Goblin (2011)

Album covers tend to be an overlooked form of design. The Grammys only just created a category in 2026 to highlight the best album covers of the year.  The crossover of music artist and designer is something that tends to be ignored and overlooked. While lots of music artists have designers that work on these covers, some tend to be a huge part of the creative process and or are the creator of the album cover themselves.  It is important to understand the crossover of designers and music artists, in this day, one cannot fully exist without the other. 

Goblin is Tyler, the Creator’s sophomore album released in 2011. The formula for these two designs is very similar to not only each other, but also his prior album. The regular album cover features a recolored portrait of William “Buffalo Bill” Cody. While the reasoning is unknown for why Tyler chose this image, it is said that Cody was 19 in this image and Tyler was 19 when he dropped this album. But it is also said that this image continues to show Tyler’s “horrorcore” aesthetic. It also features the same type face as his first album: Cooper Black. The word “GOBLIN” is white with a black outline. In his deluxe album cover, it features the same composition, with a black and white picture of Tyler with an upside down cross on his forehead and blacked out eyes, with the title written over top his nose in pink and black text.