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David Elliott: Could old packaging live on as art?David Elliott, 6 January 2010Be the first to comment on this article Yesterday, the best album covers of 2009 were announced to a flurry of media interest. British rock band Muse took the top spot with the psychedelic sleeve for their album The Resistance. The news was on Radio 4′s Today Programme, my editor informed me – the philistine that I am, I was plugged into the Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers while the show was on – and, by the end of the day, it was pretty much everywhere else, too.
It was good to see record sleeves being championed in an age when the way we listen to music is in a state of flux. The company that organised the competition – Art Vinyl, a firm that sells frames that enable music lovers to display their vinyl records as art – may have something of a vested interest in the sales of 12-inch albums with a nice bit of art on the front, but any celebration of the beauty and magic of well-designed, interesting album covers is welcome in my book. Many people still appreciate the album in its physical form and the great platform for inventive design and packaging that affords. But, sadly, the majority of the 21st century’s internet-savvy downloaders, with their Pirate Bays and BitTorrents, surely, won’t care about that – they just want the latest bit of mush from the Black Eyed Peas in their ears for free and with the minimum amount of fuss. As CD sales continue to nosedive, the music industry is scrabbling around for fresh ideas and gimmicks to persuade people away from piracy and back into HMV. Some of the most unusual ideas were included in a Guardian article on this topic yesterday, including pop star Lady Gaga giving away locks of hair and – in a Spinal Tap-style effort that is either funny or terrifying depending on your disposition – German heavy-metal band Rammstein offering buyers of the deluxe box-set of their latest album a complimentary set of six bright pink sex toys, “shaped to ‘correspond to each band member’s member size’”. Bet you never thought you’d read that sentence in Packaging News. All this got me thinking. Album art is packaging design pared down to a most basic function: to conjure a visceral urge in the consumer to pick it up. A great cover will pique a shoppers’ interest and draw them to the sleeve, regardless of whether it is for a band they’re a fan of. So if people are willing to display old record sleeves as art, what other packaging and branding could be effective on the shelves and then moonlight as art in the home? Leave a comment below to tell us about your favourite album sleeve or which snazzy packaging or branding you would display on your walls. Click here to see the top 50 album covers of 2009. David Elliott is production editor of Packaging News Speak Your Mind |
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