Wolf (2013)

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. 

Wolf is Tyler, the Creator’s third album, released two years after the success of Goblin, this design finds itself flipping the expectations of the viewers and listeners of his last few works. He ditches the Cooper Black typeface and composition of the past three album covers. The title of the album is cleverly placed on Tyler’s hat in both versions of the album. The typeface identified on the hat is said to be Arial, or another similar sans serif font. The first album cover features Tyler’s face at a 3/4 view with a slack face. There is another picture of him in the top right corner with a different outfit and hairstyle. He is seen holding his inhaler in the top right picture of him. This is another somewhat juvenile design, but it is meant to represent the two alter egos of Tyler that this album is about: Sam and Wolf. It also is a recreation of the portrait seen in Napoleon Dynamite, which Tyler has shared is his favorite movie. 

The Deluxe cover is a painting made by Mark Ryden. It shows Tyler on his bike in the middle of what seems to be a forest-like landscape. There is water behind him as well as mountains. The head is painted quite large and in a way that may be bordering a caricature of Tyler. This is the first instance of Tyler getting another artist to create covers for him and the first album cover of his that is a painting.