clio music review
Clio Music is a specialized program within “The Clios”, the prestigious international awards that honor creative excellence in advertising and communications. Founded in 2014, Clio Music celebrates innovative music marketing, artist partnerships, and the powerful role of music in brand storytelling across campaigns, ads, and media. It highlights boundary-pushing work from artists, labels, agencies, and creators shaping music culture worldwide.
Andrea Beaulieu of Studio Linear shares her top 10 album covers that shaped her creative perspective, blending her lifelong love of music with design. From minimalist typography to bold collage art, her picks reflect personal nostalgia and aesthetic insight. Her selections celebrate how visual design enhances the way we connect with music and memory.
ANDREA: “My childhood was full of music. From a young age—3rd grade, to be exact—I started piano lessons, which continued all through grade school and high school, and then I attended college for music composition. I played in many bands starting in 7th grade, playing in a friend’s basement for hours practicing music by Green Day, Nirvana and other grunge-inspired music. I really wanted to be a rock star and had a family that encouraged that path. Music is in my blood, I suppose you could say.
My dad once researched our family tree to find that on one side we were distantly related to Eric Clapton and on another side our roots came from Cape Breton, where we are connected to the MacMaster family of musicians. I have these wonderful memories of being a little girl and watching my grandmother play her honey blonde piano or my dad buying me that electric guitar I wanted for Christmas and we would just jam for hours, him on the bass and me on any instrument I could get my hands on.
Yeah, my childhood was full of the favorites. Flipping through my parents record collection, we grew up with the Cars, the Beatles, David Bowie, the Rolling Stones, Dire Straits, and the list goes on. But as I grew up, my musical taste evolved, as everyones does, and you begin to develop your own appreciation for what gets your fingers tapping, hips swaying to that perfect tune. But also, my passion for music started to expand as I dove into design and I found I loved creating mixed media, collage-style artwork. This love for design ultimately led me to start my own design agency, where we work with many types of brands but also musicians and record labels on their branding, album design, web design, etc.
I am so fortunate to be able to combine these two passions, and so, as I thought about how I would approach listing my top 10 album covers, I selected pieces that reflect an aesthetic that I am very fond of; mixed media, bold fonts, collage style, black-and-white photography coupled with illustration. Here are my top choices for the album covers I truly admire for the creativity that went into creating them.”
