Apple Music has unveiled a brand new playlist artwork series, one that sees a return to album artistry that has been all but forgotten in the era of streaming. Apple’s head of content design, Alex Grossman, in conjunction with Apple Music editorial team, have spent the last year working closely with some of the most prolific and talented graphic designers, artists and typographers in the world to create bespoke art that conveys the intention and meaning behind Apple playlists without ever reading the descriptions and make you feel before you ever hit play.
First up, we take a look at the Hip-Hop Hits playlist, with a specially designed cover by Italian designer, Stole Stojmenov. Listen to the playlist here! 
We asked Stole on the inspriration on his Hip-Hop Hits playlist, and he said of the new work:
"My inspiration was music. It has always been the music. But this time was different. Every playlist I was working on had a specific set of imagery and ambience which was the mixture of all the artists included in them. Due to this mix I had the possibility to be inspired by a countless sets of realities and play and mix them in a singular way. There were infinite possibilities and that’s also why we have tons of unused drafts of the artworks. It was tough deciding the final ones. The main references were some of my previous works. It was very important to maintain my hallmark and I think that it was a smart guideline since the project needed to let me express myself in my own particular way. This gave me the opportunity to give a very precise identity and increase the bonding between the music and its visual elements by taking a cue from the experience I gained from my previous works in the music industry, and more precisely my works in the rap/hip-hop world. In addition to that I still wanted to add something new. It was one of my first official projects where I used a lot of 3D."
