Blue Note album covers

 

The images above are three album covers from a vast collection of the Blue Note Records, an American company releasing jazz music records since the 1950s. Their design is legendary in the design world, particularly that of one cover designer, Reid Miles, who designed their covers for over 11 years. The design of Blue Note Records has become synonymous with jazz music. You’ll find that lots of other musicians (jazz or other) will use a Blue Note style to allude to a certain sense of cool.

The work is dominated by a restricted colour palette (usually just two colours), striking photography and condensed, sans serif typefaces, trade gothic bold condensed for example.

You can see a collection of the covers at this site, or you can buy the book here. I have a copy, so let me know if you’d like to see it and I will bring it in.