This is a guest post written by London Based designer Roger Chasteauneuf of Fred Design. You can read the original post here.

So we all know that album covers and record sleeves often present some of the most creative design and illustration around. Recently I was reading in Grafik. about the Keane Under the Iron Sea album design with illustrations by Sanna Annuka and found the whole process fascinating. So I decided to write a post on album cover design.

But here's where I hit a stumbling block. What to choose as a showcase. There is some marvelous design out there and I would point viewers to agencies like non-format who specialise in this. However, for the purpose of this article I will focus on The Beatles album covers. They have a fascinating variation which spans across a long and changing time period.

Revolver

There is little doubt that the Beatles were progressive with their music, and their album covers certainly mirrored this. Here on revolver we see a original mix of illustration and print by illustrator Klaus Voorman, himself a guitarist of some note.

While it can be a little nauseating searching through all the cutesy, cuddly, blush-colored cards, I did find some, thankfully, with surprising palettes of unexpected colors. There are even a few that don't use red at all. Thanks goes to riptheskull for sharing their collection of 1,722 Valentine's Day cards.

The Valentine dates back to the 1400's where handmade version were first exchanged in parts of Europe. As early as the 1800's valentines began to be mass produced and have since been grossly commercialized, but i'm sure it was all for love.

I came across this wonderful art film poster shop and gallery located in Prague called Terry Posters. The selection below is from their ongoing 'best of' Czech film posters series all of which, plus many, many more, are available for purchase on their website. Click on the image for the link.

The selection of the best Czech film posters ever selected by its curator Pavel Rajčan. This Best Of selection is updated on regular basis and is based on more than 7000 posters from Terry Posters´ collection.

Lucky Dragon No.5

A Jolly Bad Fellow

The Brothers Karamazov

Alibi

Here's some color inspiration by way of cover art from the No. 1 issues of classic comic books. Thanks to j_philipp for sharing this collection.

Bolt labels, also called tickets, were stuck to the ends of bolts of cloth. The labels acted as a sort of trademark or brand, identifying a particular producer or merchant’s wares in the market place. Each label was designed specifically for the market it was sent to. The label was supposed to catch the eye of the shopper. You can read more about the history of the bolt label over at Bolton Museum. Thanks goes to flickr user Trevira for sharing this collection.

Here's some color inspiration by way of Florida tourism brochures from the 1950's. This great collection was put together by newhousedesign and can be found here on flickr.

Inspiration from classic sci-fi novels... these classic tales of alter universes and predictions of future societies were always accompanied by some really great art and color palettes. Thanks to levar for putting together this great gallery of scans from his personal collection.

Designboom brought my attention to this great flickr set and biography of design legend Erik Nitsche (1908-1998) whose "genius encompasses virtually the entire sphere of visual communications. Nitsche's prodigious and globe-straddling career, spanning nearly 60 years, included art direction, book design, typography, illustration, photography, film, signage, exhibits, packaging, industrial design, corporate design, and advertising."

"If Nitsche’s name is unfamiliar to some who pride themselves on being knowledgeable about the history of graphic design, this can only be attributed to Nitsche’s reluctance to court publicity and to his belief that his work should speak for itself. In an essay about the designer in the late 1950s, P. K. Thomajan wrote, “Self-effacement, [Nitsche] finds, keeps the blighting shadow of the ego out of one’s work." - The Art Directors Club”

Eric Nitsche may not be as well known today as his contemporaries, Lester Beall, Paul Rand, or Saul Bass, but he is their equal. Almost 90 years old, this Swiss born graphic designer is arguably one of the last surviving Modern design pioneers. Although he never claimed to be either a progenitor or follower of any dogma, philosophy, or style other than his own intuition, the work that earned him induction last year into the New York Art Director’s Club Hall of Fame, including the total identity for General Dynamics Corporation from 1955 to 1965 and the series of scientific, music, and world history illustrated books, which he designed and packaged during the 1960s and 1970s, fits squarely into the Modernist tradition... continue reading at typotheque

Color inspirations by way of advertisements from the 50's and 60's.

Many of these great ads were selected from an inspiring post by the design blog WellMedicated and the others from flickr. Image source links can be found by clicking on the images themselves.

Kashiwa Sato is a Japanese art director that is anything but afraid of color. Of all his creative work, which has been for companies such as UNIQLO, docomo, and the list goes on and on, his site might be the most colorful of all. At its core, the site is minimal, but in a way that might make your head explode after an extended period of surfing. The site, created by Yugo Nakamura, includes an unique color navigation system that uses animated color palettes made up of colors that were used on the projects themselves. This system is not only visually impressive but gives a good sense of his creative aesthetic as well.