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Hiram Reyes

Dr. Nelson

English 1301-122

29 November 2022

Visual Analysis

Jermaine Cole (J. Cole), Born in Fayetteville, NC, is an American Singer/Songwriter in

the hip-hop and r&b genres. When solely looking at his discography, Jermaine has a variety of

eye-catching album covers. Although he has multiple albums and album covers, Jermaine has a

unique one that catches the attention of one's eye. In this Visual Analysis, the album cover

presented is titled KOD…this album was produced and arranged by Jermaine under the

Dreamville label in 2018. This paper shows how the KOD album cover uses color, shape, and

texture visual elements to their full potential. Its creators manipulated KOD to convey three

different abbreviations. The visual elements and manipulation from the creators deliver the three

different abbreviations KOD support. These abbreviations would be Kids on Drugs, King

Overdosed, and Kill Our Demons.

The most impactful visual element, the pallet contrast of the covert art, employs color,

which draws the eye's attention. The eye becomes captivated because of the color scheme that

the creators used. When looking behind the centerpiece of art, having the pink and purple shades

fade into each other draws the eye's attention because of the pleasure and meaning yet contrast

both colors give. Pink takes the warm, passionate tones of red along with the soothing shades of

white to create a feeling that usually depicts love, compassion, and hope. On the other hand,

purple often displays power and luxury, supported by the oversized fur coat on the central figure.
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Having the aggression of a purple pan and blending into the warmth of pink allows the thought

of Having an influential figure putting on a front with a hidden personality to lay on. With

Elaboration, If this figure wants to address their audience, there has to be a particular attitude or

status to show. In reality, behind closed doors, they lay in luxury with much love, care, passion,

and hopefulness for themselves and the people around them. Another exciting aspect that color

uses in this illustration is how the figure "the king" with a crown on him is painted. The king in

this picture has a light brown skin tone, white features, and white-colored eyes. Looking at the

other figures in this picture, everyone with their skin tones does not show signs of white amongst

their skin and has regular eyes. If one looks at the drugs that have been presented in the

illustration. It can be assumed that "the king" has possibly died and is a spirit or is dying…an

assumption from the acronym "king overdosed"  

Another Visual element that reinforces color is the KOD album cover shape. Specifically,

the shape shows how different components in the main illustration still build up and represent the

acronyms used for the title of this cover art. The unique thing about the shape in this illustration

is that it goes hand in hand with color as they complement each other. The positions of the

unsymmetrical drawing and the color schemes used for them make this picture pop. Having the

prominent figure in this illustration over children shows how in this perception, younger

generations are molded by what they are surrounded by at a young age. These children have been

engulfed by a dark purple coat (Purple = Luxury, Luxury = Money). The man above the children

is smoking what can be assumed to be drugs to which money buys drugs. Going further into the

analysis, some cities have streets run by drugs and money throughout America. If this illustration

was inspired by one of these cities for whatever reason, these children are surrounded by the
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traits of power, drugs, and money that they pick up on at a young age. Furthermore, the acronym

"Kidz on drugs" is appropriate when analyzing this cover art.

The final visual element this Album cover uses is texture. Texture is a visual element that

looks at the surface of something and how it feels or looks. Texture in this painting does not have

much to do with color or shape but instead stands as its own idea. Taking a past paragraph into

consideration and a new analysis with texture in mind, the pastel look can be considered blurry

and distorted. It can be opinionated that this blurry and distorted look can be linked to the figure,

along with the children doing drugs to replicate and demonstrate the look of being high.

Something that supports this analysis is the children not being painted to look like humans and

instead painted pasteli to look cartoonish while being high. The illustration can back another way

the texture is by looking at the top of the figure's crown. If one takes the time to analyze the

background instead of the prominent figure, a disruption in texture can be seen. When the

panning and blending of purple with pink start joining in the middle, there is a section that's

disrupted by the color orange, which is in a shape of a clear flame. The clear flame and its

texture are significant because it is one of the few things in the illustration that has clarity. Many

people perceive the flame differently, but one theory that sticks out is: The flame looks as if it is

burning away in the same sense as a wick to a candle; the wick would be the crown, and the wax

would be the king, along with the children under him.

In conclusion, the KOD album can be visually perceived in many ways when looking at

covert art. This analysis used color, shape, and textural visual elements to their full potential.

These elements allowed the ability to fully deliver the three abbreviations presented, which KOD

stands for…Kids on Drugs, King Overdosed, and Kill Our Demons. Analyzing a piece of art can

be important because it opens and can develop someone's mind to be more creative. A suggestion
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for the audience would be to apply this knowledge to an everyday purpose. Exercise the mind to

be creative! 
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(Figure 1) KOD…An Album made and produced by Jermaine Cole under the
dreamville label