Would Sgt. Pepper's be exactly the same without Peter Blake's cover ? At a time when full-length records do not mean much any longer and album covers even less, I found interesting to make a website on sleeve design. Long before videos, record covers were the visual embodiment of music, a way to put images on sound. I remember having spent hours as a teenager detailing the cover of records while listening to them. Later on, I realised that some of them had things in common in their design, revealing either a mere sign of the times or a more deliberate connection. Some records even obviously copied famous sleeves, as a tribute or as a mockery. Here is a collection of record covers I came across, which share some common visual features.

Cartoon style








Kiss

Unmasked (1980)

!!!

Must Be the Moon (2007)

Orange girl








Slowdive

Just for a Day (1992)

Lisa Germano

Geek the Girl (1994)

Naked couple














John Lennon & Yoko Ono

Unfinished Music n°1 - Two Virgins (1968)

Caetano Veloso

Jóia (1975)

Jason Urick

Husbands (2009)


Dreadlock girls








Tracy Chapman

Where you live (2005)

Ruthie Foster

Let it Burn (2012)