Typography And Cover Art
In this post I explore the typography used on existing album covers.
History
Alex Steinweiss of Columbia Records is credited with the concept of album covers and cover art, coming about in 1938, replacing the plain covers used previously. Cover art became cultural icons and marketing tools.
The following work is by Alex Steinweiss, and his use of bold colours and creative typography is still seen as iconic.
The work below is by S. Neil Fujita; the first piece "strange interlude" was created for Lew Davies and his orchestra in 1961; the overlap of bold, large typography and colour is still seen on modern cover art, as it is timeless in its simplicity. "Big, bold and brassy" is an example of mid-century album covers, released in 1960. Both of these covers focus primarly on the typography against a off-white background.
The cover art for 1965 jazz album "The Rumproller" was designed by Reid Miles. It features distorted/shaped text, in bold orange and black, and similarly to Fujita's work, is against a plain white background. Another iconic album cover designed in the 1960's, is the grammy-award winning 1967 Beatles cover art, featuring cardboard cut outs of celebrities and the Beatles dressed as Sgt. Pepper. The cover art adopted a park/outdoor concept.
With an even larger focus on the typography element, the cover art featured below for The Tubes debut album, released in 1975, features graphic typography mimicing the appearence of gel. The second cover featured below is for Pink Floyd's 1979 album "The Wall" which features handwritten looking typography against a white brick wall, running in line with the albums title.
Below are some examples of alternative and unique styles of typography featured on album cover art. Firstly we see the cover art for Chicago XIV, showcasing the artist name in a thumb print, monochrome in colour scheme. The second cover is for 1985 album "the firm", featuring cube-shaped 3D typography.
As we progress into the 90's and early 2000's, we see cover art such as that of compilation album "Blood, Sweat and Tears : Greatest Hits" released in 1998, featuring 3D typorgraphy. On many of these covers, mainly the ones closer to 2010 rather than 2000, we start to see fuller backgrounds rather than the plain background, for example Coldplays "Viva La Vida" album features a mural image layered with plain white typography. The Killers "Day and Age" album takes on a textured visual, almost looking like a mosaic. Paramore's "Riot" album is simply handwritted album titles, using black and orange typography on a white background. Linkin Park's "Minutes To Midnight" album cover art takes on a more simplistic approach, with a monochrome colour scheme and a phtotgraph of the band edited to plain black and put against a plain white background.
If we explore more recent album cover art work, we can see some covers not even including the artist/album name; equally the handwritten style of typography is becoming increasingly popular.
History
Alex Steinweiss of Columbia Records is credited with the concept of album covers and cover art, coming about in 1938, replacing the plain covers used previously. Cover art became cultural icons and marketing tools.
The following work is by Alex Steinweiss, and his use of bold colours and creative typography is still seen as iconic.
The work below is by S. Neil Fujita; the first piece "strange interlude" was created for Lew Davies and his orchestra in 1961; the overlap of bold, large typography and colour is still seen on modern cover art, as it is timeless in its simplicity. "Big, bold and brassy" is an example of mid-century album covers, released in 1960. Both of these covers focus primarly on the typography against a off-white background.
The cover art for 1965 jazz album "The Rumproller" was designed by Reid Miles. It features distorted/shaped text, in bold orange and black, and similarly to Fujita's work, is against a plain white background. Another iconic album cover designed in the 1960's, is the grammy-award winning 1967 Beatles cover art, featuring cardboard cut outs of celebrities and the Beatles dressed as Sgt. Pepper. The cover art adopted a park/outdoor concept.
With an even larger focus on the typography element, the cover art featured below for The Tubes debut album, released in 1975, features graphic typography mimicing the appearence of gel. The second cover featured below is for Pink Floyd's 1979 album "The Wall" which features handwritten looking typography against a white brick wall, running in line with the albums title.
Below are some examples of alternative and unique styles of typography featured on album cover art. Firstly we see the cover art for Chicago XIV, showcasing the artist name in a thumb print, monochrome in colour scheme. The second cover is for 1985 album "the firm", featuring cube-shaped 3D typography.
As we progress into the 90's and early 2000's, we see cover art such as that of compilation album "Blood, Sweat and Tears : Greatest Hits" released in 1998, featuring 3D typorgraphy. On many of these covers, mainly the ones closer to 2010 rather than 2000, we start to see fuller backgrounds rather than the plain background, for example Coldplays "Viva La Vida" album features a mural image layered with plain white typography. The Killers "Day and Age" album takes on a textured visual, almost looking like a mosaic. Paramore's "Riot" album is simply handwritted album titles, using black and orange typography on a white background. Linkin Park's "Minutes To Midnight" album cover art takes on a more simplistic approach, with a monochrome colour scheme and a phtotgraph of the band edited to plain black and put against a plain white background.
If we explore more recent album cover art work, we can see some covers not even including the artist/album name; equally the handwritten style of typography is becoming increasingly popular.
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