Grateful Dead

1 album cover in our archive

Grateful Dead is featured in Behind the Covers' archive with 1 album cover from the 1970s. Released on Warner Bros. Records, the artwork sits in the folk, country tradition. Each cover is documented in our archive with design notes covering graphic design, typographic, illustration, psychedelic, logo. Below you'll find the full story behind each Grateful Dead cover — designers, photographers, label history, and the visual choices that defined the release.

American Beauty by Grateful Dead — album cover art

American Beauty (1970)

Stare at the rose on the Grateful Dead's 1970 cover, then read the swirling script around it. It says American Beauty. It also says American Reality. The same letters, two meanings, deliberately built that way by two poster artists who turned a single word into a riddle.