Music plays a big part in everyday life here at Mat Dolphin. We’re constantly listening to it, discussing it and plenty of our work has been inspired or related to it in some way. In fact, like many graphic designers, it was a large part of the reason we became interested in design in the first place. Pouring over the typography and layouts of our favourite album covers played a massively important part in shaping our design understanding and tastes. With the record sleeves shrinking from a 12inch gate-fold to a pixelated square on your phone, the art of record sleeve design has obviously changed and will probably continue to do so. I’m sure many of the brilliant examples of cover art we know and love wouldn’t exist today if they had to go through the approval process of any major record label. Which is a shame.

That said, we’re all about embracing change and this blog post certainly isn’t about crying about the good old days and getting nostalgic about the crackle of limited edition vinyl. Beautifully designed ways to package music releases in (physical or otherwise) is still with us and doesn’t seem to be going anywhere.

I’m fairly sure we’re not alone in our love of the marriage between great design and great tunes. There are countless books, websites and articles dedicated to the craft of creating the images which to go with music. One thing that often seems to get either overlooked or even completely ignored when discussing cover art is the music itself. With this in mind, we’ve come up with our pick of the design-geek-classic-covers of recent years, along with the actual songs contained within (sometimes not the most obvious choices). Sound & Vision will be a regular feature on the blog, showcasing music artwork we love alongside the tunes so you can listen while you read. Click below to have a look and, equally importantly, listen.

Joy Division – She’s Lost Control (Unknown Pleasures)

The sleeve design for the Unknown Pleasures LP on Factory Records was handled by a young and relatively inexperienced young designer called Peter Saville. The abstract image on the cover is actually an illustration taken from the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Astronomy, showing successive pulses from the first pulsar discovered (PSR B1919+21, fact fans). With minimal typography inspired by the godfather of modernist graphic design, Jan Tschichold, the sleeve went fully against the grain of the image-overload approach of the punk and new wave that was prevalent at the time. Beautiful to look at, widely parodied and still of its time today.

The Clash – Rudie Can’t Fail (London Calling)

In a rare case of the homage (or parody?) becoming more iconic than the original, London Calling by The Clash has become far more ubiquitous than the cover for Elvis Presley’s first LP. The design by Ray Lowry used Pennie Smith’s iconic photograph of the band’s bassist Paul Simonon venting his frustration of a gig he felt didn’t go particularly well. The image has become one of the most enduring and recognisable sleeves of all time, both a proud display of the band’s influences and an aggressive statement of punk attitude.

Aphex Twin – Windowlicker (Windowlicker 12″)

Richard D. James is a weird bloke from Cornwall who makes music under the name Aphex Twin. His work ranges from hard, aggressive techno to beautiful orchestral arrangements and has defined what dance music is allowed to be. His complete lack of regard for convention has opened the floodgates for millions in his wake. The music he made during the 90’s was so different from anything else at the time, a mediocre visual accompaniment simply wouldn’t have worked. So who better to step in than Sheffield-based, trailblazing outsiders, the Designers Republic. They (alongside the amazing Chris Cunningham) created this simple but bonkers sleeve for the single Windowlicker. The sexy-girl-with-grinning-beardy-face (Richard D. James’ own mug) was a motif that continued through the 11 minute epic video (directed by Cunningham). If you haven’t seen it yet, you really should.

Bjork – (All Is Full Of Love) Homogenic

Similarly to Aphex Twin, Bjork makes music that defies genre and creates it’s own classification. Her album sleeves and videos are equally impactful and the cover art for her fourth album, Homogenic was no exception. Art directed by the brilliant, late fashion designer Alexander McQueen and shot by regular collaborator Nick Knight, the arresting image is an attempt to visually translate the emotion within the music. “I had 10 kilos of hair on my head, special contact lenses and a manicure that prevented me from eating with my fingers, and gaffer tape around my waist and high clogs so I couldn’t walk easily. I wanted to put all the emotion of the album into that image.” The video was another stunning piece of direction by Chris Cunningham.

Magnetic Man – Flying Into Tokyo (Magnetic Man)

Magnetic Man are a group comprised of three producers – Skream, Benga & Artwork. They’re largely credited with bringing dubstep to the masses and their recent debut album has had mega mainstream success. Good work boys. The cover art was handled by the brilliant Non-Format, the British / Norwegian duo who’s work has been so influential (read – ripped off), that it’s difficult to imagine the current British design landscape without them. For the release, Non-Format employed their signature abstracted, brutal typography and monochrome colour scheme to great effect. Giving a perfect dark, moody aesthetic to the music.

So there you have it! The first installment of Sound & Vision. We hope you’ve both seen and heard some stuff you like. There’s thousands more examples of great music wrapped in beautiful packaging on our shelves and in our iPods so expect plenty more exploring this relationship. Record covers are amazing but it’s also what’s inside that counts.

Thank you for reading and happy listening.

Mat