Design Recital

This is really cool.

2009-12-02T17:42:00.001-08:00

Now this is creative. http://thejailbreak.com/2009/12/01/ice-ice-baby-katie-patersons-ice-records/

Adam Lambert: For Your Entertainment

2009-10-30T12:51:00.000-07:00

“Thank you to those who appreciate and understand that the album cover is deliberately campy. It’s an omage to the past. It IS ridiculous” and “For those that don’t get it: oh well… Glad to have gotten your attention.” [Adam Lambert on Twitter]

Goetia The Virus 'Hardcore Chronicles"

2009-10-18T19:22:00.001-07:00

Graphic Design: Sam Hayles - DOSEprod

Flaming Lips: Embryonic

2009-10-17T16:05:00.001-07:00

Flaming Lips
"Embryonic"
(Warner Bros.)
Graphic Design: George Salisbury and the Flaming Lips

Lynyrd Skynyrd: God & Guns

2009-10-15T21:40:00.001-07:00

I have googled until I can google no more, and still can't find out who the designer is for this new release. Anyone have a clue?

Morriessey: Creepy Album Cover?

2009-09-29T07:39:00.001-07:00

Some people think that Morrissey's new "Swords" CD cover is just, well....creepy.

American Artifact: The Rise of American Rock Poster Art

2009-09-08T10:27:00.001-07:00

"American Artifact: The Rise of American Rock Poster Art", will be the celebrated opening film for the Royal Flush Festival, NYC on October 15th, 2009, at Anthology Film Archives.

Director Merle Becker and artist Tara McPherson will be present for Q&A after the screening.

The long awaited NYC premiere of the movie will also be followed by an art show featuring work by some of the artists in the film, including: Tara McPherson, Art Chantry, Jay Ryan, Emek, Leia Bell, Scrojo, Justin Hampton, Jermaine Rogers, Stainboy, and Hatch Show Print.

The festival, which also features appearances by artist Ron English and Melissa Auf der Maur (Hole), is named after it's underground pop culture magazine, Royal Flush Magazine. Royal Flush has always had it's proverbial finger on the pulse of independent film and music, featuring past work by Morgan Spurlock, Andy Samberg, Ron English, and more.

"American Artifact" will be screening at Anthology Film Archives (32 2nd Ave., NYC) at 7pm, followed by the rock poster art show, which will be The Showroom NYC (117 Second Ave., NYC, 2nd Floor). The American Artifact Rock Poster Art show will be running until Sunday, Oct.18th.

For more information about the Royal Flush Festival, go to: www.RoyalFlushFestival.com

For more information about "American Artifact", or to request press materials or an interview, go to: www.AmericanArtifactMovie.com .

Dylan's Holiday Album Sneak Peak

2009-09-05T23:13:00.000-07:00

The ever mysterious and unpredictable Bob Dylan does it again with his upcoming holiday CD, "Christmas In The Heart." The collection will feature holiday standards including “Must Be Santa,” “Little Drummer Boy,” “Winter Wonderland” and “Here Comes Santa Claus.” All U.S. royalties from the collection will benefit the charity Feeding America, the nation’s leading domestic hunger-relief charity. Other proceeds from the disc will benefit hunger relief organizations around the world. I'm still trying to find out who the art director is. Anyone know?

Moldover

2009-09-02T20:40:00.000-07:00

Controllerist Moldover has released a special edition CD - the album cover just doesn't just look like its made of circuitry...it is! The circuit is a working Theremin you can use to play along to the album.

Beck’s Music Inspired Art 2009

2009-07-29T21:35:00.000-07:00

Beck’s asked 10 Illustrators including McBess, Hellovon, Kid Acne, Si Scott, and Laura Jackaman to re-think the best albums of the last 40 years (gleaned from Pitchfork lists).

"What really drew me to re-imagining Let It Be was the backstory and turmoil which surrounded it creators at the time of recording. It's an atmosphere that clings to the cover. Gone is the swirling freedom of Revolver, the colour of Sgt Pepper or playfulness of Abbey Road. Each Beatle has divided themselves from the group and occupied a solo corner. In my reinterpretation I wanted to extend the time period these snapshots were taken in, drawing influences from their solo careers, and suggesting that, with time, those self-created barriers would fade - even if they would never play together as a group again.

And purely from an artistic angle, it's always an interesting exercise to work from recognizable models. Unlike drawing fantastical creatures the audience have a yardstick to measure imagery to. So I enjoyed the challenge of depicting John, Paul, George & Ringo but in a new form, and striving for a balance between a believable likeness and personal expression.

Plus I like drawing big noses, and they all have a great collection."
-Rexbox

Apple and Labels Hope to Reinvent Digital Album as Something People Buy

2009-07-27T22:57:00.000-07:00

Some hope...from Wired Magazine:

The view that technology is an unstoppable juggernaut moving at lightning pace isn’t always accurate. Sometimes the simplest ideas take years to realize — even when Apple is involved and the future of the recorded music business could be at stake.

Take today’s widely-echoed Financial Times report about “Project Cocktail” — an attempt by Apple and the four major labels to re-imagine the digital album with soft (as in onscreen) album art. They hope album art that embraces digital technology, rather than merely providing a miniaturized version of the original album cover, will entice music fans to start buying digital albums again. Apple and the labels envision fans gathering ’round the glow of their laptops — or tablet PCs — to listen to music together, the way they used to before they retreated into their own digital pods. [read the rest of the article here]

Official Cover Art for Madonna's New Greatest Hits Album

2009-07-24T10:15:00.001-07:00

Cover art by Mr. Brainwash

Bubble Puppy

2009-07-20T21:55:00.000-07:00

One of the last bands signed to the legendary International Artists label, Bubble Puppy also gave the company its most substantial hit, "Hot Smoke And Sasafrass". Originally known as the New Seeds, the Austin based quartet that had roots in Corpus Christi, comprised Todd Potter (guitar), Roy Cox (bass), Rod Prince (guitar) and David "Fuzzy" Fore (drums). They derived their new name from Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. More mainstream than many of their contemporaries, their 1969 debut A Gathering Of Promises, showed traces of Jimi Hendrix, Cream and Moby Grape. Their hit "Hot Smoke and Sasafrass" has been ranked as the # 3 Greatest One Hit Wonder of all time by VH1.

Album Cover Artist Tom Wilkes Dies Unexpectedly at Home in California

2009-07-07T02:23:00.000-07:00

Award winning artist and designer Tom Wilkes died unexpectedly on Sunday, June 28 at his home in Pioneertown, CA at the age of 69. Wilkes was the art director of the Monterey International Pop Festival in 1967. He designed many classic album covers like Rolling Stones' "Beggars Banquet" and Neil Young's "Harvest." He was awarded a Grammy in 1974 for Best Recording Package for "Tommy" as performed by the London Symphony Orchestra and Choir.

Pioneertown, CA (Billboard Publicity Wire/PRWEB ) July 5, 2009 -- Renowned album cover artist and designer Tom Wilkes died unexpectedly on Sunday, June 28, at his home in Pioneertown, California. He was 69.

Tom Wilkes and his Grammy Award, taken a few weeks before his death in Pioneertown, CA. Photo by Fritz Drumm

Thomas E. Wilkes was born July 30, 1939 in Long Beach, California and was raised in southern California. He attended Long Beach City College, UCLA and the Art Center College of Design in the 1950's and 1960's.

In 1967 Wilkes was the art director of the Monterey International Pop Festival. He created all graphics and printed materials for Monterey Pop, including the program book and the festival's psychedelic and iconic foil poster.

From 1967 through 1969, Wilkes was the art director of A&M Records. He was partner with Barry Feinstein from 1970 through 1973 in Camouflage Productions, which became record label Blue Thumb's house art department.

He was partner in Wilkes & Braun, Inc. from 1973 through 1974, and art director of ABC Records from 1975 through 1977. In 1978 he started Tom Wilkes Productions and became President of Project Interspeak, a not-for-profit environmental and human rights organization devoted to planetary enhancement programs.

Wilkes designed and directed such hit record covers as Rolling Stones' "Flowers" and "Beggars Banquet", Neil Young's "Harvest", and George Harrison's "Concert for Bangladesh" and "All Things Must Pass."

He received a Grammy Award in 1974 for Best Recording Package for The Who's rock opera "Tommy," as performed by the London Symphony Orchestra & Choir.

Among his many album cover credits:

Janis Joplin - "Pearl"
Ike & Tina Turner - "Outta Season"
Eric Clapton - "Eric Clapton"
Dave Mason - "Alone Together"
Joe Cocker - "Mad Dogs & Englishmen"
Flying Burrito Brothers - "Gilded Palace of Sin"
John Prine - "John Prine"
Emmylou Harris - "Blue Kentucky Girl" and "Elite Hotel"
Leon Russell - "Stop All That Jazz"
REO Speedwagon - "You Can Tune a Piano, But You Can't Tuna Fish"

In addition to creating hundreds of posters, logos, books, trade ads and illustrations, Wilkes produced and directed TV and radio spots, music videos, films, mixed media presentations and special events.

He recently completed a book of his artwork and memoirs, called "Tommy Geeked a Chicken," and was negotiating publishing arrangements. At this time, plans are being made to proceed with publication of the book.

A memorial service will be held for Wilkes on Saturday, July 11th, in Orange, C

Bob Dylan: Together Through Life

2009-07-02T22:50:00.000-07:00

Type Design: Coco Shinomiya
Photography: Bruce Davidson

Art Brut VS Satan

2009-06-29T20:01:00.000-07:00

Cover art by comic artist Jeff Lemire.

Hipgnosis - Classic Album Cover Art

2009-06-24T13:06:00.000-07:00

With the renewed interest in vinyl records, an old friend is becoming more important again- album cover art. There have been tens of thousands of album covers created throughout the years and there are some that are instantly recognized, while some remain obscure, but one thing is certain, album cover art is part of our pop culture and the rock and roll lexicon. (Read More)

Lenny Dee

2009-06-01T21:25:00.001-07:00

Here's a little something to celebrate the coming of summer. I can't quite make out what is on top of the keyboard. Is that an animal of some kind? This cover is just so mind blowingly wrong.

Johnny Pate Trio

2009-05-19T14:07:00.000-07:00

Chinese A-Go-Go

2009-04-29T12:22:00.001-07:00

Record Sleeve Collector Kavel Rafferty Interview

2009-04-22T06:46:00.000-07:00

Barcelona-based Kavel Rafferty is a collector of record envelopes...Kavel is interviewed here by the Ephemera blog.

The Album Is Alive

2009-04-03T14:42:00.000-07:00

This made me happy.

Weird funky cool

2009-04-01T05:44:00.001-07:00

I just thought this was weird looking. Plus I like her name.

Rick Ocasek - Noise Colored Party

2009-03-31T12:03:00.000-07:00

Ric Ocasek

Solo Exhibition

March 6 - April 25, 2009
Invite-Only Reception: Fri., March 6
Gallery Hop: Sat., March 7, 6-10p

Ric Ocasek, renowned lead singer and songwriter from The Cars, will debut his first solo art exhibition, Noise Colored Party, at the Mahan Gallery, March 6, 2009. The two-month exhibition will showcase select works from the 1980s to the present across several media: drawings with pen, colored pencils and markers, digital photo collages and mixed media paintings.

For Ocasek, who has also found success as a music producer for No Doubt, Nada Surf, Weezer and other groups, the boundary between the musical and the visual is nebulous. Like music, his artwork encompasses elements of rhythm, harmony and dynamics. He creates art as an escape, each piece emerging as a “transient daydream” or diversion as he works in his studio, passes time on airplanes or simply sits in a quiet spot. Self-described as colorful, abstract and unconscious, the artwork is an extension of himself – a collection of “self-portraits” — created without pretense and with no intent for public exhibition. Visitors to the gallery are free to interpret and experience the artwork in their own way.

It is fitting that Ocasek’s first art exhibition takes place in Columbus, the city where he spent many of his formative years as well as where he met fellow Cars bandmember, the late Benjamin Orr.

Ocasek will make an appearance at the gallery for an invitation-only reception on Friday, March 6, with a possible public appearance during Gallery Hop.

Curator(s)
Jacquie Mahan

The Rippington's - Modern Art

2009-03-10T16:27:00.000-07:00

I couldn't find anything on who the artist was that created this cover. If you know, please email me and I'll post. Cool cover.

Twist and Shout

2009-03-02T08:43:00.000-08:00

Today is the anniversary of the Beatles release of Twist and Shout back in 1964. Well shake it, shake it, shake it baby now!

Record Sleeve Collection

2009-02-20T16:30:00.001-08:00

What a cool idea for a blog. Kavel Rafferty collects old record sleeves for her blog, Record Envelope.

Rascal Flatts Reveals Fan-Designed Album Cover

2009-02-18T08:37:00.001-08:00

Design: Chris Kubik
Winning design was picked by fans at pcavote.com

Indie Cover Gallery

2009-02-07T08:30:00.000-08:00

I found this link thanks to JL Monty at the HOW design forum. It's part of the RPM challenge to record an album in 28 days.

Willie and the Wheel

2009-02-03T12:34:00.001-08:00

Art Direction: Ray Benson
Art Direction and Design: Dick Reeves

Mastodon

2009-01-29T16:15:00.001-08:00

Artist: Paul Romano

Interview with U2 Cover Designer

2009-01-27T11:46:00.000-08:00

U2 has posted an interview with Four5One of Dublin who created the new "No Line On The Horizon" release.

Elsewhere, people feel ripped off.

U2: No Line On The Horizon

2009-01-20T16:15:00.000-08:00

Read about it here.

The Police - Synchronicity

2008-12-10T12:18:00.000-08:00

Design: Jeffrey Kent Ayeroff, Norman Moore
Art Direction: Jeffrey Kent Ayeroff, Norman Moore, Vartan

Time for a break

2008-10-16T13:45:00.000-07:00

In order to concentrate on my art, I am going to take a break from blogging except on my art blog www.artfoundango.blogspot.com

Thanks for supporting Design Recital...I will be back soon.

Thanks,
Randy

Jimi Hendrix: Are You Experienced

2008-09-18T20:31:00.000-07:00

Today is the anniversary of the death of one of rock's great legends - Jimi Hendrix. Hendrix died at the age of 27 on September 18, 1970. He was born Johnny Allen Hendrix on November 27, 1942. "Are You Experienced" was released in the UK on May 12, 1967 and soon afterwords in the U.S. and Canada. The cover was designed by photographer Carl Ferris.

Parachute Band's New Album

2008-09-11T08:34:00.001-07:00

Created by New Zealand's high-energy worship songwriters, Parachute Band announces their latest CD Technicolor which will be released by Integrity Music in the UK in October.

Cheap Thrills - Janis Joplin

2008-09-10T11:29:00.000-07:00

Janis Joplin - Cheap Thrills (1968)

This is probably one of my favorite covers from my distant teenage years. R. Crumb created the cover illustration as a favor to his friend Joplin. The Rolling Stones asked him to do the same for them, but he refused because he hated their music.

Album Art Not Dead Yet

2008-08-18T08:47:00.000-07:00

"You are creating a sleeve that you want to be as iconic as possible.... It's got to work when it's a thumbnail on Amazon, it's got to work on the shelves at Tesco, and on the racks at HMV.

With bands being able to sell music online, it frees designers from the constraints of retailers. For years, designers have had to work within the constraints of retailers like Tesco, HMV and Virgin. They dictated the packaging, the dual case CD, because of the racking that was designed specifically to stock dual cases. Years ago, if we proposed an alternative format, it was always knocked back because retailers wouldn't stock it.
But now what is fantastic is that we see bands selling music online, where they can sell either a digital download or offer the option... to buy a special packaging version of the product, that can be mailed to them, that can be any shape, any size and any format."

Tom Hingston, of Tom Hingston Studio, has designed covers for the Rolling Stones, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Gnarls Barkley and others.

Cover Art By: New Music Graphics

2008-08-10T09:27:00.000-07:00

I just put this book on my wish list.

From Amazon:

Product Description
The album cover is a subject of perennial interest among graphic designers. Sleeve design remains a popular subject for college projects, and many young working designers aspire to design for the music industry. Revealing state-of-the-art contemporary music graphics, Cover Art By: is packed with more than 400 examples of sleeve art. As well as CD and album covers, the insides of CD booklets and the backs of vinyl sleeves are shown.

The book opens with an in-depth essay reviewing the current scene, then focuses on the work of 30 international designers/labels who are the most influential in the field, making this a must-have for designers and students, as well as music industry professionals and fans.

About the Author
Adrian Shaughnessy is a self-taught graphic designer, writer, and editor. Until recently he was creative director of Intro, the London-based music design company he co-founded in 1989. He left Intro in 2004 to pursue an interest in writing and consultancy. His previous books include the Sampler series; How to be a Graphic Designer, Without Losing Your Soul; and Look at This: Contemporary Brochures, Catalogues & Documents (all Laurence King).

The Scorpions - Humanity

2008-07-31T15:03:00.000-07:00

Second Supper recently conducted an interview with SCORPIONS guitarist Rudolf Schenker. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow.

Second Supper: On your past albums, the SCORPIONS have drawn controversy for cover art such as "Virgin Killer". Do you believe such art would be acceptable on new albums today? How have artistic standards in rock changed since you started out?

Schenker: "'Virgin Killer' was an idea of the record company. The company guy came up and said, 'Even if I have to go to jail, I will do it.' As a German band, the journalists never went through the lyrics. We came up with 'Virgin Killer', and had the song, and the album cover, and the journalists said we can't do that. We told them to go to the album and listen to the lyrics. The 'Virgin Killer' is time. We wouldn't do that today. It's too far away from what the SCORPIONS are. What we liked very much was album sleeves like 'Lovedrive', which was pure rock 'n' roll. Also, the days of vinyl with the big album sleeve was the time when you could really see this piece of art on the cover. With the sales of CDs going down and people downloading, this part of what we had is gone. Today people don't want to listen to the whole album anymore."

Second Supper: Are artists tied down by this lack of emphasis on albums?

Schenker: "Of course. It's not so deep anymore. The record companies don't have the money to support bands that make experiments. You go to a record company, you have to have a hit with the first album, or you can go. There is no chance to build up a band like PINK FLOYD or GENESIS or LED ZEPPELIN. So they're not thinking too deeply. It's not good, but maybe times will change again."

Second Supper: The SCORPIONS have certainly been a career-building band. What's next in your career?

Schenker: "We're still watching the world. We want to be a part of this revolution. By traveling around the world we can see things coming up, warning us, and trying to put it into music. We're still on the road with 'Humanity Hour 1', and then we'll see what we'll do recording-wise. It's more important that we go on tour — more important than it was 20 years ago. We can see how much young kids enjoy live concerts. You can't download [the experience of] live concerts. We have a great chemistry and friendship in the band, and when we have an idea we put it on tape and bring out a new album."

Read the entire interview at www.secondsupper.com.

Metallica: Death Magnetic cover

2008-07-20T21:18:00.000-07:00

What do you think?

In Stone Age Caves, Art and Music Mixed

2008-07-07T10:00:00.000-07:00

I thought this article was worth posting a link for. The earliest marriage of art and music from Discovery News:

At least 12,000 years ago, the most popular musical events might have taken place in torch-lit caves next to walls covered in art, according to new archaeological research in France.
Stone Age-era caves there bear paintings located in the most acoustically resonant places, where sound lingers or echoes.

The first cathedrals, theaters and concert halls, researchers now theorize, may have been inspired by musical performances held in caves. [read more]

LP Art Exhibit at the Lake County Discovery Museum

2008-06-26T13:26:00.000-07:00

Explore sixty years of outstanding album cover artwork in the special exhibition, LP Art, at the Lake County Discovery Museum. Since the conception of album art in 1939, it has become an integral part of music and popular culture. See the cover evolve from early jazz sleeves to iconic rock covers to interactive cd booklets. View some of the most memorable and inventive album covers of all time by artists like Frank Sinatra, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles and Beck. Relive a generation where record shops were like art galleries, and even bad music was graced with beautiful artwork.

The exhibit contains sections on rock, punk, jazz, funk, hip hop, pop, novelty and children's records. It also features highlights from the remarkable catalogues of The Rolling Stones, The Beatles and Pink Floyd. A special area focuses on album covers by famous visual artists such as Andy Warhol, Salvador Dali, Takashi Murakami and Robert Mapplethorpe. The exhibit also includes the history of the various audio formats and packaging that were used to distribute music over the years, including Edison phonographic cylinders, records, 8-tracks, cassette tapes, Compact Discs (CDs) and MP3 files.

The exhibition features numerous hands-on activities for children and adults. In the Cover Art Studio kids can design their own album cover or interpret a classic such as Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon.” At the Cover Shoot visitors can take the stage with various costumes and props and get in touch with their inner rock star. Adults can get in on the fun as they try to recall band logos in our Album Art Alphabet game. A free audio tour provides a soundtrack for visitors as they explore the exhibit.

LOCATION
The Lake County Discovery Museum is located in the Lakewood Forest Preserve on Route 176, just west of Fairfield Road in Wauconda, Illinois.

HOURS
Monday – Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and Sunday from 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

ADMISSION
$6 for adults and $2.50 for youth ages four to 17. Children three years and under are free. Seniors are $2.50 after 2 p.m. On Discount Tuesdays, admission is $3 for adults, and youth 17 years and under are free. Admission is always free for museum members.

Click here to download a coupon for $1 off Museum admission.

Call 847-968-3400 for more information.

Beatles Butcher Cover

2008-06-18T09:01:00.000-07:00

This cover really created a hub-bub back in the day before the powers that be pasted new covers over the old. "Baby you're a rich man" if you have this in your collection.

Bob Dylan Loves The Art World

2008-06-10T10:14:00.000-07:00

"The music world's a made-up bunch of hypocritical rubbish. I know that the book people are a whole lot saner. And the art world? From the small steps I've taken in it, I'd say, yeah, the people are honest, upfront and deliver what they say.”

Woodstock Revisited

2008-06-06T10:18:00.001-07:00

The Museum at Bethel Woods Celebrates the Legacy of the 1960s and the Woodstock Music & Art Fair

The Museum at Bethel Woods opened its doors June 2, at the site of the historic 1969 Woodstock Music & Art Fair. An integral part of the non-profit Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, the award-winning Museum tells the story of the Sixties and Woodstock, through a state-of-the art interactive experience.

For more information on The Museum at Bethel Woods or Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, please visit www.BethelWoodsCenter.org.

5 of the Worst Latin Music Album Covers

2008-05-31T09:27:00.000-07:00

I thought this was written pretty humorously. Caily at Panama Travels came up with some pretty awful covers. Kudos for that! Rather than reprint it here, visit the site.

Banned Album Covers

2008-05-22T08:51:00.000-07:00

Was there ever really a time when you couldn't show a toilet on a product without it being banned from the public's eyes? Seems so quaint now in this day and age, sad to say. Gibson has an interesting list of banned album covers from over the years. Remember the Beatles' butcher cover? The Mamas and the Papas toilet fiasco? Be forewarned, some of these images are not safe for work.

2008-05-15T11:28:00.000-07:00

"Everyone thinks it's a dying art," Stoltze explains in his Fort Point Channel studio. "But the truth is that there's a lot of really great things still being done by the small record labels and designers."

So says the author of the new book, 1000 Music Graphics: A compilation of packaging, posters, and other sound solutions in an interview with Christopher Muther at boston.com.

Stoltze is optimistic about the future of album art. I’m trying to be. He things that people will continue to want to have something tangible in their hands instead of just a bunch of digital files. That seems right to me and since it’s something I love to design, here’s to the little flicker of hope that Stoltze has given me.

Are You Experienced

2008-05-13T07:58:00.000-07:00

I read an interesting interview this morning on MusicDish.com with photographer Karl Ferris who designed the first Jimi Hendrix album release, "Are You Experienced." If you haven't listened to this album, do yourself a favor and purchase it. It's one of the most creative albums that was released during the 60s in my opinion.

Ferris mentions in the interview the frustration he had with the Reprise record label in getting his vision into print. Things didn't go quite the way he hoped they'd go. Here's the link, and it's well worth your time reading about this bit of graphic design pop history.

Calcutta School of Music

2008-05-09T16:09:00.000-07:00

Here’s an interesting promotion for the Calcutta School of Music. Every year the school enrolls students for classes on classical music. The displayed notes were played through kiosks helping to communicate audibly what they were seeing visually. The promotion was created by Ogilvy and Mather, India. [click on photo to enlarge]

Play Boys Party

2008-05-01T12:23:00.000-07:00

Play Boys Party With The Hotvill's

With all the mourning for the passing of album/CD cover sized art, I thought I would balance everyone's happy memories with this offering.

Futura: The Art of Rich Black

2008-04-18T10:54:00.000-07:00

Futura: The Art of Rich Black
By Rich Black

Dark Horse, 112 Pages

Rock posters had just started going through their third renaissance. The first being in the Sixties with Griffin, Mouse, Moscoso, Tuten, and so on. The second time was the early Nineties with Kozik, Coop, Forbes, Hess, Emek, and Hampton. Rock posters started showing up again in the beginning of 2000. It was as if “Klaatu Barada Nikto!” was uttered, and a small group of people woke up and began making rock posters for the bands touring through their cities.

In case you were wondering, there’s very little money to be made in rock posters. Yet people are still designing them and are passionate. The same can be said of Rich Black. He’s passionate about the poster he does. I personally think he’s had the greatest impact with the Goth/Industrial scene, a scene that’s overlooked by most other rock poster artists. Rich chooses the bands he likes. Bands that you’ve never heard of because they’re hardly on the TV or radio. Great bands that need posters and appreciate them. Whether Rich admits it or not, he’s an important part of that scene, and he’s doing his part to keep it alive. But he’ll never cop to it. It is difficult to out-humble that fucking guy.

Now we’re in the third (and hopefully not the last) poster renaissance of artists who are making the music scene breathe with life and color again. This time around, more people are informed and involved, thanks to the many websites and forums that have been popping up and supporting the movement (especially gigposters.com). Books are being published on the rock poster genre and the artists who are shaping it.

—Brian Ewing, from the Foreword

More on CD art and the future of digital design

2008-04-08T13:56:00.000-07:00

I came across an interesting article on Wired today that adds a little to the discussion about the future of CD graphic design. In particular, check out the interviews posted at the end of the article.

Are music graphics dead post-digital?

2008-03-28T14:31:00.000-07:00

The music industry is set for massive upheaval, with digital distribution destabilizing long-held business models. How will this affect the designers who create the all-important visual imagery? asks Adrian Shaughnessy [read the rest of this article]

1969 Woodstock Poster

2008-03-15T22:45:00.000-07:00

Artist: Arnold Skolnick

The Woodstock dove is really a catbird; originally, it perched on a flute. "I was staying on Shelter Island off Long Island, and I was drawing catbirds all the time," said artist Arnold Skolnick. "As soon as Ira Arnold (a copywriter on the project) called with the copy-approved Three Days of Peace and Music, I just took the razor blade and cut that catbird out of the sketchpad I was using. "First, it sat on a flute. I was listening to jazz at the time, and I guess thats why. But anyway, it sat on a flute for a day, and I finally ended up putting it on a guitar."

Anita Kunz - Talking Heads Cover

2008-03-06T21:28:00.001-08:00

Above: A great cover concept by Anita Kunz for a Talking Heads cover that never saw the light of day.

Gary Grimshaw

2008-02-27T11:25:00.000-08:00

Gary Grimshaw, legendary rock poster artist is still wowing collectors. His current exhibit, Gary Grimshaw Music Art at Woods Gallery in Huntington Woods, MI is said to be a chronicle of the rock music scene in the Metro Detroit Area from the 60’s to the present. It features original art and printed posters. The exhibit will run from February 25-April 17, 2008. The Gallery is located in the lower level of the Huntington Woods Library.

Aficionados of rock history and memorabilia will have the opportunity to mingle with Grimshaw at the exhibit’s opening reception from 6:30 - 8:30pm on Thursday, March 6, 2008. Woods Gallery is located at 26415 Scotia, Huntington Woods, MI. For information about the exhibit call (248) 581- 2696 or visit www.woodsgallery.org.

The exhibit shows part of the evolution of Gary’s body of work. It is a treat for those seeking to remember the psychedelic era and the pursuit of freedom of expression among Detroit’s counter-culture artists. Grimshaw is the guru of the rock poster genre in Michigan.

In 1999, Gary was named one of Michigan's 100 Greatest Artists and Entertainers of the Twentieth Century by the Detroit Free Press. His work is on view at Cleveland's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. Grimshaw created posters and light shows fo
February 25-April 17, 2008r Detroit’s GrandeBallroom in the late 60s, and he has worked with major promoters such as Bill Graham Presents. His collection of rock posters includes work for artists such as Jimi Hendrix, MC5, The Doors, Cream, Iggy Pop, The Who, and The Yardbirds. He is featured in the bible book of posters called The Art of Rock: Posters From Presley to Punk by Paul Grushkin.

Exhibit: Gary Grimshaw Music Art
Reception: Thursday, March 6, 2008 6:30- 8:30pm

http://www.garygrimshaw.com/

Aesthetic Apparatus

2008-02-13T15:02:00.000-08:00

Often considered Minneapolis' best totally unknown design super team, Aesthetic Apparatus was founded around 1999 in Madison, Wisconsin by Dan Ibarra and Michael Byzewski as a fun side project from their "real" jobs. Over the years their limited edition screen printed concert posters have secretly snuck into the hearts and minds of a small, rather silent group of socially awkward music and design nerds. Now, Aesthetic Apparatus is a full time, full-fledged, insanely unstoppable, and occasionally award-winning design mega-studio. They will break your heart and drink your blood.

http://www.aestheticapparatus.com

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

2008-02-08T13:08:00.000-08:00

Art Director: Robert Fraser
Designer: Peter Blake/Jann Haworth
Photographer: Michael Cooper

According to Blake, the original concept was to create a scene that showed the Sgt. Pepper band performing in a park; this gradually evolved into its final form, which shows the Beatles, as the Sgt. Pepper band, surrounded by a large group of their heroes, rendered as life sized cut-out figures. Also included were wax-work figures of the Beatles as they appeared in the early '60s, borrowed from Madame Tussauds. The wax figures appear to be looking down on the word "Beatles" spelled out in flowers as if it were a grave, and it has been speculated that this symbolizes that the innocent mop-tops of yesteryear were now dead and gone. At their feet were several affectations from the Beatles' homes including small statues belonging to Lennon and Harrison, a small portable TV set and a trophy. A young delivery boy who provided the flowers for the photo session was allowed to contribute a guitar made of yellow hyacinths. Although it has long been rumored that some of the plants in the arrangement were cannabis plants, this is untrue. Also included is a Shirley Temple doll wearing a sweater in homage to the Rolling Stones (who would return the tribute by having the Beatles hidden in the cover of their own Their Satanic Majesties Request LP later that year).

The collage depicted more than 70 famous people, including writers, musicians, film stars and (at Harrison's request) a number of Indian gurus. Starr reportedly made no contribution to the design. The final grouping included Marlene Dietrich, W.C. Fields, Diana Dors, Bob Dylan, Marilyn Monroe, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Sigmund Freud, Aleister Crowley, Edgar Allan Poe, Karl Marx, Oscar Wilde, William S. Burroughs, Marlon Brando, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, and controversial comedian Lenny Bruce. Also included was the image of the original Beatles bass player, the late Stuart Sutcliffe. Pete Best said in a later NPR interview that Lennon borrowed family medals from his mother Mona for the shoot, on condition he not lose them. Adolf Hitler was requested by Lennon, but ultimately he was left out. It can, however, be seen in place as well as leaning against the wall in several photographs taken on the set.

Source: Wikipedia

The Go-Go's - Vacation

2008-01-29T15:50:00.000-08:00

Cover art by Mike Hagerty

Read more about the background of the creation of this cover here.

The PaperbackCinema CD Package Designs

2008-01-20T20:14:00.000-08:00

The Paperback Cinema is a Alt-Folk collective from the Philadelphia area. One of it's memeber's is Tim McNally who I have done design work for in the past. With most of the music projects I work on, after meeting with the client and getting a good feel about what their music is all about, I am usually given creative freedom to design whatever I think will work best. Musicians can sometimes be wary of losing any kind of creative control when it comes to their music, so I find it is really important to have an honest conversation so that both parties can agree what the expectations are for the final project.

I am lucky that most of the music projects I have worked on, the musicans or record labels contact me and want to use me for my particular design and illustration styles. Because of this, there usually is very little in revisions.

This was of of those projects that basically went off without a hitch. I wanted to explore a more "restrained" type of illustration that felt like an underground graphic novel. One of the major changes for me in this piece was using various water color washes and using marker. I went through multiple versions trying to really get a solid overall consistant look and feel. There are some many variations, some with very little use of color and others that have big bold swatches of color. There was a little about each version that I liked so in the end I had to choose the version that seemed to incorporate the most of the best elements from all the versions.

When it was done, I was pleased with the end result and I really enjoyed the creative process that I went though to create this piece. One of the elements I love the most is the typography. I wanted a big bold slab font that had a 1950's pulp novel feel. I could'nt really find a typeface that I liked or that unique enough to visually marry with the illustration. I decided to create a typeface specifically for this project. I sketched out the font by hand and did multiple tracings until I got the way I wanted. I then scanned in the inked alphabet and cleaned it up a bit in Photoshop. From there I printed out the entire alphabet to a black and white laser printer and made a photocopy. Using the photocopy and turpentine, I transfered the letters onto a slab of Speedball lino block. I then carved out each letter(some letters had to carved multiple times to get them right). I then inked the blocks and printed out pages and pages of the letters. After printing the letters, I scanned in the best pages of the letters and picked out the best letters from the various prints. I vreated one Photoshop file that contained all the best letters and I then created a hi-res PS brush for each letter. Using the PS brushes I then created the type for the cd package.

It might seem like a long process just for the typography and I know it would have been quicker just to scan in the original sketches and used the computer to create them and distress them. By I never really care to take the "quick and easy" way. First of all I love what I do so why would I want to shorten the time I get to do it? Secondly, if you really want to get a "hand drawn" feeling and get small imperfections to the look and feel then there is no better way than to do it by hand.

A design will always have a much stronger feel to it if some part of it was created by hand because the artist has a connection to the work through a tacile response as the ink or paint is applied.

Finished package design (click to enlarge):

CD single cover that uses more of fontface:

Finished package design (click to enlarge):

Here are some photos of the font creation process:

Original sketch:

Transfering the letters onto the block:

Cutting out the letters:

Close view of progress:

One of the many prints that were scanned in:

Sorry for the really long post. Hope you enjoyed it though.

>K. Von B.

James Apollo-Good Grief

2008-01-14T20:08:00.000-08:00

Cover design by Adam Strom

Hope for music design in 2008

2008-01-08T13:41:00.000-08:00

With all the talk about CD and DVD sales plummeting and digital downloads taking the place of something you can hold in your hands and examine, I decided I better hop on the A-train quickly or be relegated to the CD/DVD graphic design scrap heap.

Let me first explain that I am actually old enough to have designed my first album cover in 1974. From there, the industry took a pretty abrupt leap to the smaller format of compact discs while still retaining the need for a graphic designer to design the physical packaging.

With digital downloading on the rise, my first thoughts were, “Great, another product line of graphic design I will have to drop.” Not so fast. Seems, that maybe this whole switcheroo won’t be as bad as I first thought.

Antony Bruno has written an article for Billboard magazine titled, “Digital album packaging should improve in 2008.” It’s well worth the time to read for anyone even remotely interested in the future of graphic design and music. Read Bruno's article here.

Digg this article

Cover Story: Album Cover Art

2007-12-24T17:58:00.000-08:00

Remember when music albums had huge spaces to design with? I do. Boy I miss those things.

I remember as a teen, sitting and listening to music while visually devouring the album cover.

Then came CDs. Micro versions of what I had growing up. But still, at least there was something to hold in my hands, read and appreciate.

What's next? I'm sure it will be in some kind of online, digital form. It just can't be anywhere near the same kind of all encompassing experience when it finally appears. Maybe it will be better? Nah.

Cover Story: Album Cover Art looks like a good book for both those of us who grew up with album cover design and for those who want to know what all the whining's about.

"A coffee-table-ready collection of album covers, from the lewd to the ludicrous. It's perfect." -The Village Voice

Cover Story: Album Cover Art vividly explores an element of music culture that has withered with the advent of MP3s and digital downloading. Records possess a visual as well as an aural capacity for storytelling. The record cover--eye candy for the music lover--speaks a language rooted in the environment and era of the music itself. And, more intimately, a record can create a profound sense of analogy with its owner, and it's this relationship that we share.

Preface by Brian DiGenti and introduction by Dave Tompkins. The Wax Poetics team handpicked twenty albums apiece, 240 albums in all, twelve chapters: editor-in-chief Andre Torres; editor Brian DiGenti; contributing editors Matt Rogers, Andrew "DJ Monk One" Mason, Dante Carfagna, and J. P. Jones; contributing photo editor Brian "B+" Cross; contributing writers Jeff "Chairman" Mao, Oliver Wang, Robbie Busch, and Dave Tompkins; and label head Amir Abdullah.

Available from Wax Poetics Books.

Aeroplane Over The Sea - Neutral Milk Hotel

2007-12-17T18:47:00.000-08:00

Great cover art from a team of great artists/designers.

For the background history of this cover art, I am liberally quoting from the Lost In The Grooves blog:

There are no great records without great sleeves, and Aeroplane’s is a stunner. The front cover shows a group of old fashioned bathers—though with the odd cropping it’s unclear if they are waving from the shoreline or drowning in the deeps. The central figure, a curvaceous lass in a gold-starred red costume, gazes out from a perfectly neutral visage, in place of her face an oversized, well-used drum head. That same drum is found on the back cover, strung round the tallest of the stilt-striding musicians who march across a pastoral stage-set unsuited to their blare. Externally, the name Neutral Milk Hotel appears only on the spine, and on a sticker that Merge applied to the shrink-wrap.

The record cover was a collaboration between Jeff Mangum and Chris Bilheimer, R.E.M.’s staff designer. But the first bit of art came from the pen of Brian Dewan, a visual artist, inventor, filmmaker, carpenter and musician from New York. The iconic line drawing of the enormous Victrola soaring above a smoky city is his. Brian’s first Elephant 6 collaboration came when Julian Koster asked him to provide drawings for posters to be inserted inside early singles by The Music Tapes. These singles had three-dimensional pop-up sleeves that Julian and his friends painstakingly cut out with x-acto knives, a fact Brian discovered when Julian asked if he could recommend a good die-cutter. Julian supplied Brian with words and drawings, and Brian adapted this material for the poster, which featured land- and waterscapes decorated with mysterious slogans like "March of the Father Fists" and "Every time you light a cigarette with a candle a sailor will not return from sea."

Not long after the Music Tapes commission, Brian got a call from Jeff Mangum, who identified himself as Julian’s housemate. Would Brian be interested in doing some artwork for his new record? Intrigued by the tape he received, Brian agreed to draw two things for Jeff: a flying Victrola and a magic radio. That Victrola would become a shorthand symbol for Neutral Milk Hotel and In The Aeroplane Over The Sea, but first it was just one in a stack of potential graphic elements that Jeff brought to Chris Bilheimer when it came time to design the jacket.

Chris Bilheimer was a fine arts student at the University of Georgia when he stumbled onto his dream job with R.E.M. in 1993. Grateful for the opportunity to make a living making art (and to make art on the best equipment “Losing My Religion” could buy), he was a notoriously easy touch for indie artists needing record covers or poster design. Chris had told Jeff to call if he ever needed help; for Aeroplane, Jeff took him up on the offer.

Bryan Poole recalls that Jeff “was always into that old timey, magic, semi-circus, turn-of-the-century, penny arcade kind of imagery,” examples of which he’d find in thrift shops on his travels. Among the pieces that Jeff brought Chris was a vintage European postcard of bathers at a resort, and this was the image that Chris—working closely with Jeff—cropped and subtly altered to create Aeroplane’s front cover. The other source material included a book of historic circus posters, a clip art book of cloud formations, Will Hart’s Elephant 6 logo and Brian Dewan’s aerial cityscape.

Although Chris Bilheimer mainly works on computers, his aesthetic is more analog than digital. The disparate images selected for the album design ranged from Brian Dewan’s crisp new drawing to the slightly grubby old postcard. How could all these pieces be given a visually cohesive look? Chris solved the problem by scanning the back of the postcard, and using the foxed, spotted, off-white paper as the background against which all other images were screened. In this way, everything appeared to be about the same age and printed on similar paper, with the overall effect one of slow decay. Chris even left a splash of dirt on the postcard—just above the girl’s waving hand—a touch that’s easily overlooked on the CD cover, but obvious on the larger LP jacket. The CD contained a piece of art absent from the album, two reproductions of tiny human figures beneath dramatic clouds. These images appear on the back side of the single sheet of paper on which the CD cover was printed, with the mysterious numerals “205/6” a carry-over from the back of the vintage postcard.

Instead of a standard lyric sheet, Chris arranged the song titles, lyrics (which Jeff provided) and other information like a broadsheet. Every song had a title except the one that starts “The only girl I’ve ever loved/ Was born with roses in her eyes.” He asked Jeff what to call the track. Jeff said he was thinking about calling it “Holland,” or maybe “1945.” Chris suggested he combine the two titles, which is how he named what would become his favorite song on the album.

Chris: “I wanted to have a little bit of a ‘circus coming to town’ feel without an obviously circusy-looking image. And so I laid out this whole thing and printed it out and crinkled it up and then scanned it back in and laid it on top of old paper. I work really hard to make things look like they weren’t made on a computer. Even though I’m not using traditional graphic methods—it’s the same reason bands like recording with tube amps and recording to tape instead of to hard drive—it has that tactile warmth to it. That’s what I try to do with graphic design. Especially by designing something, printing it out, fucking it up and then scanning it back in.” Most of the fonts used came from old typography books and were set by hand, although the headline is set in an especially handsome computer font derived from Vineta, an inline shadowed Clarendon designed in 1973 by Ernst Volker.

Chris had agreed to help Jeff with the design prior to hearing the record. Once he did, he was “absolutely blown away by it. I thought ‘holy crap, this is the best record in ten years!’” While this made him excited about the project, it also stirred up unexpected emotional responses. For example, during the design process, he and Jeff initially worked up a different back cover based around the lower portion of the vintage postcard, showing the woman bather’s feet trailing off into the water. Chris was very attached to the image, but Jeff decided he didn’t want to use it. Chris: “I remember almost wanting to start crying. And I was driving home, thinking, ‘I really need to back off and not be so emotionally involved. It’s not my record!’ I learned a really good lesson about designing. And ultimately I think he made a good decision.”

Although In The Aeroplane Over The Sea is not the most famous record Chris Bilheimer worked on, nor the best-selling, it remains the design he’s most proud of, and it occupies a prominent place in his portfolio, where music industry people regularly exclaim over it. Once he was bemused to find someone selling “really crappy, kinda high schooly pencil sketch of the cover” on eBay, with a description claiming it was the original layout; he emailed eBay and got the auction pulled.

Even after the art was completed and the album released, Chris maintained a relationship with Neutral Milk Hotel, often seeing them play at house parties and formal gigs around Athens. Chris recalls, “There’s three times in a row where I saw them live and I started crying. It was something you really couldn’t put your finger on. The music was really beautiful, and the lyrics might have been obtuse and not something you could directly relate to, but there was something in Jeff’s voice, just the sound of his voice, that encapsulated so many different feelings at the same time. It was just incredibly moving. I think the goal of most art is to transcend your medium or your surroundings— and that just happened at every show, for me, anyway.”

20th Anniversary Edition: The Joshua Tree

2007-12-03T11:43:00.000-08:00

Prepare to feel older than dirt.

It's been 20 years since Steve Averill designed the cover of U2's The Joshua Tree. V isit Steve's site here.

Juicebox

2007-11-27T12:29:00.000-08:00

Uhmm. Cool? Yeah, cool! I love it! How can you go wrong with a cute little monkey, popcorn and a retro pic. Who is Juicebox? From their website:

"Born out of love for soul, boogaloo and R&B, Juicebox does more than keep alive the traditions that inspire it. These are the sounds of the late sixties but rendered by musicians with the impulse of another generation. Juicebox is an authentic soul band with a respect for roots but blessed with the invention that defined them..
Juicebox, in other words, has not stood still. Neither have their audiences who have been kicking the rug off the dance floor. “When the deaf hear and the lame dance we know we are getting something right” says founder, tenor sax and flute player Rob Berends.

"Juicebox’s debut album, Popcorn 69, offers 14 contemporary covers of classic tracks from the original popcorn era."

Gregg Gordon - Gigart

2007-11-21T10:24:00.000-08:00

I learned a little bit about a great music poster illustrator named Gregg Gordon on the Runaway Dinosaur blog.

Gregg has founded Gigart in 1996 and since that time has been illustrating and designing music related materials for an impressive list of record companies and bands.

This week I'm featuring a poster that Gregg illustrated for one of his favorite bands, "Ween." Here's a quote from Gregg that I pulled from his interview with Runaway Dinosaur:

"The latest concert posters I created are for Ween. I have been a huge fan of Ween forever and always wanted to design a poster for them. I got that chance back in 2003. I did a poster for Ween for the Canopy Club show in Urbana, IL. I went all out and tried to illustrate as many references to their lyrics as I could. That poster was the very first silk screened poster I had ever done, and it couldn’t have been for a better band."

You can view more of Gregg's work on his website.

Kevin Mercer - Largemammal Print

2007-11-13T10:01:00.000-08:00

This week I'd like to feature a talented music designer by the name of Kevin Mercer whose company, Largemammal churns out some really great poster design work for the music industry. You can view more of his work on his website.

Kevin hails from New Jersey and has been cranking out rock posters since 2002.

Here's a little preview:

Lewis & Clarke - Blasts of Holy Birth

2007-11-05T09:10:00.000-08:00

Cover art by Erika Somogyi

Lewis and Clarke music review by Kevin Eagan

Bix & Tram - Jim Flora

2007-10-30T12:05:00.000-07:00

Cover design by Jim Flora

Pela - Anytown Graffiti

2007-10-22T10:42:00.000-07:00

Album Artwork Concept and Direction: Billy McCarthy
Technical/Layout Support: Andrew Nelson, Ben Altman,
and Eric Sanderson
Band Photo credit: Brendon McCrory .
You can learn more about this band here.

Castanets - Cathedral

2007-10-17T16:17:00.001-07:00

Ashes of the Wake - Lamb of God

2007-10-09T09:31:00.000-07:00

Artwork by K3nAdams

Label: Sony/Epic
Released Aug.31, 2004

U2 artwork makes European debut

2007-09-24T12:32:00.000-07:00

For the first time in Europe, fans of great art and great music can see an exhibition of the design work conducted for U2 by the Dublin-based Four5One°Creative company.

Stealing Hearts At A Travelling Show is the fruit of a 25-year collaboration with the quartet, showcasing rarely seen out-takes of album design concepts, as well as iconic images from the Boy and Joshua Tree eras.

The designers will also be around for a Q&A session at 5pm on Saturday in the Red room.

Designer Steve Averill recently spoke to Hot Press about the exhibition: “Because we were asked to contribute to the U2 exhibition at the Rock ‘N’ Roll Hall Of Fame (in Cleveland), we had to focus on the best parts of the story if you like,” he explains.

“We left out a massive amount of stuff because our involvement has been everything from t-shirts to tickets to passes, so we stuck more or less to the main graphic areas, which were album covers and tour programmes. And what we would hope to do with this upcoming exhibition is also to show the work that we’ve done recently for people like Depeche Mode rather than it being a total U2 thing. People will have a chance to see some other elements.”

He also spoke about the relationship between Four5One°Creative and the band:

"Working with U2 is very much a partnership: the band are very involved in their graphic identity. Sometimes you might start off six months or more before an album release to discuss the direction the whole thing might go, and musically as the album gets closer to a finished product, it changes dramatically, so we need to adapt the visuals to suit.

“For instance, Pop was a quite a different cover, up until they decided to call the album Pop. Similarly with the Atomic Bomb album cover, that title was in contention for a while. Because of 9/11, it was a slightly ambiguous title from a record company’s point of view. If that title had changed, that whole graphic stance, which is based around warning signs and the whole military graphic thing, would have been invalid, and we were working on an alternative direction just in case.”

Brownwood Reunion Celebration

2007-09-19T09:13:00.000-07:00

I thought this logo was nicely done. This is for a celebration in Brownwood, Texas that featured concerts by Jack Ingram, John Michael Montgomery and others. The logo was featured on tees and tickets (and probably posters). I'm trying to track down the designer. I'll let you know. Update: Design by GSD&M / Austin, Texas.

Dinosaur Jr Poster - Hero Design Studio

2007-09-10T15:12:00.001-07:00

Hero Design Studio

"Hear What You Like..." MTV

2007-09-04T09:23:00.001-07:00

“Hear what you like.
MTV on demand powered by clicknet express.”

Advertising Agency: Grey Worldwide, Bucharest, Romania
Creative Directors: Claudiu Dobrita, Stefan Vasilachi
Art Director: Stefan Vasilachi
Copywriter: Claudiu Dobrita
Photographer: Tudor Cuciuc
Published: April 2007

ABBA, "The Visitors" - The first CD turns 25

2007-08-27T08:52:00.000-07:00

The compact disc celebrated its 25th birthday last week. That's an eternity in technology years. In case you were wondering, the first CD to come off the press was ABBA's "The Visitors" — off a Philips assembly line in Germany on Aug. 17, 1982, to usher in a fruitful new age of the music industry.

The disc was art directed by Rune Soderqvist. The following is a short biography for Soderqvist from the official ABBA website:

Rune Söderqvist was born in 1935. After working in the advertising business for a number of years, by the 1970s he had his own design studio. He started working with ABBA in late 1975, designing the original Swedish sleeve for their Greatest Hits album.

The following year he invented the famous ABBA logo with the backwards B. Rune’s thinking was that each B (Björn and Benny) should be turned towards each A (Agnetha and Anni-Frid) since they were two couples. Rune went on to design every subsequent album sleeve for ABBA, from Arrival in 1976 until the posthumous ABBA Live ten years later.

The title Arrival was suggested by Rune’s common-law wife at the time, Lillebil Ankarcrona. The sleeve for Super Trouper featured ABBA surrounded by dressed-up friends and acquaintances, as well as real circus performers. For The Visitors, Rune’s sleeve concept was to think of the ”visitors” as angels, which led to the group posing in front of a painting of an angel.

Rune was also the visual architect behind ABBA’s tour of Europe and Australia in 1977, and the tour of North America and Europe in 1979. After the ABBA years he has continued working as a designer, also achieving success in the field of art.

The Flaming Lips

2007-08-20T21:11:00.000-07:00

Design by George Salisbury

becca- Hill Design Studios

2007-08-17T17:51:00.000-07:00

I did this design project awhile back for Nari Records...

Alexander Steinweiss - Album cover art innovator

2007-08-14T23:07:00.000-07:00

In 1939, 23 year old Alexander Steinweiss proposed to Columbia to make a change in the presentation and packaging of the 78 RPM record albums and to use original artwork (drawings and paintings) on the covers. This new approach was quite a change if compared to the gold or silver imprint of just the nomenclature in a serif or gothic font on the black, brown or beige heavy books. The new look skyrocketed the sales of an already very popular composition. From that day on the artistic packaging became an important part of the record.

In 1948 Columbia presented the Lp format to the public. A symphony on 4 78 RPM records could now be engraved on a single disc. The new medium did not need the fat, heavy albums any longer. The standard sleeves for 78 RPM records in albums were made of light kraft paper, folded together and glued at the spine and top or bottom, reportedly with a strip folded inside the sleeve which could damage the new vinylite Lp.

Steinweiss, who had studied at Parsons School of Design (New York) and graduated in 1937, was for two years assistant to Joseph Binder, was retained as Art Director at Columbia Records in 1939, and was appointed Advertising Manager for Columbia Records in 1943. From 1943 until the end of the war he had been retained as Exhibits Engineer in the US Navy TADC (Tactical Air Direction Center). In 1945 he had settled as a free lance designer and consultant, painter and ceramist, working for a variety of companies and industries, including Columbia Records. Alexander Steinweiss was now asked to design a standard record sleeve for the new long playing record.

Steinweiss's design of the folded album cover (the fold at the spine) made of kraft (cardboard) became the standard of the industry in the USA. His basic design was soon varied upon but was in essence the same up to this day.

Text courtesy of: The Remington Site - http://www.soundfountain.org/rem/remcovart.html

Asia - Roger Dean

2007-08-10T09:15:00.001-07:00

Roger Dean is an internationally recognized artist and designer, whose evocative and visionary images with associated graphics, logos, and lettering, created a new genre of work.

Made popular through the medium of album covers and posters his work, including posters, cards, books and album covers etc., has sold in excess of sixty million copies world-wide.

He has set up and successfully run his own publishing company which published his books Views and Magnetic Storm. Views went straight to number one in the best seller lists going on to sell over a million copies.

The “Asia” album cover above that Dean did for the band, “Yes” was later voted the second most successful album cover design of all time, (after "Sergeant Pepper" ) by readers of "Rolling Stone" magazine.

You can discover more about Roger Dean on his website.

Dreamland Design

2007-08-06T20:31:00.001-07:00

Cover illustration and design by Jilaen Sherwood of Dreamland Design

Architecture In Helsinki - Places Like This

2007-08-01T20:56:00.000-07:00

Architecture In Helsinki commissioned talented UK illustrator Will Sweeney to create the cover illustration for the band's newest release, "Places Like This.

2007-07-31T08:30:00.000-07:00

This really nice illustration is from the album cover for Goombay Carnival by the Confidential Club Orchestra, a group consisting of native Nassau musicians and was release in 1956.

The Goombay Festival is a two-day carnival centred around Key West's Bahama Village, giving the local Caribbean community the chance to celebrate its roots with food, drink, music and dance.

Goombay music is similar to Calypso, but its rhythms are based on a fire dance brought to the West Indies by American slaves during the Civil War.

Xavier Cugat - Favorite Rhumbas

2007-07-25T22:23:00.001-07:00

''Rumba King'' Xavier Cugat was the first bandleader to front a successful Latin orchestra in the United States. Affectionately known as ''Cugie,'' he was largely responsible for popularizing Latin music among North American audiences, paving the way for such future stars as Desi Arnaz, Perez Prado, and Tito Puente.

I love this artwork, but I haven't been able to track down the name of the illustrator. If anyone knows, please send me an email so I can give proper credit. It might have been drawn by Cugat himself who was also a cartoonist.

Rush - Snakes and Arrows

2007-07-19T21:55:00.000-07:00

The cover painting, chosen by lyricist/drummer Neil Peart, is by scholar/artist Harish Johari.

Arctic Monkeys - Favourite Worst Nightmare

2007-07-16T22:57:00.001-07:00

“Liverpool designers Juno, who also did the artwork for the first LP, spent a week gutting three unoccupied houses from the estate, before moving a team of spray artists to paint the interiors.” source www.gigwise.com.

Breed Machine - Dose Productions

2007-07-15T23:22:00.001-07:00

Dose Productions

The Smashing Pumpkins Team with Shepard Fairey For ‘Zeitgeist” Cover

2007-07-09T22:59:00.000-07:00

To capture the mood of our times with the album cover for ZEITGEIST—the forthcoming album by THE SMASHING PUMPKINS—the band turned to acclaimed Obey Giant graphic designer and illustrator Shepard Fairey. After being given the album’s title to work with, Fairey came up with a haunting image: it’s a red, black and white illustration of a drowning Statue of Liberty, positioned in front of the sun that is either setting or rising.

“Like a great artist can do, Shepard had summed up very simply a lot of complex themes,” says the band’s Billy Corgan. “He also used the type font from our very first single, and I asked him about it and he had no idea. He was just on point.”

Says Fairey, whose Andre the Giant street art has been seen around the world and whose credits include creating anti-war posters and the poster art for the feature film Walk The Line:

“I think global warming is an issue that is currently relevant, time sensitive, and a symptom of the shortsightedness of the U.S. As a broader metaphor, the drowning Statue of Liberty, a revered icon of the U.S., symbolizes the eminent demise of many of the ideals upon which the nation was founded. Civil liberties, freedom of speech, privacy, etc. have been decreasing since 9/11. The sun in the image could either be setting or rising and this ambiguity shows that there is still hope to turn things around.”

Due out July 10, ZEITGEIST (Martha’s Music/Reprise) marks the Smashing Pumpkins’ sixth album and first of new material since 2000. It was produced by Billy Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlin, with Roy Thomas Baker and Terry Date working separately on various tracks, and represents the culmination of two years of work. ZEITGEIST features the first single “Tarantula”—due to arrive at radio May 22—and such songs as album opener “Doomsday Clock,” “United States” and “For God And Country.”

Asked why he feels the image captures the feeling of the world at this time, Fairey says: “The U.S. is the dominant global force. When things are going wrong in the U.S. they are probably going wrong around the world. I think this image conveys both the U.S. situation and its larger global implications.”

The illustration derives strength from the usage of the color red. Explains Fairey: “I use red frequently because it is a visually powerful, emotionally potent color. Red gets people’s attention. In this case there is the added possibility that the red liquid could be blood, giving it an even more sinister sense of foreboding. Red helps people to realize immediately that something is wrong and the image is not a soothing postcard.”

Crowded House - Time On Earth

2007-07-07T22:27:00.000-07:00

As he did for the first four Crowded House albums, Nick Seymour, also an artist, created the cover art for Time on Earth. The group's name "Crowded House" appears with jumbled case, some lower and some upper case, appearing as "cRoWdED HOusE" and the album title also in a part jumble with all but the last two letters in upper case, appearing as "TIME ON EARth." The cover also features a blue dragon eating a human. This is to symbolise former member Hester being consumed by depression (symbolized by the dragon being blue) and this brought his time on earth to an early end. The cover art is almost completely composed of newspaper cuttings collaged together--even the image of the man and the dragon are newspaper cuttings which Seymour painted onto. Only the tree on the right, and the title text are not composed of newspaper cuttings. The human figure appears to be grasping at this newspaper-free title text; this may symbolize the figure's desire for freedom from all that a newspaper may represent (politics, consumerism, media manipulation, war: the horrors of modern life). This also implies that a person's "time on earth" should not, ideally, be tainted by such things. This same significance may be applied to the painted, newspaper-free tree, as it was under a tree in a Melbourne park where Paul Hester took his own life. [Source: Wikipedia]

The Chemical Brothers - We Are The Night

2007-07-02T16:26:00.000-07:00

Cover design by Tappin Gofton

Heart and Torch: Rick Griffin’s Transcendence

2007-07-01T22:55:00.000-07:00

Griffin's poster for the Grateful Dead album "Aoxomoxoa" was created in 1969.

June 24 to September 30, 2007

Heart and Torch: Rick Griffin’s Transcendence, the artist’s first major retrospective and solo museum exhibition, opens on June 24, 2007 at the Laguna Art Museum at Laguna Beach, California. A cult figure that set the iconographic terrain for the 1960s and 1970s counterculture, in his art Griffin expressed idealism and hope along with a darker side that perfectly embodied the contradictions of the era with its mixture of hedonism, politics, and avant-garde expression.

The exhibition, which includes some 140 paintings, drawings, posters, album covers, and artifacts, surveys thirty years of Griffin’s work from the 1960s until his death in 1991. The accompanying 156-page catalogue, published in association with Gingko Press, is the first publication to address Griffin’s impact on the surf, psychedelic rock, and born-again Christian movements.

FEIST

2007-06-27T15:53:00.000-07:00

Ahh! - Sorry, I am way over due for a first post to this blog, so let's have it be Feist. This a 4 color screenprint that I just completed for a sold out LA show for Feist and Grizzly Bear. I wasn't going to do another rock poster this summer, but I love Feist and couldn't pass up the opportunity. I usually don't do portraits of the musical artists for gigposters, mainly because I find it difficult to draw people accurately! Feist's music is pretty personal, and so it seemed natural to have her lovely mug on there. This image was initially done in brush and ink.

John Van Hamersveld

2007-06-27T09:20:00.000-07:00

John Van Hamersveld was born in 1941 in Baltimore, MD. He both attended and taught at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena and California Institute of the Arts. From earliest positions of art director of Surfer Magazine and Capitol Records. John's experience has spanned album cover, poster, packaging, industrial, magazine and book design.

John has designed over 300 album covers for groups like the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Blondie, Kiss, Public Image and many others, including… Exile on Main Street and Magical Mystery Tour.

His 360° mural at the Los Angeles Coliseum, executed for the 1984 Olympic Games won him national recognition by the American Institute of Architects. He is also well known for his poster design for the movie, The Endless Summer, which is one of the most popular and recognizable poster images of all time. His work as part of the concert promotion company Pinnacle resulted in one of John’s most enduring body of posters, including what is widely considered one of the greatest rock posters ever made, for Jimi Hendrix at LA’s Shrine Auditorium.

More recently, John designed the posters for the Cream 2005 Reunion Concerts at London’s Royal Albert Hall and Madison Square Gardens and the packaging for the Warner Brothers CD and DVD releases.

The Thieves of Kailua - CD project design - Brian Bosworth

2007-06-25T13:34:00.000-07:00

When we began tossing around ideas to create an album cover for 'Thieves', Jason had already self-released the record a year or two beforehand. He was burning the discs himself and sewing these great little burlap sacks with wooden buttons to slip them in. He came to me because he's rifled through my sketchbooks for some time and thought my drawing style would work for his vision. By that point he already had a list of elements that he was drawn to (tropical sunset, mountains, jungle, beach), and a certain aesthetic -- it was important for him to retain a hand crafted, organic feel. The aesthetic I was drawing on came from many places: pin up girls, disney background paintings, 60s tiki style, japanese woodblock prints. I was also looking at jungle plants and tropical birds, and was sketching the whole time. All of the drawings on the cover and the inside flaps were done by hand, but I put everything together and messed with colors on Photoshop (with a little help from Illustrator). The burlap pattern on the sleeve came from a scan of the same material he used for his homemade version. I think I'm drawn to actually listing personal references with musicians I'm working with -- stream of conscious lists of themes, memories, objects or whatever they drew on to create the music -- and sneaking as many symbols of these as possible into the album art. It's a great way to drum up a bunch of wonderful and legitimate material to dig into and work with.

Gettin' Lucky On #13 -VANS WARPED TOUR 2007

2007-06-22T09:50:00.000-07:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Artist Brian Ewing Gets Lucky with 13th Annual Warped Tour

San Francisco, CA –June 15, 2007-For the fourth year in a row, renowned rock poster artist Brian Ewing has “inked” a deal with sponsor AT&T to produce the artwork for six posters and cell phone graphic downloads for the Vans Warped Tour, “Lucky 13”.
He has designed concert posters and t-shirts for the Vans Warped Tour since 2004, consistently helping to build their brand by creating a definitive image and character for the Tour.

A popular exclusive attraction that will be back at the Warped Tour this year is the AT&T Signing Stage, where fans can meet the band members and get autographs on the official posters illustrated by Brian.

The posters will only be available at the Warped Tour. Posters from previous years have taken on a life of their own, becoming highly sought after by collectors and fans of both the artist and the featured bands. Some fans have even gone so far as to get tattoos of Brian’s distinctive artwork. Coincidently, the Tour’s 2007 visual theme of tattoo art and posters designed to resemble tattoo flash might prompt even more fans to follow suit.

Brian Ewing is a San Francisco based Rock Poster Artist who has worked in the music industry since 2000. For the past three years he has worked and toured with the Vans Warped Tour and the Taste Of Chaos tour. Brian has collaborated with such bands as Queens Of The Stone Age, Billy Idol, Taking Back Sunday, Brand New and My Chemical Romance.

For further information please visit

BRIANEWING.com

href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/34402640@N00/579571277/">BRIAN EWING.warp.tour.07.jpg
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