When I was a little girl, I would spend hours going through my Dad’s CD and vinyl collection to look at the album covers. I still find myself doing this whenever I’m on the iTunes store, and I’ve found that it’s a great source of inspiration, especially when you’re trying to capture a particular theme, mood or era.
These are some of my favourite album sleeves.
Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of the War of the Worlds
When I was little (about 6 years old), this album used to terrify me. The shouts of “Ulla! Ulla!” from the Martian chorus used to fill me full of dread whenever my Dad put the record on. I always found the artwork intriguing. The scale of the Martian Tripod as it destroys the Thunder Child was an intimidating, frightening image, but also one that invoked curiousity. It didn’t matter that very time my Dad played the opening track of the album I ran and hid, the cover artwork enticed me to sneak a peek inside the inlay when my Dad wasn’t looking because I wanted to know what the story was all about.
The other thing I like about this album sleeve is the typography. It’s a very twisted piece of text with strong colours, loops and accents. It reminds me of an old-style circus poster, but instead of being place in horizontal or vertical lines, it’s been twisted to flow around the top of the Tripod.
Cheap Thrills – Big Brother and the Holding Company
I love this album cover because it tells the story of the album in comic form. Going from panel to panel and using bright colours and humorous characters, it tells you who was involved in the recording and gives you an insight into what each of the songs is about. The artist who created the comic was Robert Crumb, an underground cartoonist of whom lead singer Janis Joplin was a fan. The comic was originally intended for the back over of the LP, but Joplin insisted it become the front cover. It is listed as #9 on the Rolling Stones Greatest Album Covers, and quite rightly so.
Pet Sounds – The Beach Boys
My Dad was a huge fan of the Beach Boys and owned many of their albums. Out of all of the cover sleeves, this is my favourite. It’s a very simple design with a related photo of the band at a petting zoo and a banner of green at the top with some type. The reason why I like it is because of the typography. The characters of the band’s name and the album name are very close together that the letters almost touch. Yellow and white have been used to differentiate between the two and the text has be positioned into almost a dome shape. Alongside in a smaller font is the album track listing in neat lines following the shape of the title text.
Out of the Blue – Electric Light Orchestra
Bright colours and a space theme – what more could an inquisitive young tomboy want! Looking back at this album sleeve as an adult (and designer), it’s a cleverly adapted version of ELO’s logo, turning into a space station with a Concord-esque ship coming into dock. The typography is a little boring, but his is a good thing given the dominating image it has been placed beside.
The Early Days: Best of Led Zeppelin Vol. 1 – Led Zeppelin
This is an interesting adaptable of the Apollo Space Program insignias. The heads of the band members imposed onto the astronaut space suits, giving it collage effect. The images are quite grainy and grungy. There are no bright colours, just subdued tones.
