This is a really cool video celebrating Reid Miles’ work for Blue Note records, and his monumental impact on album cover art and graphic design. Seriously, if you flip through the CD bins at your local record store you’ll see how many people his work has influenced. The video was made to promote a series of summer jazz concerts at the Bella Vista Social Pub in Siena, Tuscany.
You can learn more about Miles here and see the side-by-side comparisons of the original cover art with the hi-fi versions.
One of the things that really attracts me to vinyl is the cover art. The large format and tactile quality is something that is completely lost in any other format, plus there’s just something about old cover art that I find far more interesting than most of today’s work.
A friend sent me this blog, Project Thirty-Three, which is dedicated solely to record covers that express themselves through simple shapes and patterns. This is probably one of my favorite graphic aesthetics; simple, clean, colorful, fun. Unfortunately, you don’t see much stuff like this nowadays.
Some interesting turntable art from Jinsheng Wang. A turntable collector, Wang took three of his spares and transformed two of them into gardens, and the third into a re-purposed yet functional record player. Read more here.
by Brian on February 1, 2010 filed in Visual Posts
Beautiful Losers, an exhibit, book and most recently a documentary, follows the work of several artists, rooted in subcultures like skateboarding, hip hop, punk, and graffiti, who helped power a movement and generation of culturally significant art. Some of my favorite artists like Shepard Fairey, Geoff McFetridge, and Barry McGee are prominently featured. A highly recommended rental – watch the trailer below.
by Brian on January 28, 2010 filed in Visual Posts
I remember during Obama’s run for presidency documenting and collecting all of the art inspired by and supporting his campaign. It was fascinating to watch; from Shepard Fairey and Scott Hansen to Chuck Anderson and Cody Hudson, the list of artists that fought for change through their craft is long and deep. Realizing the significance of this grassroots movement, the Obama camp is putting together a book called Designing Obama which documents how art helped fuel his campaign.
by Brian on December 11, 2009 filed in Visual Posts
The summer of 2008 my wife and I drove cross country from Philadelphia to San Francisco. Along the way we made many stops to see friends of family, and one of them was in Chicago, a city neither of us had been to before and one that we both fell in love with almost immediately. Coincidentally, the Chicago Jazz fest was going on the few days that we were there and was only a few minutes away from the hotel we were staying at. A free event, we wandered the festival grounds during the day and decided to come back at night to watch Ornette Coleman perform (even more coincidentally I found a copy of Coleman’s seminal record Free Jazz in Denver a few days later). It was a great performance, and all around just good vibes. Our stay in Chicago left an impression on both of us, and as a memento of our time there we bought that year’s Chicago Jazz Fest poster illustrated by local artist John Solimine (pictured above). It’s a cool silk screened print, hand signed and numbered, although we didn’t realize until we got it how bright the yellows were going to be. They are almost like a highlighter yellow, and I don’t know if this was intended or a miscalculation at the printer.
Anyways, I stumbled upon his follow-up for this years Jazz Fest and I’m really feeling it. Great use of gradients and strong type. If you like this there’s a lot of other really nice work on Solimine’s website Spike Press that you should check out.
I first heard of Stefan Glerum’s work from his painfully honest series of illustrations depicting the pitfalls of record collecting entitled Crate Digging Don’t Do It. I stumbled upon his site today and was pleasantly surprised to find a bunch of new work, a lot of it related to the world of records and DJing. [...]
Wu-Tang album covers are amongst some of the most classic in hip hop, but Logan Walters is giving them a run for their money with his Wu-Note Project. Reid Miles was the Art Director for Blue Note from 1956 to 1965 and is responsible for some of the most timeless cover designs to grace any [...]
The alphabet poster I had up in my room growing up wasn’t half as cool as these. Today, it doesn’t seem to be a kid thing anymore as I’ve noticed a sudden spike in popularity amongst graphic designers finding creative ways to interpret their ABCs. Here are a bunch that I’ve found over the past [...]
