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Ye Olde Music Packaging
Posted by: D Cane on 15th Dec 2010 in Design Top 5

Five of the best examples of 3-dimensional music packaging, or 'do you remember what music used to feel like?'


1. Alice Cooper – School’s Out
2. Family – Bandstand
3. Rolling Stones – Sticky Fingers
4. Semi Precious Weapons – We Love You
5. Spiritualized – Ladies & Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space



1.


Alice Cooper – School’s Out
1972 – Warner Bros. Records
Design: Craig Braun

The famous sleeve for ‘School’s Out’ depicted the top, inside and underside of a rather beaten-up school desk. The names or initials of the five band members scratched-in and the Warner Bros. logo roughly drawn. But as an extra ‘gift,’ some versions of the release in the UK and US included a set of women’s underwear made of paper.




2.


Family – Bandstand
1972 – Reprise
Design: John Kosh & Peter Howe

Whilst ‘Physical Graffiti’ is a more familiar (and indeed iconic) 70s die-cut; my favourite is this, the penultimate album by Family, released the year before they split. The album takes the form of an old 1950s Bakelite TV (the Bush TV22) which opens to reveal a black & white image of the band as if they’re on screen. Other faces of the sleeve depict the back and insides of the television. Keep a keen eye out for this, the rarest version is worth 2.5 grand!


3.



Rolling Stones – Sticky Fingers
1971 - Rolling Stone Records
Design: Andy Warhol & Craig Braun

The first of Andy Warhol’s covers for the Stones features photos taken by Warhol of the front and back of model Joe Dellesandro’s jeans, on the front and back covers of the sleeve respectively (an image of Dellesandro’s chest also features on the cover of the The Smiths debut album). A rectangular die cut along the fly of the jeans accommodates a real zip, which when opened, reveals another photograph inside. Apparently having metal amongst the packaging of the record damaged both the card sleeve and the record itself. Perhaps more art than design then. Amusingly, Mick Jagger had written to Warhol in 1969 asking him to keep the sleeve simple. Link to the letter here.


4.


Semi Precious Weapons – We Love You
2008 - Razor & Tie
Design: Justin Tranter

After the album had been released independently the previous year, the special edition of the re-release in 2008 came with a USB device of extra material. The format of the device was a pendant in the shape of the band’s pistol logo. Designed by vocalist Justin Tranter, the object ties in with his own line of slightly macabre jewellery titled ‘Fetty,’ which he produces at home with his mum. Once it has delivered the material, the pendant can be re-used as a functional object and worn as jewellery, in both cases helping to promote the band. Link to Fetty jewellery here.


5.



Spiritualized – Ladies & Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space
1997 – Dedicated
Design: Jason Pierce & Mark Farrow

Released at the height of New Labour and Britpop excess, Spiritualized’s third album is an exercise in indulgent packaging. Whilst the Special Edition CD came foil sealed in an outsized blister pack, the Collector’s Edition was split across no less than fourteen CDs, packed individually in blisters with an accompanying leaflet to resemble a box of medicine. The slick execution still looks fresh today, but what an audacious move to include more discs than there were songs on the album...