@toms.design.vault
Lets admit it, sometimes the album artwork for some of our favorite artist’s music sucks. The music may be great, but the cover art is downright disappointing. If you know such an artist, point them in the direction of Tom Jansson. The talented designer from New York is finding newfound attention thanks to his awesome album cover art remakes.
Tom has been remaking legendary album covers such as Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter V and putting his own cartoonish twist with cartoon characters he grew up watching. We had the opportunity to interview the talented designer on his artistic inspiration, goals, and why the hell he decided to remake album covers with cartoon characters such as The Simpsons, SpongBob SquarePants, and more.
How long have you been into art and design?
Tom: I’ve been into art for as long as I could remember, but design really since I was in high school. Working on designs for clubs or myself whenever I had the opportunity. When I went to college for architecture, that’s when I really started getting serious about it. I used what I would learn in school and apply it to my hobby of graphic design. I always favored any projects that were more design related rather than technical, and how I could apply my graphical spin on everything.
What are your favorite designing tools of choice?
Tom: Big fan of using Adobe Creative Suite in all my work. There’s just so much you can do with these programs and I try to teach myself new tricks/techniques whenever I can to stay sharp.
What inspired you to start remaking album covers?
Tom: So funny enough, I only started remaking album covers a little less than a year now. I was finishing up my last semester of college, when COVID-19 shut everything down, and I was left with a bunch of free time. A friend of mine had suggested making an Instagram account to show off my designs and to keep me busy. Music had always been a big inspiration and influence of mine along with pop culture.
I had remembered a few years back, Marvel Comics had done a bunch of album cover remakes with a lot of their popular superheroes, and I thought it would be interesting to put my own spin on that as one of my first posts on this new design Instagram account I created. I grew up watching all these cartoons. As did a lot of people of my generation. I wanted to capture that nostalgic feel you get thinking about these simpler times just sitting around watching Saturday morning cartoons as a kid mixed with the music that inspires us today. Next thing I knew, those posts started blowing up and I’ve been making them since.
Who is your favorite musical artist?
Tom: I love all sorts of music, so it’s hard to just pick one. I’m a huge fan of Kanye West, Travis Scott, and A$AP Rocky, but like I said there’s just so many. Growing up, I was a really big Linkin Park fan and I think their genre bending of rock and rap in their early albums really is what started me to transition to listening to more rap/hip-hop.
Who are some of your art and fashion inspirations? People you look up to.
Tom: Tinker Hatfield and Virgil Abloh are two people that constantly inspire me. Just super talented and multifaceted in the design world. Both being people who received degrees in architecture, but then used their knowledge and skills of design to transition on to other ventures that would ultimately have a massive influence on fashion and pop-culture in general is incredibly inspiring to someone like me. It also helps that I’m really into sneakers too.
What are some of your personal favorite designs you’ve done?
Tom: I was a really big fan of Ed, Edd, and Eddy growing up, so definitely one of my earlier posts mashing them up with Migo’s Culture II is a personal favorite of mine. A more fairly recent one I really enjoyed making was the Teen Titans mashup I did with Kid Cudi’s Man on the Moon 3 album. I love Kid Cudi’s discography and I think he absolutely killed his newest album. The original artwork of the cover alone has to be one of my favorites of any musical artist in recent history and I thought it worked perfectly with the duality of Robin and Slade from the Teen Titans series.
Another favorite has to be when I collaborated with Album Receipts (@albumreceipts) for the Return to the 36 Chambers cover mashup with SpongeBob SquarePants. I thought our styles worked perfectly together and I’m really happy how the final product came out.
What is your favorite design accomplishment you have achieved?
Tom: So far one of my favorite design accomplishments would have to be being fortunate enough to be reposted and recognized by large media outlets like Complex and XXL Magazine. I’m extremely new to all of this still, so to be acknowledged like that made me feel like I’m heading in the right direction and I’m doing something right. I’ve had a few artists such as Aminé and Metro Boomin see my posts I made of their covers too shortly after that and that was tremendously motivating.
In terms of your design career, what do you plan to do next?
Tom: I have a couple plans and ideas in the near future, but I don’t want to spoil anything. Definitely be on the lookout for that! I would absolutely love to collaborate with more artists and companies to create new designs and share ideas. Like I said, I am very new to this and would definitely be interested to also get into more physical product designs too. I want to keep learning new skills and be multifaceted. I want to have a creative role in all sorts of industries, not just one.
What advice would you give to aspiring artists who are trying to improve their skills or grow their brand?
Tom: Never give up! I know it sounds cliché, but it’s true. If you have a dream, pursue it to the best of your abilities. I think a lot of people get discouraged when they don’t see immediate results, or that their dream is too out there that it’ll never happen, so they stop pursuing it. Stay positive and stay focused. Results won’t happen overnight, but never lose track of what you really want to do or be. It’s that motivation that’ll help you constantly want to improve your skills and not stay stagnant. Dream big! ♦
Check out some of Tom’s art below and don’t forget to follow Tom on Instagram, and check out his online Redbubble store.
@toms.design.vault
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