The album's cover showed the group positioned against a black background in a pose visually reminiscent of the Beatles' "With the Beatles" album (Peter Criss stated that this was the visual effect the band was looking for). Gene Simmons has since stated that "Meet the Beatles!" was a big inspiration to him. Three of the four band members applied their own makeup for the album cover photo, as they usually did, but Criss' "Catman" makeup was applied by a professional, whose work came out looking quite a bit different from the look Criss had established, and to which he would return immediately afterward. Ace Frehley, wanting to impress the other members of Kiss, dyed his hair with silver hairspray, which easily came out with shampoo. According to Criss, photographer Joel Brodsky thought Kiss were literally clowns, and wanted to place balloons behind the group for the shoot. Brodsky denied this, chalking it up to imagination. As this was also the first album for the group, they still had yet to perfect the look they would come to be known for later on. For example, Simmons' "Demon" makeup, while noticeable as his, appears rough and not in the definitive form he later became known for.