Cover Design for Single: Sunny Anyway
How can a cover make you hear the song before it plays?
Overview:
What began as a favor for a friend’s single cover turned into a complete design exercise.
Goal:
Create a cover that stands out even as a thumbnail in streaming platforms, while conveying the song’s mood — relaxed, warm, and upbeat.
Process:
Studied visual references, tested compositions, and refined multiple iterations before finalizing the “traveler under sunlight” scene as the main concept.
Outcome:
The final design was used for the single release and helped the song reach the New Song Chart for the first time, staying for three days and peaking at No. 37 alongside several well-known artists. It balanced clarity and emotion, and reminded me that good design may come from ideas tested through practice.
Year:
Keywords:
Roles:
- MING ZU — Design / Visual Concept
- WM — Music / Lyrics
Background
When friends became customer
A casual collaboration between friends became an opportunity to reexamine my creative process.
At the time, I had been developing my CATBOX series for about four months — little traction, but visible growth that friends noticed.
WM, a musician preparing to release a new single, hadn’t yet found a cover that fit. He reached out, offering a real brief and a shared goal: he’d get his cover, I’d gain a solid portfolio piece. A simple, satisfying exchange.
Define & ideate
How Can a Song Catch the Eye?
The first question:
how to make people stop for two extra seconds.
I began defining the cover’s communication logic from that point.
The key problem was: what should the cover really make people see?
From a listener’s perspective, most people only see the cover on the player screen or as a tiny thumbnail in charts.
In other words, the design must be clear, rhythmic, and recognizable in just a few seconds — enough to make someone pause and listen a bit longer.
I established three core criteria:
- Understandable — The visual message should be straightforward.
- Readable — Information must stay clear and uncluttered.
- Consistent — The visuals should match the song’s tone and energy.
Now, let’s return to this specific song.
Song: Sunny Anyway
Mood: Gentle, upbeat, carefree
Genre: Hip-hop fused with jazz rhythms
Theme: Enjoy life, stay open-minded
Based on the idea of “designing for visibility,” I proposed several early concepts:
- The artist’s portrait with strong warm–cool contrast
- A traveler carrying a backpack
- A person lying in a “field of everyday objects.”
After discussions with the client, we decided to go with the “traveler walking toward the sun” concept — simple, story-driven, and a natural echo of Sunny Anyway.
Catch the Feeling
Start from the Common, End with the Personal
With the initial concept set, I began studying the reference covers that WM sent me.
From these references, I extracted a few shared characteristics:
- Bright, lively color palettes
- Blurred or ambiguous shapes
- Strong warm–cool contrasts
- Or, in another direction, a calm atmosphere built with deep blues
These elements could easily convey the musical style, but I wanted to add something of my own — a sense of motion in the composition.
So I chose a low-angle perspective: looking upward, with the traveler’s back facing the viewer as they walk toward the sunlight.
This creates a sense of space and freedom, echoing the song’s themes: carefree journeys and sunny openness.
After confirming with the client, this direction was finalized as the composition for the cover.
Iteration & Experiment
From rough to right
Throughout the refinement stage, I kept a full-size view of the entire composition visible at all times — even while adjusting details in smaller sections.
This helped ensure that every change still worked at thumbnail scale, where most people would actually see the cover.
Each version tested a slightly different rhythm: contrast, lighting and balance — always returning to the question, “Can it still catch the eye in two seconds?”
V1 — Finding the Big Shapes
- What I tested: Based on the confirmed composition, I started placing the main elements into the frame. It was still rough, but the overall structure and key parts were all there.
- What didn’t work: Apart from the layout, almost everything else — color, lines, and typography — felt off.
- What I kept: I kept the composition and general direction. This version was more like an “initial input,” but it gave me a reference point for all the later refinements.
V2 — Finding the Lignt
- What I tested: Tried using stronger yellow highlights to express sunlight while adjusting the shadows to add depth.
- What didn’t work: The light was too direct — it looked more like a burst of fire, making the main figure appear flat. The sense of “glow” turned into glare.
- What I kept: The direction of light and the sense of flowing energy.
V3 — Building the Mood
- What I tested: Used a complete color palette to separate the foreground and background, emphasizing the “sunny” mood with a blue–yellow contrast
- What didn’t work: The light–dark contrast was too soft, creating a messy rhythm that made it hard for the eye to focus.
- What I improved next: The color palette and the bright, cheerful tone — the direction felt right.
V4 — Refining the Scene
- What I tested: Adjusted hue and contrast, thickened the outlines, and added symbolic shapes to strengthen the visual focus.
- What didn’t work: The text still needed to be added, but the overall composition was basically set.
- What I kept: The overall layout — this version marked the point where the final direction became clear.
V5 — Finish
- What I tested: Added the song title and signature, trying to merge text and image smoothly.
- What didn’t work: The client said, “This is the one.”
- What I kept: The glowing handwritten title — its rhythm matched the song’s mood perfectly.
Outcome & Reflection
Learning From What Worked (and especially, What Didn’t)
The final cover captured both the warmth and the lighthearted energy of the song.
The client gave very positive feedback — the track stayed on the New Song Chart for three consecutive days, peaking at #37.
It was his first time appearing on the same list as some well-known creators.
I’d like to think my cover helped a little — in any case, a small victory worth celebrating.
During this project, I encountered something quite interesting — creative direction from a non-designer.
In several feedback sessions, I heard comments like:
- “Can these lines feel more three-dimensional?”
- “This blue doesn’t look premium enough.”
At first, I found such feedback frustrating. It felt vague, and I sensed a gap — the client didn’t realize how much time small visual adjustments could take.
But later I realized something important: as designers, we need to translate these feelings into design language. Or, at least, give it a try.
Even if non-designers can’t articulate their intent precisely, their intuition often points to something real.
By treating those moments as opportunities for visual translation, I ended up improving the design in ways I wouldn’t have reached alone.
Looking back, I also realized I could have done better in the problem-definition stage.
There are actual user behavior reports for music platform interfaces — I could have used that data to make the early decisions more precise.
That kind of data-driven thinking is, in fact, something I’m quite familiar with from my research background.
Other Design Notes
- Lighting arrangement — The light directions were a bit random this time. Next time I’ll keep one or two fixed angles to give the scene a subtle sense of order — a little chaos, but with a plan.
- Repetition of similar elements — Some elements looked too similar, which weakened the contrast. In composition, difference builds rhythm—too much sameness flattens it.
- Color contrast & balance — Color remains my weakest area. I wasn’t happy with this palette, but the lessons here will definitely carry into future projects.
Closing Thought
Every project has its technical lessons, but the more valuable takeaway for me was this:
Design isn’t just about expressing myself — it’s about learning to listen visually, even when the language of feedback isn’t design.
