sleeve design

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.

Circus tricks


The Doors Strange Days (1967)	Family Entertainment (1969)

Snow globe


Book of Love Candy Carol (1991)	Laika Sounds of the Satellites (1997)

Red setting sun


Cactus Cactus (1970)	Black Renaissance Body, Mind & Spirit (1976/2002)

Band on a glacier


The Fucking Champs V (2002)	Archive Restriction (2015)

Now and then


Phil Collins Face Value (1981)	Phil Collins Face Value (Deluxe) (2016)


Phil Collins Hello, I Must Be Going ! (1982)	Phil Collins Hello, I Must Be Going ! (Deluxe) (2016)


Phil Collins No Jacket Required (1985)	Phil Collins No Jacket Required (Deluxe) (2016)


Phil Collins ...But Seriously (1989)	Phil Collins ...But Seriously (Deluxe) (2016)


Phil Collins Both Sides (1993)	Phil Collins Both Sides (Deluxe) (2016)


Phil Collins Testify (2002)	Phil Collins Testify (Deluxe) (2016)


Phil Collins Going Back (2010)	Phil Collins The Essential Going Back (Deluxe) (2016)

Coloured squares


Thelonious Martin Colors (2012)	New Order Lost Sirens (2013)

Psychedelic pink


Jefferson Airplane Surrealistic Pillow (1967)	Electric Citizen Higher Time (2016)

Virtuoso wannabes


Marc Almond Tenement Symphony (1991)	Morrissey Ringleader of the Tormentors (2016)

Earth skull


Jean-Michel Jarre Oxygène (1976)	Jean-Michel Jarre Oxygène 3 (2016)

Armchair


Paul McCartney Memory Almost Full (2007)	Snarky Puppy Culcha Vulcah (2016)

Modern cowboys in sepia


Big Audio Dynamite This Is Big Audio Dynamite (1985)	Jane's Addiction Strays (2003)

In the back of the car


The Kills Blood Pressure (2011)	Warhaus We Fucked a Flame into Being (2016)

Car with blue sky


Hank Mobley A Caddy for Daddy (1966)	Sharkboy Matinee (1994)

Pop bather


Blur Leisure (1991)	Stone Temple Pilots Tiny Music: Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop (1996)	Mitski Be the Cowboy (2018)

If you want live


AC/DC If You Want Blood, You've Got it (1978)	American Dog If You Want Bud, You've Got it (2006)

Shack house


Eminem The Marshall Mathers (2000)	Jon Connor The People's Rapper LP (mixtape) (2012)	Eminem The Marshall Mathers LP 2 (2013)

Dressed up as Santa Claus


Bing Crosby White Christmas (2012)	El Vez Sno-Way José (2012)	John Legend A Legendary Christmas (2018)


Louis Armstrong & Friends What a Wonderful Christmas (1997)	The Supremes The Best of the Supremes: The Christmas Collection (2005)	Etta James 12 Songs of Christmas (2005)


James Brown Funky Christmas (1995)	The Ramsey Lewis Trio More Sounds of Christmas (1964)	James Brown The Best of James Brown: The Christmas Collection (2003)


Jackie Gleason All I Want for Christmas (1969)	Charo (Mamacita) ¿Dónde Está Santa Claus? EP (1978)	Kylie Minogue Kylie Christmas (2015)


Mariah Carey Merry Christmas (2000)	Mariah Carey Merry Christmas 2 You (2010)