The seemingly infinite number of vintage record jackets that convey their message with only simple shapes and typography never cease to amaze us. Project Thirty-Three is our personal collection and shrine to circles and dots, squares and rectangles, and triangles, and the brilliant designers that made them come to life on album covers. Visit the gallery›
Album Cover Galleries
Groove is in the Art
Peace, love and Prokofiev! Groove is in the Art celebrates the era that psychedelic graphics and pop art met the mainstream on instrumental and classical album covers in an explosion of line art and color. Visit the gallery›
Technical Spectacle
Is your Hi-Fi delivering ALL the highs and lows it was built to deliver? Are you getting ALL the sound you paid for? Is each component in your Stereo System pulling its weight?
Vintage stereo system test records promise to answer these questions and more while their cover designers, unrestrained by the need to sell a specific artist or title, capture the pure magic of stereophonic sound. Visit the gallery›
Vinylcise!
Aerobicise. Nutricise. Jazzercise. Mousercise. Vinylcise! Spandex meets vinyl in this gallery of vintage exercise records featuring fad workouts, buff celebrities, fitness gurus, yogis, Muppets, the Governator, Body by Jake, and other absurdities, as our never-ending quest for the perfect body continues. Visit the Gallery›
Fresh Fruit (for Rotting Vegetables)
What happens when Andy Warhol’s iconic banana from the Velvet Underground’s classic debut meets other classic (and some not-so-classic) album covers? In the words of Warhol, it’s an Exploding Fantastic Inevitable! Inspired by one of our early banana mash-ups featuring the Dead Kennedys debut, we call it Fresh Fruit (for Rotting Vegetables). Visit the gallery›
Deface Value
Deface Value is home to authentically found and intentionally altered album art. Vintage record sleeves provide the canvas; paint, pencil, ball-point pen, Sharpies, fingernail polish, and elements of collage provide the media. Since many of the covers were found second hand, we won’t always know what provided the inspiration. Visit the gallery›
Symphonie Fantastique
Growing up with rock music it’s fascinating for us to imagine what Debussy and Stravinsky might have sounded like to similar ears a century ago. The cover art in Symphonie Fantastique offers a glimpse of how modern these sounds were before bop and rock by how they were interpreted graphically on early LP covers. Visit the gallery›
Polskie Nagrania
Check out our guest post on our favorite image related blog, 50 Watts. The post features our personal collection of Polish record covers put out by Polskie Nagrania Muza.
Polskie Nagrania “Muza” (Polish Records ‘Muse’) is a major state-owned record label located in Warsaw. It was established in 1956 after the merger of the vinyl record factory “Muza” and the record house Polskie Nagrania (with the history of the latter traced to the Interbellum times). It has been producing a wide range of musical records from pop, rock, jazz, folk and classical.
These sleeves showcase the unique style of Polish graphic design in the mid century including a few poster design heavyweights like Jerzy Flisak and Rafal Olbinski. Visit the Gallery›
Peter and the Wolf
Who can forget the first time they heard the menacing French horns symbolizing the wolf in Sergei Prokofiev’s classic musical tale, Peter and the Wolf? As an avid record collector today, I can trace my love of music and vinyl back to my worn copy of Disney’s version narrated by Sterling Holloway.
Written in 1936, Peter and the Wolf was first recorded in 1938 by RCA Victor on three 78 rpm records. Several decades later we witness the story’s timeless appeal by its many illustrated depictions and language translations on these vintage album covers. Visit the gallery›
Record Needles
As the city with the World’s largest needle, it’s no wonder Seattle has such a strong love affair with vinyl! Jive Time Records pays homage to our beloved Space Needle and our favorite analog format in this gallery of vintage album covers featuring our city’s most famous landmark. Visit the gallery›