Bob Smeaton has a fascinating post about art and graphics design of music album covers. Check out Hypergallery.

I wonder if this whole area of design and art is under threat. With music donwloads via iTunes and the like plus CDs being the most regular way people now buy their music what place does album cover design have. I still have my collection of LP's. For me the cover was an important part of the experience of buying and owning the music. I would not say I ever bought an album just because of its cover but it certainly had an influence. Book manufacturers certainly know that a change of cover can help boost sales!

On a seperate note. Strange how paths cross and how a 'community' of contacts and mutually shared interests, job experiences and backgrounds  interplay.

Bob and I met through a mutual friend - Keith Collins. Keith had taken over my old role at Tektronix (colour printer manufacturer) and I had met him a few times at social events. Keith used Bob's agency, Signals, for digital marketing while at Tektronix. Keith introduced me to Bob at a social event and we got talking. Bob used to work as an agency supplier for another old company of mine, Lotus (of 1-2-3 and Notes fame), and we knew lots of mutual contacts. We also realised that back in the 1970s and early 1980s we had probably been at the same music concerts! Now Signals is doing work for Sharedband, Keiths new company and we have just helped Bob's team out by doing some voice-over work for them.

Strange how things work out!