Tag: graphic design

Crumb Covers: The Album Art of R. Crumb

It was the late 1960's. Robert Crumb was an aspiring artist living in the Haight Ashbury neighborhood of San Fransisco when he was asked by Janis Joplin to design the cover for Cheap Thrills, the first major studio album of her band Big Brother And The Holding Company. The album would eventually reach number 1 on the Billboard charts exposing the world to the counterculture visuals of R. Crumb.And so began the album cover career of R. Crumb.Now, some 40+ years later, W.W. Norton has released a monograph featuring all of R. Crumb's record cover art. From his work for...

Continue Reading →

The Art of Vintage Booksellers’ Labels

Those stamp-sized bookseller labels often found on the rear paste down end paper of old and rare books are often as artistically interesting as the books' dust jackets; high karat precious gems of graphic design in small settings.Howard Prouty, of ReadInk Books, has been collecting vintage booksellers' labels for many years and has put together quite a lovely assemblage on the ReadInk Books website, where he writes:"I think the pleasure I take from these little things has something to do with a certain dimensionality they add to the mostly-unknown story of a particular book's previous life. To buy a book...

Continue Reading →