One of my biggest design pet peeves is a record cover ruined by an absurd amount of legal mumbo jumbo. And this doesn't go for vital information like track listing, producer credits, and label information. All that is okie dokie. But I've seen a fair share or record covers completely covered in copyright info, an endless barrage of 'thank yous' and that new dreaded FBI warning icon. You know the one. That hideous huge monstrosity of a logo warning you not to rip and share the record. Of course, this type of design has mainly operated in the mainstream. I don't think I've boughten a record in the last five years that's even had a bar code. That reminds me, bar codes are ugly too. I don't really have a point here. I suppose I'm just griping for no good reason.
Anyway, I did happen to stumble upon a variety of "In Stereo" logos that I thought were pretty neat-o. I'll let this one slide. For starters, it's an outdated design motif that rarely graces any record covers anymore. At least not intentional for the purpose to telling the record buyer that, "Hey! This is in Stereo!". I suppose stereo is a given anymore. No one really thinks about it. I remember my first four track where I discovered that you could actually pan the tracks to either the left or right speaker. That blew my mind and every recording from there on out sounded like some George Martin produced psychedelic stereo circus. I'm still a huge fan of it.
Where was I? Oh yeah… So these Stereo icons are something that have always appealed to me. They don't take up a lot of the cover and most of them are pretty creative and colorful. I tried to dig up some more info about these icons, but I haven't found much. I'm assuming that they were tools of the label rather than the artist to communicate to the buying public that the record that they were about to purchase could be played on a stereo machine. I mean, did the artists specifically dictate how they wanted their record cover designed or was it in the hands a few creatives for working for whatever label. "So I want my face real big on the cover with some trees in the back and oh, by the way… Put one of those big "in stereo" icons on there. That will look nice."
Here are a bunch of Stereo labels that I was able to pull from the world wide web. Some of them are really great and will no doubt influence a number of future projects for myself. I just wanted to share some of them here. Any history or behind the music type info on these things would be greatly appreciated.
