5 of the Worst Latin Music Album Covers

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

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.

"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

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

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

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

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