What's it like to design album art for rap superstars like Lil Uzi Vert, 21 Savage, and Future?
Imagine you’re an aspiring graphic designer and music fanatic from Missouri.
You move all the way to New York City so you can attend art school at SVA.
You graduate and land your dream job: Art Director at Atlantic Records.
You cannot believe Atlantic Records hired you straight out of art school, and because you suffer from imposter syndrome, you always feel like you don’t belong, that you aren’t good enough.
But instead of panicking, you learn meditation and completely transform your mindset.
Then, after more than 3 years of hard work and mindfulness, you’re blessed with a breakthrough:
Within the span of only a few months, your work appears as cover art on 2 of the number-1 albums in the country.
Stop imagining, because this kind of a success story can happen for you too.
This success story belongs to Matt Meiners, and in this interview, he’s going to share actionable tips and tactics, and equip you with the mental tools necessary to reach your own breakthrough moment.
Enjoy the interview.
You’ve done album art for Lil Uzi Vert, A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, and 21 Savage, among others. Tell us about what led you to a career in graphic design?
Matt Meiners: I went to school to study biology, and I ended up failing miserably. And then I went to community college and started taking graphic design classes and loved it.
I could tap every point of interest, from research, how to communicate different things with people and subject matter, drawing and illustration, and just being expansive in that way. And that's what led me to graphic design.
Matt Meiners collaborated with Virgilio Tzaj on the design work of 21 Savage’s number 1 album, I am > I was.
When I met you at The School Of Visual Arts (SVA) you were rebounding from a low point in your life. Can you tell me about that dark patch and how you got yourself out of it?
Matt Meiners: It was one of those moments where I didn't feel like myself, and I didn't know how to deal with that. I was failing and had never failed before.
I was leaning on things, you know, drinking too much, partying too much, eating bad food and trying to avoid reality.
I realized I had to change my work habits, that I have to be accountable for what I created. That was kind of like what I was missing in my life.
When you’re creating art for superstars like 21 Savage and Lil Uzi Vert, is there any added pressure knowing that millions of people are going to see your work?
Matt Meiners: When you say it like that, I do kind of feel some pressure, but it really only hits me after it's out and I'm like, “Oh damn, I hope I didn't leave some weird layer on."
But honestly, it depends on the project and the artist. I’m trying to fight to the finish line.
Do you communicate with artists while you’re working on their album art?
Matt Meiners: Yeah, it varies from project to project. Like, sometimes you might be working through a management person or somebody with the label, or you might be working directly with an artist.
Sometimes it's communication through email and pitches and I just kind of throw-in what I think is cool. Artists have a lot of vision for the way a visual should look.
So sometimes it's very direct. Like, “I want to be on a horse in the middle of the desert,” and then you try to figure out how to make that happen.
As for the Uzi project, I've never met him, but I worked with another creative who does really good work. His name's Spike Jordan, and we worked together on that.
Spike has a long relationship with Uzi, so he was doing like the interfacing with him. Together we created all the visuals for Luv is Rage 2.
And for the 21 Savage album, I worked with another talented creative, Virgilio Tzaj. He asked me to do the lettering for it, and that's kind of how that works. He kind of went the art direction and just got me involved for my brush skills.
Tell me about your experience working with A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie? Also, tell us how you got that gig in the first place?
Matt Meiners: I was previously working with Atlantic records, and so I worked in the art department there, and when A Boogie got signed, I was like, "Oh man, I really want to work on his project. I love his music."
So I went to the creative director, Greg Burke, and I was like, “Hey, I’d really be down to work on this project. Can I give it a shot?” It went super smoothly from there. I got hooked up with his management at Highbridge, QP, a super great guy.
We actually had a couple of illustrators working on it, and it wasn't going the way that he wanted. So I ended up drawing the whole thing in a week. And he was like, "I'm totally down with this. This is what we're going with.”
I always wanted to be an illustrator, and it was a super humbling experience. But up to that point, I'd only ever talked to A Boogie on the phone, or he would send me videos of what he was thinking.
So when it came around to Hoodie season, this last record, we sat down and met, and we were talking, and he was like, "Let me show you my other covers that I've put out in the past."
He starts showing me them, and I'm like, "Yeah, I know this cover. I'm the one that drew that, you remember?" And he was like, "Oh dang, I didn't realize it was you."
And then it was so great. He was just really complimentary and super supportive of me.
How did you become the art director at Atlantic Records?
Matt Meiners: There was an industry portfolio day at the end of senior year. It was rainy, and I was going to ride my bike from Bushwick into the city. But I was like, “Nah, I don't think I'm going to go.”
Then I decided to go. I was pretty late, and there was only one seat left, and it was in a corner, and there was this light flickering over my table. It was the worst seat, and I was like, “Damn, this sucks. I shouldn’t have come.”
There I met two guys from Atlantic Records, Marco Brisky, and Greg Burke, and they worked in the art department. Greg is the creative director and he was like, “Man, your work's really good. We really like it. You should come in and hang out sometime and see what the office is like.”
I ended up going in and meeting them, and on the day of my graduation, they called and offered me a job. I couldn't believe it.
You’re an advocate for meditation, especially amongst artists. Tell me how you first discovered meditation and why it’s so important?
Matt Meiners: I was introduced to it at SVA by a teacher there, Frank Young. We met once a week for three hours, and for the first couple of classes, for 20 or 30 minutes, we would just meditate in different ways.
I wasn't feeling good at the time. I think meditation was definitely one of those things that really helped.
What advice would you give to aspiring graphic designers?
Matt Meiners: One of the things that I started doing early that has been helpful to me throughout my career is just keeping references of what I like and building a database of things that I can go back to and look for inspiration.