20
00
Late Night Sessions
Art Directors: Tammy Dotson, Michael Hodgson, and Clive Piercy
Caravana Cubana
which of these grammy-nominated album designs is your favorite?
Ultra-Lounge: Tiki Sampler
Various Artists
Art Directors: Brad Benedict, Andy Engel, Johnny Lee, and Tommy Steele
Vacancy
Joseph Arthur
Art Directors: Joseph Arthur and Zachary Larner
Ride with Bob
Asleep at the Wheel
Art Directors: Ray Benson,
Sally Carns, and Buddy Jackson
Cast
your vote
Bleecker Street: Greenwich Village in the 1960s
Various Artists
Art Director: Carla Leighton
Your pick
grammy winner
Your pick
Your pick
Your pick
Your pick
you picked the grammy winner
Cast
your vote
Your pick
Your pick
Your pick
Your pick
Your pick
grammy winner
you picked the grammy winner
Machina/The Machines of God
The Smashing Pumpkins
Art Directors: Billy Corgan, Gregory Sylvester, Thomas Wolfe, and Yelena Yemchuk
Music
Madonna
Art Director: Kevin Reagan
The Shaming of the True
Kevin Gilbert
Art Directors: Hugh Brown
and John Seabury
Zenith
The Jigsaw Seen
Art Directors: Rachel Gutek and Jonathan Lea
The Concert For Garcia Lorca
Ben Sidran
Art Directors: Dan Ibarra, Kevin Wade (Planet Propaganda)
20
01
Cast
your vote
Your pick
Your pick
Your pick
Your pick
Your pick
grammy winner
you picked the grammy winner
Bedlam Ballroom
Squirrel Nut Zippers
Art Director: Lane Wurster
Levee Town
Sonny Landreth
Art Director: Megan Barra
Reveal
R.E.M.
Art Directors: Chris Bilheimer
and Michael Stipe
Amnesiac (Special Limited Edition)
Radiohead
Art Directors: Stanley Donwood
and Tchocky
Look into the Eyeball
David Byrne
Art Director: Stephen Doyle
20
02
Cast
your vote
Your pick
Your pick
Your pick
Your pick
Your pick
grammy winner
you picked the grammy winner
The Great Divide
Willie Nelson
Art Director: Rick Patrick
Release
Pet Shop Boys
Art Director: Greg Foley
Worship and Tribute
Glassjaw
Art Director: Mick Haggerty
Home
Dixie Chicks
Art Director: Kevin Reagan
Dirty Vegas
Dirty Vegas
Art Director: Simon Earith
20
03
Cast
your vote
Your pick
Your pick
Your pick
Your pick
Your pick
grammy winner
you picked the grammy winner
( )
Sigur Rós
Art Directors: Orri Páll Dýrason, Georg Hólm, Jón Þór Birgisson, Kjartan Sveinsson, and Alex Torrance
In Bright Mansions
The Fisk Jubilee Singers
Art Director: Jim McAnally
The Road to Bliss
Cathy Richardson Band
Art Directors: Bill Dolan and
Cathy Richardson
Evolve
Ani DiFranco
Art Directors: Ani DiFranco and
Brian Grunert
Plow to the End of the Row
Adrienne Young
Art Director: Jami Anderson
20
04
Cast
your vote
Your pick
Your pick
Your pick
Your pick
Your pick
grammy winner
you picked the grammy winner
A Ghost Is Born
Wilco
Art Directors: Peter Buchanan-Smith and Dan Nadel
The Wandering Accordion
Various Artists
Art Director: Qing-Yang Xiao
Chutes Too Narrow
The Shins
Art Director: Jesse LeDoux
To the 5 Boroughs
Beastie Boys
Art Directors: Nathaniel Hörnblowér and Dechen Wangdu
Educated Guess
Ani DiFranco
Art Directors: Ani DiFranco and
Brian Grunert
20
05
Cast
your vote
Your pick
Your pick
Your pick
Your pick
Your pick
grammy winner
you picked the grammy winner
The Cosmic Game
Thievery Corporation
Art Director: Neil Ashby
The Clouds
Stuart Hyatt and Community
Art Directors: Stuart Hyatt
O God, the Aftermath
Norma Jean
Art Director: Ryan Clark
Knuckle Down
Ani DiFranco
Art Directors: Ani DiFranco and
Brian Grunert
The Forgotten Arm
Aimee Mann
Art Directors: Aimee Mann and
Gail Marowitz
20
06
Cast
your vote
Your pick
Your pick
Your pick
Your pick
Your pick
grammy winner
you picked the grammy winner
10,000 Days
Tool
Art Director: Adam Jones
Versions
Thievery Corporation
Art Directors: Neal Ashby and Matthew Curry
Personal File
Johnny Cash
Art Director: Randall Martin
The Best Worst-Case Scenario
Fair
Art Director: Ryan Clark
Reprieve
Ani DiFranco
Art Directors: Ani DiFranco and
Brian Grunert
20
07
Cast
your vote
Your pick
Your pick
Your pick
Your pick
Your pick
grammy winner
you picked the grammy winner
Tathagata
Various Artists
Art Directors: Szu Wei Cheng and Hui Chen Huang
Back from
the Dead
Spinal Tap
Art Directors: Brian Porizek
Splitting Adam
Splitting Adam
Art Director: Jeff Harrison
Middle Cyclone
Neko Case
Art Directors: Neko Case and Kathleen Judge
Everything That Happens Will Happen Today
David Byrne
& Brian Eno
Art Director: Stefan Sagmeister
20
10
Cast
your vote
Your pick
Your pick
Your pick
Your pick
Your pick
grammy winner
you picked the grammy winner
Radio Retaliation
Thievery Corporation
Art Directors: Neal Ashby, Matthew Curry, and Patrick Donohue
Nouns
No Age
Art Directors: No Age and Brian Roettinger
Death Magnetic
Metallica
Art Directors: Metallica
Hawk Nelson Is My Friend
Hawk Nelson
Art Director: Don Clark
Summer Rains
The Ditty Bops
Art Directors: Amanda Barrett, Abby DeWald, Renee Jablow, and Rick Whitmore
20
09
Cast
your vote
Your pick
Your pick
Your pick
Your pick
Your pick
grammy winner
you picked the grammy winner
Friend and Foe
Menomena
Art Director: Craig Thompson
White Horse
GT
Art Director: Qing-Yang Xiao
Secrets Keep You Sick
The Fold
Art Director: Don Clark
Cassadaga
Bright Eyes
Art Director: Zachary Nipper
Black Sabbath: The Dio Years
Black Sabbath
Art Director: Masaki Koike
20
08
Cast
your vote
Your pick
Your pick
Your pick
Your pick
Your pick
grammy winner
you picked the grammy winner
Anónimas & Resilientes
The Voces del Bullerengue
Art Directors: Luisa María Arango, Carlos Dussan, Manuel García-Orozco and Juliana Jaramillo-Buenaventura
Hold That Tiger
The Muddy Basin Ramblers
Art Directors: Andrew Wong and Fongming Yang
Intellexual
Intellexual
Art Director: Irwan Awalludin
Chris Cornell
Chris Cornell
Art Directors: Barry Ament, Jeff Ament, Jeff Fura and Joe Spix
I,I
Bon Iver
Art Directors: Aaron Anderson and Eric Timothy Carlson
20
20
Cast
your vote
Your pick
Your pick
Your pick
Your pick
Your pick
grammy winner
you picked the grammy winner
Masseduction
St. Vincent
Art Director: Willo Perron
Be the Cowboy
Mitski
Art Director: Mary Banas
Well Kept Thing
Foxhole
Art Director: Adam Moore
The Offering
The Chairman
Art Director: Qing-Yang Xiao
Love Yourself: Tear
BTS
Art Director: HuskyFox
20
19
Cast
your vote
Your pick
Your pick
Your pick
Your pick
Your pick
grammy winner
(tied)
Sleep Well Beast
The National
Art Director: Elyanna Blaser-Gould, Luke Hayman and Andrea Trabucco-Campos
Mura Masa
Mura Masa
Art Director: Alex Crossan and
Matt De Jong
El Orisha De
La Rosa
Magín Díaz
Art Director: Carlos Dussan, Juliana Jaramillo, Juan Martinez and Claudio Roncoli
Solid State
Jonathan Coulton
Art Director: Gail Marowitz
Pure Comedy (Deluxe Edition)
Father John Misty
Art Directors: Sasha Barr, Ed Steed and Josh Tillman
20
18
Cast
your vote
Your pick
Your pick
Your pick
Your pick
Your pick
grammy winner
you picked the grammy winner
Anti (Deluxe)
Rihanna
Art Directors: Roy Nachum, Ciarra Pardo and Rihanna
Sunset Motel
Reckless Kelly
Art Directors: Sarah Dodds and Shauna Dodds
Human Performance
Parquet Courts
Art Director: Andrew Savage
Blackstar
David Bowie
Art Director: Jonathan Barnbrook
22, A Million
Bon Iver
Art Director: Eric Timothy Carlson
20
17
Cast
your vote
Your pick
Your pick
Your pick
Your pick
Your pick
grammy winner
you picked the grammy winner
Bush
Snoop Dogg
Art Directors: Anita Marisa Boriboon and Phi Hollinger
How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful (Deluxe Edition)
Florence +
The Machine
Art Director: Brian Roettinger
My Happiness
Elvis Presley
Art Director: Nathanio Strimpopulos
Still the King:
Asleep at the Wheel
Art Directors: Sarah Dodds, Shauna Dodds and Dick Reeves
Alagoas
Alagoas
Art Director: Alex Trochut
20
16
Cast
your vote
Your pick
Your pick
Your pick
Your pick
Your pick
grammy winner
you picked the grammy winner
Indie Cindy
Pixies
Art Director: Vaughan Oliver
Lightning Bolt
Pearl Jam
Art Directors: Jeff Ament, Don Pendleton, Joe Spix, and Jerome Turner
Whispers
Passenger
Art Director: Sarah Larnach
Formosa Medicine Show
The Muddy Basin Ramblers
Art Directors: David Chen and Andrew Wong
LP1
FKA twigs
Art Director: Jesse Kanda
20
15
Cast
your vote
Your pick
Your pick
Your pick
Your pick
Your pick
grammy winner
you picked the grammy winner
Long Night Moon
Reckless Kelly
Art Directors: Sarah Dodds and Shauna Dodds
Metallica: Through the Never
Metallica
Art Director: Bruce Duckworth, Sarah Moffat and David Turner
Magna Carta... Holy Grail
JAY-Z
Art Director: Brian Roettinger
Automatic Music Can Be Fun
Geneseo
Art Directors: Mike Brown, Zac Decamp, Brian Grunert and
Annie Stoll
The Next Day
David Bowie
Art Director: Jonathan Barnbrook
20
14
Cast
your vote
Your pick
Your pick
Your pick
Your pick
Your pick
grammy winner
you picked the grammy winner
Swing Lo Magellan
Dirty Projectors
Art Director: David Longstreth
Love This Giant
David Byrne and
St. Vincent
Art Director: Noah Wall
Biophilia
Björk
Art Directors: Michael Amzalag and Mathias Augustyniak
Boys & Girls
Alabama Shakes
Art Director: Brett Kilroe
Charmer
Aimee Mann
Art Director: Gail Marowitz
20
13
Cast
your vote
Your pick
Your pick
Your pick
Your pick
Your pick
grammy winner
you picked the grammy winner
Good Luck & True Love
Reckless Kelly
Art Director: Sarah Dodds and Shauna Dodds
Rivers and Homes
J.Viewz
Art Director: Jonathan Dagan and Steven Acres
Watch the Throne
JAY-Z and Kanye West
Art Director: Virgil Abloh
Chickenfoot III
Chickenfoot
Art Director: Todd Gallopo
The Suburbs (Deluxe)
Arcade Fire
Art Directors: Caroline Robert and Vincent Morisset
20
12
Cast
your vote
Your pick
Your pick
Your pick
Your pick
Your pick
grammy winner
you picked the grammy winner
Eggs
Oh No Ono
Art Directors: Malene Mathiasson, Malthe Fischer, Kristoffer Rom, Nis Svoldgård, and Aske Zidore
What Will We Be
Devendra Banhart
Art Directors: Devendra Banhart
and Jon Beasley
Yonkers NY
Chip Taylor
Art Director: Andrew Taray
Brothers
The Black Keys
Art Director: Michael Carney
Hadestown
Anaïs Mitchell
Art Directors: Brian Grunert, Anaïs Mitchell, and Peter Nevins
20
11
20
Album Covers That Deserve
to Be Seen at
a Record Store
Story By ceros originals | Design by Tri Vo
Every year, the Grammys nominate five albums for best packaging awards. See if you can pick the winning covers so far in the 21st century.
Celebrating the Music of Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys
grammy winner
(tied)
you picked the
grammy winner
You picked the grammy winner
check out our analysis on the 2020 album design nominees here
Winner TBA on 26 January 2020
check out our analysis on the 2020 album design nominees here
“I try to explain that to my kid—the
experience of going to a record store,
flipping through racks and finding that
album cover that intrigues you—but
my kids don’t want to know about it.
They download the one song on the
album they like, and pay their 99 cents.”
Album Art in the Age of Streaming
Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely
Frank Sinatra
Art Director: Frank Sinatra
This melancholy masterpiece, 1959’s Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely, whose cover featured a painting by Nicholas Volpe, evokes an operatic, sad clown persona for the singer. The back of the album is a lamppost, a common Sinatra album motif.
Robert M. Jones
6 wins, 23 nominations
Robert M. Jones has won or shared the best packaging honor six times. Other winners include Joni Mitchell, Frank Sinatra, and artist Robert Rauschenberg, who won for The Talking Heads’ 1984 Speaking in Tongues.
Original grammy album design winner
most wins in history
Jon Bon Jovi
The death of album art—even as it shrunk from 12 inches to 5 to a 2-inch square experienced on a phone—has been greatly exaggerated. What it lost in size, it has gained in distribution and ingenuity, with artists changing packaging on the fly or offering one attention-grabbing image before an album drops, only to retreat to a more mainstream version later. And while its importance hasn’t diminished that much, the smaller format doesn’t often reward subtlety. "Right now, I think it’s a lot about simple, clean graphics,” Atlantic Creative Director Greg Burke told the Splinter. “Those hold up really really well on the 2 inch square. You want one of two things: Either you want the public to 1) really love it, or 2) aggressively hate it. That middle ground serves absolutely no purpose."
“For my own Fantastic Album Cover
collection, if you would say, ‘You’re
only allowed to select from two years
in music history,’ without a doubt,
I would select 2014 and 2015.”
Stefan Sagmeister
2 wins, 7 nominations
Anónimas & Resilientes
The Voces del Bullerengue
Art Directors: Luisa María Arango, Carlos Dussan, Manuel García-Orozco and Juliana Jaramillo-Buenaventura
Hold That Tiger
The Muddy Basin Ramblers
Art Directors: Andrew Wong and Fongming Yang
Intellexual
Intellexual
Art Director: Irwan Awalludin
Chris Cornell
Chris Cornell
Art Directors: Barry Ament, Jeff Ament, Jeff Fura and Joe Spix
I,I
Bon Iver
Art Directors: Aaron Anderson and Eric Timothy Carlson
Winner will be announced on 26 January 2020.
2020 GRAMMY Nominees: An Art Director's Take on Best Album Packaging
20
20
20
years of
grammy-worthy
album covers
Every year, the Grammys nominate five albums for best packaging awards. See if you can pick the winning covers so far from the 21st century.
Story By ceros originals
Design by Tri Vo
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2020 GRAMMY Nominees: An Art Director's Take on Best Album Packaging
2ofor20
in the 21st Century...so far
20 Most Visually Influential People
20 ALBUM COVERS THAT DESERVE TO BE SEEN
AT A RECORD STORE
20 BREAKTHROUGH PRODUCTS
Of The Last 20 Years
20 BOOKS WE JUDGED
BY THE COVER
20 BUILDINGS THAT MATTER
IN THE LAST 20 YEARS
20 Everyday Hassles That Died
in the 21st Century
