How curvy vs. angular fonts on CD album covers influence expectations and perception of music

What is it about?

Digital album covers are an integral part of the music consumption experience, yet very little is known about how album cover design impacts people’s expectations and perception of music. We investigated the role of font (typeface) on people’s experience of music. We found that people expected music to sound more round, feminine, slow, smooth, gentle etc when they saw an album cover with a curvy font. Conversely, they expected the music to sound more angular, masculine, fast, rough, etc when they saw an album cover with an angular font. We also found that people thought the music itself sounded more pleasant when they saw an album cover with a curvy font.

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Why is it important?

We hope that the results will be of interest to designers and marketing experts when creating CD covers, logos, posters, and lyric videos.