Visualize the Vibe: The Art of Seeing Sound

“Hi n’ Bye” by Static Black Cover Art by Sunni Aesthetics

Here’s a secret: my best designs don’t start with pixels; they start with melodies. Music is my compass. Sometimes I’ll be vibing to a track and instantly the whole creative direction floods into my mind: the textures, the mood, the palette of colors, even a storyline. For me, sound is more than something you hear; it’s something you see. It sparks ideas without me even trying, and often becomes the blueprint for my designs.

In Episode Eight of The Four Percent Amplified, I invite you to see how I take the emotions and frequencies of music and translate them into visuals that tell a story. It’s a lot like my time in film production design: the song is the script, and my role is to create the world it lives in. Cover art, graphics, branding, and they aren’t just pretty add-ons; they’re mini-music videos condensed into a single frame. They set the stage before you ever press play.

One of my favorite recent projects that embodies this is the cover art I designed for the single “Hi n’ Bye” by Static Black. The track itself was cinematic—playful yet raw—and I wanted the visuals to feel the same. I built the artwork around the rhythm of the song, balancing color, texture, and composition so that the cover feels like a still image from the music’s own world. It’s not just a design, it’s a visual translation of Static Black’s sound.

Personal Stories of Inspiration

One of my favorite examples comes from an alternative R&B artist named Dizzy Fae. Her song, “ Booty 3000,” had me so inspired that I created my own visual interpretation of it, a piece of cover art that captured the energy and emotion I felt. I didn’t do it for a client or commission, just pure inspiration. And then something amazing happened: Dizzy Fae reposted my work! That moment reminded me of the circle of connection, how sound flows into visuals, and then back again to the original creator.

Another story comes from those unexpected daydreams music pulls me into. Sometimes I’ll hear an indie track and suddenly I’m on the Malibu coast in a jeep, windows down, curls blowing in the wind, the sun melting into the horizon. It feels cinematic, like a scene from a coming-of-age film where time slows down and you feel infinite. Those moments are more than imagination, they’re design prompts. I take those visions and distill them into single frames that hold the whole vibe.

From Sound to Story

For me, music doesn’t just inspire visuals—it writes the storyboards in my head. Every element of a song can become a storytelling tool. A bassline might feel like the opening shot of a film—setting the mood before a single word is spoken. Lyrics become characters with emotions, conflicts, and arcs of their own. A sudden beat drop can feel like the climax of a scene, while a soft bridge might feel like the quiet moment where the audience takes a breath.

That’s why I see my role as more than just “making a design.” It’s world-building. It’s art direction. Just like in film production, where the set designer makes the script believable, I use design to make the music tangible. If the song is the script, then the visuals are the set, the costumes, the lighting—the atmosphere that lets you step inside the sound.

And this is why music videos, visual albums, and even strong cover art resonate so deeply. They take what we hear and translate it into something we can see and feel. When a musician drops a visual album, or when a single piece of cover art becomes instantly iconic, it’s because the story of the music has been fully realized. It’s no longer just sound; it’s an entire universe.

Even when I’m designing something as small as a graphic for a single track, I approach it like I’m capturing a whole scene in one frame. What’s the setting? What’s the emotion? What’s the story this sound is trying to tell? If I can answer those questions visually, then I know I’m not just creating an image, I’m amplifying the story the music already started.

That’s what makes designing to music so powerful. It’s not about decoration, it’s about storytelling. It’s about bridging the gap between what we hear and what we feel, giving the audience a way to see the vibe as clearly as they can hear it.

Genres as Visual Worlds

Each genre of music triggers a different landscape in my imagination:

• R&B feels like you’ve stepped into a moody lounge—dim lighting, velvet textures, and intimacy you can almost touch.

• Hip-Hop looks like a fast-paced night in the city—graffiti walls, neon lights, sneakers hitting pavement, bold and unapologetic.

• Jazz becomes experimental and abstract—shapes and colors colliding in ways that shouldn’t make sense, but do.

• Pop bursts into a full stage production—bright lights, choreography, glitter, and cinematic scale.

These worlds don’t just inspire design—they become the foundation for how I tell stories visually.

Try This Exercise

Here’s something I want you to try: think of your favorite song right now. Imagine you’ve stepped onto the set of its music video. What do you see? What colors dominate the space? Is it soft and moody, or vibrant and explosive? Now freeze that vision into a single still frame; that’s your cover art. That’s visual storytelling.

At the end of the day, designing the vibe isn’t just about fonts, colors, or layout. It’s about capturing emotion. It’s about translating frequencies into visuals that let people feel the story before the first note even plays. And when those visuals resonate, when an artist reposts your work, or a listener says, “That’s exactly how the music feels,” that’s when the design has done its job.

Final Thoughts

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Final Thoughts 〰️

Listen to Episode 8 now on Spotify | Apple Podcasts

I’d love to hear from you: what’s the cover art or album design that’s inspired you the most?

Tag me @SunniAesthetics, or drop your vibe below ✨. Every song tells a story, and every visual sets a mood. Share yours and join the conversation!

I may feature your response in a future episode.

This is The Four Percent Amplified, where I turn up the volume on BIPOC & minority voices, stories, and creativity that deserve to be heard and seen.

Explore more of my design work, services, and projects at www.sunniaesthetics.com.