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Hungarian Pathé Record Cover before Alex Steinweiss came on the scene; the covers were paper bag plain (much like the ones some of us carried to school before those metal boxes came along), which has a straight forward appeal (it's time to eat), but doesn't say a thing about what we're about to listen to. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Path%C3%A9_Records 
Alex Steinweiss's eloquent expression began in 1938. An exercise I gave myself was to look at the cover and imagine the music within before actually hearing it, a lovely exercise I found in the case of Zino Francescatti.
http://www.alexsteinweiss.com/as_index.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSx37Ounv98
"It’s the first time I’ve thought about what an important American archetype the diner waitress is, almost as ubiquitous as the cowboy, the cheerleader and the policeman. Sometimes she’s beautiful and sometimes she’s motherly - but she’s always street smart and careworn." --Mike Haggerty
There's something startingly familiar in this woman's smile and illusory landscape (look-closer) behind her. They are encounters of this kind that spur funny sensations, perhaps each time, I return to the States. Graphic Designer Mike Haggery and Art Director Mike Doud took the title "Breakfast in America", Super Tramp's first album after settling in the U.S., and spun it into visual paragrams. You might consider, it's an accurate way to represent the idea of popular culture by illustrating a chipper face ready to take your order; after all, that is what we choose to think of America, the one we've grown to love since little children, and where all is possible if you don't mind being served up by a pudgy waitress. At the end of the day, It's America's favorite passtime: to have our coffee cup filled again, refuse desert (because we've had plenty already), and be encouraged to tell nonsense jokes in public.
Read on: http://sleevage.com/supertramp-breakfast-in-america/
Listen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBYAivyxIDU&feature=related
Album: Breakast in America Artist Supertramp Cover Artists : Mike Doud, Mike Haggerty, Aaron Rapoport Record Label : A&M Year 1979
This is a quick read and visual process blog created for the purpose of accompanying a formal written work in the makes, ideally a thesis (a long-overdue one at best), or as I prefer to call it, a coffee table book.
It's an inquiry into how images and words seamlessly compliment and bring about understanding, rather than take on secondary roles to each other. I love design and dig good music, so it made sense to use music album covers and music website design as practical illustration. My objective, however, won't emphasize how musicians rely heavily on visuals to sell their product, but how a visual does that which words try, but sometimes ambigously do.
Hopes you share any of your own experience or knowledge on the subjects to be posted. Hey, I'll even add you to the credits in my coffee table book!
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