4 cover stories in our archive
Behind the Covers' archive includes 4 album covers documented under the "graphic design" design theme, spanning the 1970s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s. These covers sit within the alternative, rock, indie, electronic, experimental, pop, punk, metal tradition and feature work by Pixies, Animal Collective, Refused, Black Sabbath. Each entry below includes the cover artwork, the designers and photographers behind it, and a short story about the visual choices that defined the release.
For Pixies' first album in 23 years, Vaughan Oliver refused to imitate the band's classic 4AD sleeves. He commissioned illustrator Ian Pollock instead, turning Indie Cindy into a strange, provocative character study that deliberately opened a new visual chapter.
Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavilion cover turns a static square into an apparent moving surface. Rob Carmichael of SEEN handled the LP/CD art direction and design, building the cover around an optical pattern based on work by Japanese psychologist Akiyoshi Kitaoka.
Refused treated The Shape of Punk to Come like a manifesto, and its sleeve was built the same way. Dennis Lyxzén handled art direction and layout, José Saxlund also worked on layout, David Sandström assembled the photo collage, and Ulf Nyberg and Axel Stattin supplied distinct photographic material for the package.
Black Sabbath's Technical Ecstasy turns an escalator encounter into one of Hipgnosis's strangest mechanical romances. Storm Thorgerson developed the concept, George Hardie designed the male and female robots and handled the graphics, and Richard Manning executed the robot illustration and photographic retouching that made the impossible scene look almost plausible.