Blue Note is perhaps the most famous jazz label, especially amongst collectors. It was founded in 1939 by two German immigrants, Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff, and became virtually synonymous with jazz, also due in large part to engineer Rudy Van Gelder’s Blue Note sound and designer Reid Miles’ asymmetrical but harmonious cover designs.

Reid Miles, a graphic designer working in New York, came aboard in the early 1950s and created hundreds of cover designs for around 11 years. At the end he had clearly left his mark on 20th century graphic design. The shape of a 12 inch LP cover gave Reid ample space to offer up his new take on cover designs which may very well be called “cool”. Notice the tightly cropped Wolff photos, the cleverly arranged blocks of color and the often interestingly angled typography.

Those designs are showcased in this private collection (on a public free account), along with many others, and if you are into designing your own covers, you should really look at these as most of them are true classics of the form. You have your covers with the full-spread monochrome photography of Franciss Wolff suplemented by sans-serif fonts and the prime-color, typography-based covers which still today set the standard.

You could and should buy a book which showcases these covers, but for starters and to get inspiration, this is a great little site.

Blue Note Covers at Pixagogo.com

Categories: (01) Collecting
Tags: Blue Note, covers, design, information, website