Sleevefacing: Yes, There’s An App For That

Guest post by Eliot Van Buskirk of Evolver.fm.

OK, sleevefacing is sort of five minutes ago, but it remains a meme of note. The basic idea behind sleevefacing is to create a photograph that picks up where an album cover leaves off by adding surrounding elements from the real world. It's not easy to explain, but one look at the photo to the left should clear things up.

Traditionally, sleevefaces were constructed by holding up the actual album art in a photograph or photoshopping the album cover onto the scene after the fact. Sleevefacer for iOS ($1) makes the process much easier, by displaying the album art within the viewfinder of your iPhone or iPad camera so you can actually place it within the frame as you're taking the picture.

You can choose album art from any of the music on your iPhone (assuming the songs have album art included), then tilt or zoom the photo until it is suitable for your purposes. Then, with the album cover superimposed over the scene, you snap away with the camera button until you get it just right. You can shoot them in landscape mode if you want, too.

The resulting photos show up in your iPhone's photo library, from which you can share them with your social networks. Then, all that's left to do is bask in the silent applause of Likes and Retweets.

The Sleevefacer app makes sleevefacing easy. What remains difficult is conceptualizing a sleeveface that's worthwhile.

If you have some ideas for those — or if you'd like to try your hand at sleevefacing but lack the requisite photoshop skills — Sleevefacer is worth the $1 asking price, simply for its ability to superimpose the album over reality before you snap the shutter. Otherwise, you're probably better off checking out the existing sleevefaces, having a chuckle, and moving on.