Robert Beatty is an American artist and musician based in Lexington, Kentucky, best known for his noise band Hair Police, his solo project Three Legged Race, and most recently for his work designing album covers, including Tame Impala’s Currents, Kesha’s Rainbow, and limited-edition artwork for The Weeknd’s Dawn FM.
Robert’s work has a distinctive style which has been described as trippy, psychedelic and nostalgic. Beatty tries to evoke a “weird sense of wonder” throughout his work. I have admired Robert's work for a while now. I discovered him through the album cover work he designed for Tame Impala and The Weeknd.
Ever since the banana project from second year, I have found a passion for creating for the music industry, I find myself creating music graphics in my spare time and uploading them to my design Instagram account. I wanted to further explore Robert's work to get inspired. One of my favourite designs of his is Physicalist LP artwork for artists Forma. Although I'm not familiar with this musician, the artwork alone caught my attention. It made me realise that I have never really explored this design style before as I usually gravitate more towards simpler, and modern design with a focus on typography over image. One big goal of mine going forward is to step out of my comfort zone and experiment some more.
