Contents

Steve and Simon met up the other day to take careful delivery of the last sleeve needed for this next book.  We didn’t trust the post as it had already been delivered to one wrong address.  Quite what the people behind the counter in the cafe at Penistone thought we were all up to as we all marvelled at the insanity of it I have no idea.  We will NOT say what it is just yet, except to reveal that Des O’Connor was involved, which is always the guarantee of a certain lack of quality as far as we’re concerned.  Though it isn’t an actual Des O’Connor album (and if you don’t know who he was, think yourself very lucky. Or do a web-search. With audio off). It has also ended up being the most expensive disc in Steve’s collection.  Anyhow, with that in place, our design intern at Easy Books has spent most of today trying to sort the final list of contents for page one, which has driven him mad…

Here it is – complete with tick marks, bleed marks, registration guides and colour bars (don’t say we never teach you anything).  Simon at the publishers does add that this is one of his favourite covers, simply because it is a great photo technically and artistically, and then you see the barking album title!

Anyway if you have not yet caught up on the book, The Art Of The Bizarre Vinyl Sleeve, now is your chance.

in the pipeline

Just a teaser cover for a project which is some way away, likely 2023, but the book trade does work on very long lead times. It is a personal look at the art of the vinyl album from the collection of designer Simon Robinson. “I’ve been fascinated by album covers ever since I bought my first records as a school kid. Most people collect albums for the music but I also pick up interesting sleeves regardless of content. So this is a selection from the shelves, chosen from what I would consider to be well designed covers (with a few mad ones as well!). I am avoiding the well documented covers in the main and am aiming for a more eclectic selection…”

More on this later.