2 cover stories in our archive
Behind the Covers' archive includes 2 album covers documented under the "modernist" design theme, spanning the 1950s, 1980s. These covers sit within the jazz, rock, pop tradition and feature work by The Dave Brubeck Quartet, Peter Gabriel. 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.
S. Neil Fujita's abstract painting for Time Out broke jazz album cover conventions, replacing typical band photos with bold modernist art that visually mirrored the experimental odd-time signatures within.
Peter Saville stripped away all imagery for Gabriel's most commercial album, creating a cover so minimal it consists only of typography on white space. The radical simplicity marked a complete departure from Gabriel's surreal previous covers.