Best Art Vinyl 2015: Voting Now Open!

Today sees the launch of the tenth annual Best Art Vinyl awards, with voting now open to the public.

A total of 50 sleeves were chosen by a panel of music industry design experts and previous winners, including David GilmourRattle That Lock, Tame Impala – Currents, SqueezeCradle To The Grave, LindenRest And Be ThankfulLeftfieldAlternative Light Source, DrengeUndertow, BlurThe Magic Whip and Kendrick LamarTo Pimp A Butterfly.

An incredible amount of work goes into some of these covers, with the design team for David Gilmour’s Rattle That Lock travelling to North Wales to shoot over the three ‘darkest, wettest days’ they could find, “North Wales was just what we were looking for,” says designer, Dave Stansbie, who directed the artwork for the sleeve, “dark and spacious landscape with rich iron-like natural colours.”

The landscape was shot by Rupert Truman of StormStudios, and the result is a combination of around 10 shots merged together, with most of the Corvadae birds hand painted, “By the time the landscape was ready the 15 birds had been painstakingly perfected and we set about bringing it all together into one final piece, which was completed when we modelled the gold cage in 3D and placed it into position. The end piece sits somewhere between a photograph and an oil painting, a type of dark and twisted Turner landscape.”

The concept and production for the cover was created by The Creative Corporation, which was art directed by myself in collaboration with Aubrey Powell from the legendary Hipgnosis design studio, who produced album covers for the likes of Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and Trex during the 60s, 70s and 80s. This was a rare opportunity for us to work with both a music artist and designer we had all admired for many years.”

Best Art Vinyl Winners 2005-2014
Previous Winners

The Best Art Vinyl 2015 award will be accompanied by the launch of exhibitions across Europe, notably Hungary, Germany, Scotland and England with final winners revealed at Belgraves Hotel in Belgravia.

Head over to the Art Vinyl website to vote, and if you’re in the vicinity, go check them out!

Best Art Vinyl 2015 Nominations Exhibitions
02 November 2015 to January 2016 – North Ayrshire Heritage Centre, SCOTLAND
02 November 2015 to January 2016 – The Vinyl Café, Kings Cross LONDON

Best Art Vinyl 2015 Winners Announcement Party & Exhibition
07 January 2016 – Belgraves Hotel, Belgravia LONDON

Best Art Vinyl 2015 Winners Exhibitions
January 2016 – Mono Art & Design, Budapest HUNGARY
May 2016 – HIGH END®, MOC, Munich GERMANY (2016)

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Words: Sarah Hardy