Crap Cover Art Thread

blissblogger

Well-known member
oh lordy

what a fabulous, ah, resource -- and i've only got a little way into Nice Ladies

the internet rules

incidentally matt, when you do your things like mustaches 4 bloggz, do you glean the material through some Google function -- like an image-based search where you just type in 'facial hair'? or do you actually go around trawling randomly for sites with bearded folk on them?
 

Woebot

Well-known member
blissblogger said:
incidentally matt, when you do your things like mustaches 4 bloggz, do you glean the material through some Google function -- like an image-based search where you just type in 'facial hair'? or do you actually go around trawling randomly for sites with bearded folk on them?
(cracks knuckles, leans forward confidingly) it's a mixture of stuff. i did a trawl of all the dedicated beard websites, found out all the famous beards of history, conferred with the mrs (she came up with rolf harris), lied in bed and thought about who would suit who precisely, pumped in a whole array of search terms in google "handlebar moustache", "sideburns", "facial hair", "beard", "white rasta" etc etc etc. the thing about the unfamous beards is that the people had to have a vibe, there had to be something distinctive about them. seriously it takes forever!

i'm thinking i may put some crap covers from the archives up here, though (scratches head) dont tend to buy anything on the basis of it's poor cover!!! maybe it'll be a "design disaster" thread
tongue.gif
 

martin

----
My nomination for most shit cover ever belongs to a ragga compilation released on the Rhino label called "High Voltage Vol 1" (I've never seen Vol. 2). An unbelievably bad cartoon in completely dull crayon-type colours, of some lumpen object (after ages examining it, it was revealed as a woman bending over) and a bloke with a flattop and moustache in pinstripe trousers ogling her bogling. The actual musical content was pretty dire too (featured the pathetically monikered Babycham). I promise you, if you ever see this, you'llknow what I mean
 

john eden

male pale and stale
shakahouse.jpg


great album, but why get someone with a ruler and "back to school" stencil set to do the cover? :confused:
 

mms

sometimes
this one:
note the fingers and the crayon image, the keyboard is all wrong, augustus is spelt wrong and on the original vinyl the "artist" has made a mistake he's tried to cover up with a bit of glued on paper.
 

hamarplazt

100% No Soul Guaranteed
Lack of technique or ideas is one thing, but trying to be abstract and experimental can end up much worse. The covers for Autechres 'Chiastic Slide' and Red Snappers 'Prince Blimey' still by far the worst in my book.
 

dubplatestyle

Well-known member
ugh, matt, what is that last one?

i feel like we almost need a "great album design" thread to compensate. (i saw a string of really beautiful ones by the same designer a while back, mostly decorating nu-dnb sleeves, really spare negative-space-heavy black and white drawings of animals, including an astounding one of a jungle cat attacking a zebra. does anyone know anything about these?)
 

carlos

manos de piedra
this example below is somewhere between "crap" and "genius" in my book- i made copies of a bunch of 70s rock reissue CDs for a friend and in scanning the covers noticed how unique some of these designs can be:

07Weed1.jpg
 

adruu

This Is It
The cover for SOUR/T Power's Self Intuitive State of Blah Blah Blah makes my eyes vomit.

On a whole nother level there is the work of Pen & Pixel out of Houston, who used to do the Master P/No Limit covers. It was really garish cropping of people, bears, hoes, money....They used to have all of that cover art online, but I can't find it anymore. Stuff was always great for a laugh...
 

Woebot

Well-known member
dubplatestyle said:
ugh, matt, what is that last one?
its sunship's cheque 12 fucking horrible isnt it! just checked and (quite astonsished) its by tom hingston who did that massive attack box set that shows the heat of where your hands touch it. this on the other hand is everything thats bad about Design (with a capital D)

pleased to hear there are some nice new d'n'b sleeves out cos SO OFTEN (post 1995) they were absolutely fucking orrible. the tpower as someone correctly remarks upthread... the later moving shadow sleeves, urgh!

all the chrome women stuff (see formation records) is just about acceptable cos it's on the right side of awful. dont get me wrong, i like a ruff'n'tuff sleeve as much as the next punter. they dont have to be oil paintings!
 
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AshRa

Well-known member
The computer-fantasy Dread artwork walks the fine line between genius and utter prog ridiculousness for me! It's like the modern day equivalent of Roger Dean in many ways... It's always a joy when they've got a new record out!

Ash
 

Woebot

Well-known member
exhibit1

heron1.jpg


shockingly bad layout. orrible picture of heron clutching plastic pineapple. unpleasantly cropped speech baloons. and worst of all you assume that when you open the gatefold out, its suddenly all going to make sense...

heron2.jpg


but sadly no, it looks even worse! all the figures in the foreground out of focus. they should have spent the money and got ira cohen to shoot it (he did the maclise and spirit "dr sardonicus" photos)
 
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sufi

lala
WOEBOT said:
(cracks knuckles, leans forward confidingly) it's a mixture of stuff. i did a trawl of all the dedicated beard websites, found out all the famous beards of history, conferred with the mrs (she came up with rolf harris), lied in bed and thought about who would suit who precisely, pumped in a whole array of search terms in google "handlebar moustache", "sideburns", "facial hair", "beard", "white rasta" etc etc etc. the thing about the unfamous beards is that the people had to have a vibe, there had to be something distinctive about them. seriously it takes forever!

A fine site: www.menwholooklikekennyrogers.com

Distinctive!
 
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