Erik Nitsche, Stravinsky/Hindemith 10″ LP

Here’s an Erik Nitsche designed 10″ LP for Decca Gold Label Series. It is an Stravinsky/Hindemith LP conducted by Thomas Scherman and played by the Little Orchestra Society. It has some spot varnishes that were hard to capture on photo but I really like how abstract and organic this piece is. Enjoy!

Design: Erik Nitsche   |    Year: Unknown   |   Photo: Javier García

The Fictitious Records by Javier Garcia

Nope, these are not existing records I found. This is a self-initiated experimental project that I designed myself. I started this project about a year ago. I’ve been collecting The Haydn Society records for quite some time now and I decided to do my take on it. This was totally fictitious and I did not intent to redesign or make the records any better than they already are.

One of my biggest influences for this was one of The Haydn Society collaborating artist (and one of my favorite designers), Alvin Lustig. When thinking of designing this his way, I couldn’t help but to grab a ruling pen, compass, brush and some india ink.

Process was very simple. The text was taken from actual albums. It was totally experimental and I did not set deadlines so I doodled covers for over a month every time I had a spare minute. Then selected the covers and inked them by hand with india ink and scanned them. I then took my black india ink and did some color separations. Color and type was then added on the computer. Yup, that was it.

Overall I had a lot of fun doing this and I really hope you enjoy these covers!

Design: Javier García   |   Year: 2011

Continue reading “The Fictitious Records by Javier Garcia”

Jim Flora, Richard Strauss 10″ Record Cover

Here’s a 10″ record I haven’t seen pictured. It is not signed or mentioned on the back but it is listed on the Columbia Records section on the Jim Flora site as one of his designs. I knew it had to be a Flora design since the moment I saw it. Always happy to find Jim Flora records. I have more but they all have been featured many times on other sites.

Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra
Strauss: Till Eulenspiegel

Design: Jim Flora  |  Year: 1954  |  Photo: Javier Garcia

UPDATE: at the time I wrote this post, there wasn’t any info available and I just found out that there is an article on the Jim Flora blog. Seems to be quite a rare piece.

Joseph Low, Haydn Record Cover

Here’s another Haydn Society record designed and Illustrated by Joseph Low. As you can see the level of detail on his designs is amazing. Always love his plays with overprinting. Lots of texture. This is definitely my favorite of his record designs.

Other pieces of his work posted: Gods, Graves & Scholars book, Master Pieces of Music, Bach/ Finn Videro, Bach / Finn Videro 2, Bach, Buxtehiude and Haydn.

Design: Joseph Low  |  Year: 1951  |  Photos: Javier García

Ed Kysar – Haydn/Westminster Record Cover

Here is a record put out by Westminster designed by Ed Kysar. Played by the London Baroque Ensemble and conducted by Karl Haas.

Love this design. Took me a split of a second to decide to take this with me. Enjoy!

Design: Ed Kysar   |   Year: 1953   |   Photos: Javier García

See my other Ed Kysar “A Christmas Recital” post here »
See other Kysar albums posted on flickr by The Retro-Spector » and letslookupandsmile »

Ed Kysar – A Christmas Recital

Here’s A Christmas Recital with Alexander Schreiner at the Tabernacle Organ. Put out by the Concert Hall Society and designed by Ed Kysar. The recors is not in it’s greatest shape but some of those white spots are actually designed that way. Awesome patterns and shapes.

I should have posted this one on the Holidays but I had no time to snap a photo of it. Still celebrating right?

Here are other Ed Kysar records I found on flickr:
Mark Twain and other folks favorites »
Joseph Haydn »

Design: Ed Kysar   |   Year: ?   |   Photos: Javier García