I would suggest going to the local record shop checking the designers on the covers of the CDs and interview them, see the copmany's/designer's sites.

there's a serious of books produced by uk design company 'Intro'

the books are called Sampler (1, 2 & 3)

Fantastic insight

Thanks for the response guys!

i dont know much here, but i feel designs are supposed to fit the product that it's representing (in most scenarios), in this case the product is music. So the the edgier the music, then you would want an edgy design to fit and represent the music accordingly.

If you can find it, check out a documentary called Under the Covers, about the guys who designed some of the famous rock album covers from the 60's and 70's. Might give you some inspiration for your research.

would you happen to know who the author of that book is? it sounds interesting

I think it was a TV program mate, I've been scouring the internet for it but have had no luck 8-(

Computer Art Project just put out an issuethats all about design for the music industry. Take a look at your local book store, it might still be on the shelves.

It's a movie documentary. I was able to get it through Netflix. But if you don't have Netflix, you can purchase the DVD here for $20.

This is EXACTLY what I need! thanks very much 8-)

Just ordered it off amazon, thankyou very much for you help! it is all very much appreciated 8-)

That's weird, I couldn't find it on Amazon, but obviously you had better luck.

yeh seen that issue...is ti worth buying, i mean normally there is a lot of content in those mags but i wasnt too keen on parting with mroe than 5£, im poor right now... a 19" tft is higher on ym priorities

I find that the interrelation of the two had a life from the late '40s to the mid '80s -mostly only in popular music, but also briefly in Jazz (espcially in the '40s & 50s).

The nice large 12 inch format of the LP was a much better platform for graphic art and design.

Once Pop Art caught on there was a real symbiosis, tons of "out of the box" ideas for packaging were being imagined.
Add to that, there was a large number of pop/rock musicians who came out of the Art schools (as opposed to music shools), and fine art ideas and concepts were frequently creeping in to the music and stagecraft.


The CD really killed the album art - while there are some good ones every now and again, the small format doesn't play nice with the printing, so that details that would work fine with a 12 inch square don't fare as well.

Now with so much of the music being distributed electonically album art will probably dissapear.

Also important was the design of the concert poster and handbills. These really reached a high point in the late '60s - especially in San Francisco - Bill Graham presentation in particular.

Though there was sort of an "anti-art" credo in punk, there really was great graphic design done in the '80s for punk albums and promotions.
In college I remember punk being more popular with the Graphic Designers, while the painters and sculptors were into a variety of esoteric musics.