian Gornik, project for Sony Music.

Cover art for the latest single “Nonstop” by MD$ featuring Sexmane and Swedish rap newcomer B.Baby. Druk Condensed is used to headline the title with some dirty concrete street cracks that appear great on the space on this typeface. The word “Nonstop” receives a bold statement with that font. Codex, also known from Cyndi Lauper’s popular covers, however, is used for the artist names and metaphorically underlines the guests as actors in this song. Together both fonts emphasize perfectly the look of a horror movie poster.

Pang is the debut solo album from Caroline Polachek (of Chairlift). It was released by Sony Music, The Orchard, and Polachek’s own Perpetual Novice on October 18, 2019. The design features Pang Serif, a custom typeface created by Timothy Luke. The use of Pang Serif permeates the designs of Pang’s singles as well as the album’s lyric poster insert – the graphic elements share the typeface’s visual language.

Photography by Hugo Comte.

[More info on Discogs]

Boy Wonder by Finnish rapper and singer William was one the most anticipated albums in Finland. His second album comes with a baby photo that is inspired by two legendary covers, Nirvana’s Nevermind and Notorious B.I.G.’s Ready to Die.

The chrome effect applied to the typeface Evangelion by Doménico Barreto nowadays is inspired by many different genres. You can find it in funk (Commodores), metal (AC/DC), and hip hop (Pen & Pixel Mixtapes) – a classic way of Photoshop-made 3D typography that never gets old.

Trajan was used for the tracklist and features of this album. Pantai Bali, which was also used in the previous release of “Ympyrää”, adds an aesthetic that reflects a sort of classical music cover in a color scheme similar to the famous Scarface posters. The artist himself was even wearing a white suit in all of the press images for print and digital media around Helsinki.

The tracklist was revealed with a countdown on the city’s biggest shopping center screen, running for four days until the release on October 1st, 2021.

“Bööna” single cover.

Together with my brother, I developed a collaborative visual conception and delegation for the branding and appearance for the second solo album Kohti Unelmii (“Towards dreams”) of Finnish rap legend Särre on behalf Sony Music Entertainment Finland. The album features artists like Jada Kingdom, Marko Haavisto, Gracias, Kari Tapiiri, JVG, Juno, and DXXXA D.

The first inspiration for the aesthetic of typefaces started by studying the cover arts in record stores all over Helsinki, from Finnish folk to classic funk and rap vinyls. The album is described as a crossover of hip hop and funk with the rhythmic influence of dancehall, which you can hear on the first single “Bööna”.

The second inspiration for the cartoonish look was found in the color selection of the Finnish TV series Moomins. Every character has a sort of color palette that creates a corporate look of all covers. With the highlights in Gretoon and the drop shadow in Gimbo, the typography takes on a very distinctive 3D cartoon look. Based on the logo and the information about the characteristics of the artist, Florian Schröpel created the perfect character that represents the title of the album, the love for basketball, and a father of two kids in form of a cloud who is probably the closest to dreams like the boy of the Dream Works logo. The main graphic design was done by me, his brother Julian: I put all the elements together and took the photos of the press and album images.

The album will be released on October 8th, 2021 by Sony Music Finland.

Photos on the covers taken by Melvin Mescudi on behalf Sony Music Finland. Photos on the album cover taken by Julian Schröpel / Simbayu on behalf Sony Music Finland.

“Elämä On Vitun Jees” single cover.

As a sort of special within the covers, “Kun Ma Astun Laivaan” has a hidden inspiration with the feature guest Marko Haavisto, who was known for his musical appearance in the Aki Kaurismäki movie Mies vailla menneisyyttä, known in English as The Man Without a Past. The colors here are taken from the original movie poster.

“J. Lo” single cover.

Another element is the legacy show poster in October 2021 and the final tracklist of the album which uses Futura Display, with Gretoon for the logo.

For the main album cover we decided to leave all the funky psychadelic look behind and end this project with a mature look of graphics and photographs that are inspired from the simplicities of Storm Thorgerson album covers. Numbers in Futura Display, titles in Futura Extra Bold Condensed, and guest artists in Futura.

“Ympyrää” is the second single of the upcoming album Boy Wonder by William, who is still one of the most streamed artists in Finland.

Yusup Saputra’s Pantai Bali (DYSA Studio, 2021) in early use for the cover art of the single , which will be released on 16th of July 2021 via Sony Music Finland. The idea behind the selection of Panta Bali is classic music covers and the look of his first album Shakespeare, which got mixed hip hop mixtapes styles, with images from all types put together to build a sort of cinematic composition look. Other examples for this signature look of my style can be found in previous covers like Nightshift or the work for the photo prints for Goodbois “Great Nostalgia” recently.

The bold Microgramma was used already in the earlier releases of the artist.

Yusup Saputra’s Rawgly (DYSA Studio, 2021) in early use for the album art of Heartbreak Kid by Shrty, released on 18 June 2021 via Sony Music Finland.

Cover and concept design for the second EP called Toivon Ettei Sust Tuu Kuuluisaa, by Finnish rap artist Wil from Helsinki. The title for this artwork is set in Gallient. The tracklist is set in the better readable type Optima.

All the previous designs for Wil have been very classic, and inspired by mature horror movies like The Crow by Alex Proyas – the artist’s favorite movie. It’s just that in his case the bird is a parrot painted black, to resemble that there is still hope even in dark times to escape to a better place.