kanye west graduation album cover alternate

Basquiat’s design would become a crucial element in the marketing of the album as well as the solidification of the punk genre. The resulting image was a black and white cartoon image of a man with a crown of thorns floating above his head, and the band’s name scribbled in three places across the cover. In 1981, punk band The Offs commissioned then-unknown artist and friend Jean-Michel Basquiat for their album First Record. Each vinyl consisted of colored images superimposed atop one another, so that when packaged together the images obscured one another. The resulting album was composed of three clear vinyls with vacu-sealed packaging. David Byrne scouted artist Robert Raushenberg who based the album's cover art off of his own 1967 sculptural work, titled Revolver. One of the decade’s most celebrated experimental bands, the Talking Heads required a new approach to cover design for their fifth studio album, 'Speaking in Tongues'. The 1980s brought a new wave of creativity to album designs. Many of these artists would go on to develop the imagery associated with rock and roll, and their designs would solidify the intersections of art, music, and fashion that, in turn, spurred subcultures worldwide. Post-World War II, an edgy modernism was introduced on album covers, and it became fashionable for musicians of the 1960s to invite old art school friends to design their cover art. Eventually photography and typography also took on major roles in the marketing of records. In the following years, record companies would begin utilizing talented artists for cover designs, and effectively kickstarting the careers of many including Andy Warhol, Roger Dean, and Burt Goldblatt. The records housed inside spent most of 1945 on the Billboard Best Selling Popular Record Albums chart, demonstrating the large-scale reach and influence that cover designs would become.

The first massively influential record art came about with Nat King Cole’s 'The King Cole Trio' album, which featured images of a double bass, guitar, and keyboard under a gold crown amidst a bold red background.

Kanye west graduation album cover alternate