A Creative Blog

When you talk to somebody about there favourite album cover your likely to either get one of about a dozen popular sleeves or something very personal to that individual that most people wouldn’t even think about.

This was highlighted by a quick straw poll of music-related celebs on Twitter. Out of about 15 asked only two replied but that’s neither here nor there for they illustrate my point exactly. DJ Chris Evans chose ELO’s Out of the Blue which is a good illustration but very stereotypical of album art at that time and probably chosen over say a Yes sleeve because he prefers the music. Singer, Alice Temple chose The Pretenders eponymous album, Telekon by Gary Numan and Germ Free Adolscents by X-Ray Spex which I suspect mean as much to her musically as they do for their artwork.

I’ve always loved album artwork and it was to design for the music industry that I chose graphic design as a career path. It took me nearly twenty years to realise my dream and start design for the music business but it is a fascinating and interesting world to work in.

So what makes a good album cover? To me the outside of an album or CD should reflect the contents – the music or the artist. While some people would suggest that putting a photo on the album cover should be avoided, I would argue that it depends on the treatment photograph. Bjork, for example, always features on her album covers but the photography and design are so great that she can get away with it. The sleeve I designed for Icelandic singer Hafdis Huld’s album Synchronised Swimmers also features her photo on the cover but I have built it into the design – a design that features the artists own embroidery and crochet work to really put across her personality.

It could be argued that The Beatles were the pioneers of album cover art. Everyone of their albums from With The Beatles to the Abbey Road are iconic. They must be great covers because each has been imitated and parodied so many times by other artists. Every sleeve was very different from the last and as the music changed and became more elaborate so did the artwork. It helped that John Lennon had studied at art college and Paul McCartney had an interest in the art world. It also helped that musicians mixed with artists in the Sixties and knew the likes of Peter Blake (Sgt. Pepper) and Richard Hamilton (“The White Album”).

Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band would appear on most lists of best ever album sleeves. It is a great design but I personally prefer the simplicity of Abbey Road.

There have been some great designers and design agencies that seem to have specialised in designing for the music industry – Hipgnosis, Stylorouge, Peter Saville and Steve Averill among many.

I would expect that anyone with a passing interest would recognise an album sleeve designed by one of the above. Hipgnosis were responsible for designing the artwork for pretty much the entire Pink Floyd back catalogue including Dark Side of The Moon.

They were also responsible for sleeves by Wings, 10cc, Peter Gabriel and Led Zeppelin. Their work was often had a comedic twist or was highly risqué … would this sleeve be aloud today?

Is it me or does the Hipgnosis-designed Pink Floyd sleeve for Ummagumma share a passing resemblance to Oasis’ Definitely Maybe? Proof that their work was still influential twenty years later.

Peter Saville is most famous for the design he did  for the artists signed to Factory Records, notably Joy Division and New Order while Steve Averill was friends with a young Irish lad called Adam Clayton in the late 70′s … he’s since gone on to design every U2 sleeve since! Imagine that! U2 have had some great sleeves but I think their best is possibly there first, Boy. It’s just so simple. And impactful.

And then there’s Stylorouge. There was a time when it seemed like every album I bought had a sleeve designed by Stylorouge and it was they that inspired me the most. When I left college it was them that I hoped would want to employ me but I ended up at an insurance company. A flick through the book of their work, Delicious, shows some of the greatest album sleeves designed for some of the biggest names in music. It was them that designed all the Blur album sleeves – from the train to the greyhounds and beyond but it was their work for the likes of All About Eve, Hothouse Flowers, Bliss and James that got me most interested.

Of the most famous album sleeves, I could also mention Nirvana’s Nevermind, The Sex Pistol’s Nevermind the Bollocks, Ian Dury’s New Boots and Panties, The Small Faces’ Ogdens Nut Gone Flake, The Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers and The Velvet Underground’s Andy Warhol designed banana among many more.

I’ll finish this article with a list of some of my favourite pieces of album artwork. It’s by no means exhaustive and in no order but it shows just a few that spring to mind and that I haven’t already mentioned. Some are classic, iconic works while others are more obscure.

• Robbie Williams – Sing When Your Winning
• Richard Thompson – Mock Tudor
• Blondie – Parallel Lines
• A Girl Called Eddy – A Girl Called Eddy
• Eg and Alice – 24 Years of Hunger
• Duran Duran – Rio
• The Frames – The Cost
• Swell Season – Strict Joy
• The Waterboys – Room To Roam

The Frames - The Cost

Swell Season - Strict Joy

The Waterboys - Room To Roam