# Album Art Meme Album Art Meme, better known as Clip Art Covers, is a Photoshop meme format where iconic album covers, video game boxes, and DVD cases are recreated using cheap clip art graphics and the Comic Sans font. The trend started in December 2011 on Tumblr and picked up steam through 2012 and 2013 as it spread to forums, Reddit, and gaming blogs[1]. The deliberate clash between beloved, well-designed cover art and aggressively ugly clip art recreations is the entire joke. ## Origin On December 13, 2011, an anonymous creator launched the "Clip Art Covers" blog on Tumblr[3]. The blog's purpose was straightforward: recreate well-known album covers using nothing but clip art. The very first post tackled Nirvana's 1991 grunge landmark *Nevermind*, an album that had sold over 30 million copies worldwide and is regularly ranked among the greatest albums ever made[2]. Reducing its iconic underwater baby photograph to a crude clip art rendering set the tone for everything that followed. Over the next two years, the blog churned out more than 365 clip art recreations[3]. The Tumblr blog itself became a small community, with the creator occasionally posting commentary about the responses they received[1]. - **Platform:** Tumblr (original blog), Facepunch Forums / Reddit (viral spread) - **Creator:** Unknown (Clip Art Covers Tumblr blog creator), Robbl (Facepunch Forums popularizer) - **Date:** 2011 ## Overview The format is simple: take a famous piece of cover art, then rebuild it entirely from clip art images, stock graphics, and the Comic Sans typeface. The worse it looks, the better it works. Nirvana's *Nevermind* baby becomes a cartoon infant. The moody atmosphere of a game like *BioShock* gets flattened into a kindergarten art project. The humor comes from the gap between the original's careful design and the replacement's aggressive mediocrity[3]. While the concept started with music albums, it quickly expanded to video game box art, movie posters, and DVD covers[3]. The use of Comic Sans is a key ingredient. The font is widely regarded as the design world's punching bag, and pairing it with serious or artistic cover imagery amplifies the absurdity[1]. ## How It Spread The concept jumped from Tumblr to forums in early 2012. On February 16, 2012, Facepunch Forums member Robbl started a thread inviting users to submit their own clip art versions of album, film, and game covers[3]. Robbl kicked things off with a clip art take on the first-person shooter *BioShock*, and the thread took off from there. The meme hit its biggest wave in April 2013. On April 21, the Aurorashaman Tumblr blog posted a clip art version of the *Pokémon Blue* Game Boy cover that racked up over 19,200 notes in just three days[3]. The next day, Gawker Media's gaming blog Kotaku ran an article spotlighting notable examples from the trend[3]. On April 23, NeoGAF member sixteen-bit created a dedicated thread for clip art video game covers, pulling in more than 380 responses within 24 hours[3]. That same day, Redditor Celeste1492 posted a clip art *Mass Effect 2* cover to the /r/MassEffect subreddit, earning upwards of 580 upvotes and 35 comments[3]. The trend also spread organically on Tumblr through the #clipart tag, where users contributed their own recreations outside the original blog[3]. ## How to Use Creating a Clip Art Cover typically follows this process: 1. **Pick an iconic cover** — Albums, games, movies, or TV shows all work. The more recognizable and well-designed the original, the funnier the result. 2. **Rebuild it in clip art** — Replace every visual element with the cheapest-looking clip art equivalent you can find. Stock graphics from the early 2000s or default Microsoft Office clip art are ideal. 3. **Use Comic Sans** — Replace all text (artist names, album titles, game logos) with Comic Sans. This is non-negotiable for the classic format. 4. **Match the layout** — The composition should roughly mirror the original so viewers can still recognize what's being parodied. The recognition is what makes the downgrade funny. ## Cultural Impact The Clip Art Covers trend tapped into a broader internet fascination with bad design as comedy. Comic Sans had been the internet's favorite font to mock since at least the mid-2000s, and this meme weaponized that disdain in a creative way[1]. Gaming outlets like Kotaku gave the trend mainstream visibility within nerd culture, and the NeoGAF thread showed how enthusiastically gaming communities adopted the format[3]. The concept also anticipated later album art parody trends. In 2024, Charli XCX's *Brat* album cover, with its intentionally minimal design, spawned its own wave of cover art parodies through the "Brat Generator" website, where users created custom text in the same style[4]. While not a direct descendant, Brat Generator echoed the same spirit of accessible album art remixing that Clip Art Covers pioneered years earlier. ## Fun Facts - The original Clip Art Covers blog produced over 365 entries in its first two years, averaging roughly one new parody every other day[3]. - The first-ever Clip Art Cover was a recreation of Nirvana's *Nevermind*, an album that had topped the Billboard 200 in January 1992 after replacing Michael Jackson's *Dangerous* at number one[2]. - The blog's creator seemed motivated partly by the reactions they got from designers horrified by Comic Sans usage, once posting about how comments like "it's worse than a demon, it's... COMIC SANS" made the whole project worthwhile[1]. - The Pokémon Blue clip art cover was the single most viral individual post in the trend's history, pulling 19,200+ Tumblr notes in three days[3]. - The NeoGAF clip art thread got more than 380 responses in a single day, making it one of the forum's most active threads that week[3]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Album Art Meme? Album Art Meme, known as Clip Art Covers, is a format where famous album covers, game boxes, and movie posters are recreated using cheap clip art graphics and Comic Sans font[3]. ### Where did Album Art Meme come from? It originated on December 13, 2011, when someone launched the "Clip Art Covers" Tumblr blog. The first post was a clip art version of Nirvana's *Nevermind*[3]. ### What does Album Art Meme mean? The joke is the contrast between professional, iconic cover art and deliberately terrible clip art recreations. It's comedy through intentional downgrade[1]. ### How do you use Album Art Meme? Pick a recognizable cover, rebuild every visual element with clip art, and replace all text with Comic Sans. The composition should still be recognizable as the original[3]. ### Is Album Art Meme still popular? The trend peaked in April 2013 with coverage from Kotaku and viral posts on NeoGAF and Reddit. It still surfaces occasionally but is no longer a major trend[3]. ### Who created the Clip Art Covers blog? The blog creator's identity is unknown. They launched the Tumblr blog on December 13, 2011, and posted over 365 entries within two years[3]. ### Why is Comic Sans always used? Comic Sans is widely considered one of the worst-designed fonts, making it the perfect complement to cheap clip art. The blog creator acknowledged that designers' horror at seeing Comic Sans was part of what made the project fun[1]. ### What was the most viral Clip Art Cover? A clip art version of the *Pokémon Blue* Game Boy cover posted by the Aurorashaman Tumblr blog on April 21, 2013, which earned over 19,200 notes in three days[3]. ### Did gaming sites cover the trend? Yes. Kotaku published an article on April 22, 2013, featuring notable examples, which helped push the meme to a wider audience[3]. ### What was the first album parodied? Nirvana's *Nevermind* (1991), one of the best-selling and most acclaimed albums in rock history[2]. ## References 1. [Clipart Covers]() 2. [Album Art Meme - Know Your Meme]() 3. [Brat (internet meme)]() 4. [Nevermind]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/album-art-meme Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library