Album Cover Hall of Fame News Update and Link Summary for January, 2024

Posted January 1, 2024 by Mike Goldstein, AlbumCoverHallofFame.com

Hello and Happy New Year 2024 to all of you – Hope that you all enjoyed your Holidays, however you chose to celebrate them. For those of you who, like me, used the time to think a lot about what’s yet to come this year and beyond, it gave me time to be grateful for the friends and acquaintances I’ve made over the years both here in the U.S. and overseas, as it is was your support that has kept me doing what I do and thinking of all the ways that I might better-deliver the stories that I know those friends and acquaintances would enjoy and most benefit from having ingested.

I also find these times both frightening and exhilarating, thinking about what might effect the quality of our lives (and those of our fellow citizens) going forward and what we might do to make the best of whatever might happen. It’s heavy stuff, I know, but it helps to keep things in perspective and my own thoughts focused on what’s truly important. Good health, peace (and peace of mind), strength of character, truth and justice and the comfort of others less-well-off than myself – those are the things that are truly important. Art and music (and how they’re combined) are important methods by which modern civilizations represent and express their best and worst aspects (and everything between) but, if you’re sick, or unsafe or living in fear and hunger, their importance pales, so it’s up to all of us to do all we can to take care of the basics before we enjoy the benefits of what the arts can deliver.

On that note, let’s start this month’s summary – the first of the New Year – with an overview of the categories featured in our regular updates – album art/artist-related exhibitions, interviews, sales/auctions and other miscellaneous (but still very interesting) bits and, at the end, a brief paragraph on a related topic that I found quite interesting and, therefore, motivated to share with you all.

Album Cover Hall of Fame News Update and Link Summary for November, 2023

Posted sometime November 1, 2023 by Mike Goldstein, AlbumCoverHallofFame.com

Hello to all – this month’s summary will be a brief one as I was out on a road trip most of the month and, therefore, have not been able to devote a lot of time to the gathering and sharing of album art/artist-related information. With that said, while I was gone, the work done by these talented individuals continued unabated and, therefore, I’m happy to be able to link you to the most important of these stories and introduce them as best I can under the circumstances.

At the end of this summary, I’m going to give you a glimpse at where I’ve been, who I’ve met, and how album cover artistry reveals itself even when you’re not looking for it! I do really appreciate your patience while I get back into the swing of things and so, without further delay, let’s being this month’s edition of the ACHOF News…

Album Cover Hall of Fame’s News Update and Link Summary for March, 2023

Album Cover Hall of Fame News Update and Link Summary for March, 2023

Posted March 1, 2023 by Mike Goldstein, AlbumCoverHallofFame.com

February might be a bit shorter than other months, but that doesn’t mean that we album art/artist fans were short-changed in the news department. Starting off with the Grammy Awards and continuing with new exhibitions, art and book releases and a lot of ancillary items, there’s plenty for us fans of album cover art/artistry to dig into, so let’s cut the chit-chat and take a look at what I’ve put together for you.

Preliminary judging has begun on the entries vying for another noted industry award – the Making Vinyl Packaging Awards – and, as one of the judges on the panel tasked to review the hundreds of submissions received, I’m curious and eager to see what always turns out to me a fascinating cross-section of examples of album covers/packages coming in from all over the world.

This month’s newsletter contains a human-curated (as opposed to an AI-generated – we’re old school here at the ACHOF) summary of the news in all of the main topic areas, with updates and info about several new museum and gallery exhibitions, new auctions and sales and a goodly number of art and artist-related articles. As always, I’d like to once again say “thanks” for your help and support, so  let’s get started with some updates on the award shows recently ended and currently in progress:

Album Cover Hall of Fame’s News Update and Link Summary for October, 2022

Posted October 1, 2022 by Mike Goldstein, AlbumCoverHallofFame.com

Greetings to you all. I have to first warn you that this month’s edition of the ACHOF newsletter will be a truncated one as I’ve had to spend a lot of time and energy managing several things that have popped up and couldn’t be ignored. It will also force me to put off the publishing of the next summary until December 1^st.

Sorry about that.

In any case, there should be enough basic info now to get you the basics, but it’ll be up to you to click through to get “the rest of the story” (apologies to Mr. Harvey).

I’m also working feverishly to set up the voting for this year’s fan-driven voting for “the best of the best of” in all of the main ACHOF categories, so be on the lookout in a week or so for the official announcement and a link to the polling site. Voting will be open from October 10^th thru November 13^th, with the final tallies announced right before Thanksgiving here in the U.S.. It’ll be exciting to see who the fan favorites are in each category – tough choices must be made, but let’s do our best to honor all of those whose names will be on the lists.  

Thanks in advance for your help and your patience while I get my world back in order. Now, on with the newsletter.

Mike G

Album Cover Hall of Fame’s News Update and Link Summary for September, 2022

Album Cover Hall of Fame News Update and Link Summary for September, 2022

Posted September 1, 2022 by Mike Goldstein, AlbumCoverHallofFame.com

A late-Summer greeting to you all.

For the past 10 years, the ACHOF has worked to recognize and promote the talents of the people who’ve brought music fans and art collectors (and hybrids of both activities) the best in retail and online music packaging, graphics and photography. Helped each year by asking a panel of curators, gallerists, music marketing execs and writers/researchers who cover the topic, I’ve been able to deliver these details to my readers and, once a year in November, present the top vote-getters in our annual poll as inductees into the hallowed (virtual) halls of the ACHOF. What I haven’t been able to do is ask this site’s visitors and fans about their favorite album art-makers, and so to celebrate the 10^th anniversary of the launch of the ACHOF, I’m going to do just that.

Later next month, I will be posting a poll that will allow you to review the past winners in each of the active categories and then ask you to select your most-admired art directors, illustrators, designers and photographers, who’ll then be placed in special categories that will be called…well, what will we call them? We don’t want to call them “the best”, nor do we want to repurpose some of the popular names that the awards industry has used over time – “People’s Choice”, “Fan Favorites”, “Vox Populi”, “Diamond/Platinum/Gold Medal Winning”, etc. A quick trip to the thesaurus presents words and phrases like “title holder”, “prize winner” and “top dog”, among others, along with some that I think are a bit over the top, such as “conquering hero”, “vanquisher” and “numero uno”, so while I know that it must be something memorable and appropriate, I don’t think I’m quite ready to commit to anything. Now that I think about it, perhaps we should also rely on our readers to present their ideas for this project, keeping this year’s efforts all about YOUR notions for what’s good and right, so I’ll be adding a poll question for this task as well. Eager to see what you come up with – we have a LOT of creative types reading this newsletter, so I’m sure something great will show up.

Thanks in advance for your help. Now, back to the matters at hand.

Album Cover Hall of Fame News Update and Link Summary for December, 2021

Posted December 1, 2021 by Mike Goldstein, AlbumCoverHallofFame.com

Season’s Greetings and Happy Post-Black-Friday-Cyber-Monday cool-off period to you all. The last month has surely been both a joy (being able to see certain family members and friends in person) and a challenge as we enter the Holiday season having to deal with new derivations of COVID, the availability (or lack thereof) of some of the things we wanted to give (or get) as gifts and the general sense of “who knows what’s next” we’re all faced with, so it is with great pleasure that I’m dedicating this month’s ACHOF news summary to the delivery of interesting stories about your favorite album package image-makers both here in the U.S. and around the world.

The people responsible for packaging your favorite music products continue to astound (although, in some cases, confound) us with the results of their efforts, so this month’s edition of the ACHOF News Update and Summary includes a number of great examples of album cover artist/art news – the kind of updates you’ve come to expect in these monthly summaries.  Leading off in the news department are stories about the nominees (and, in one case, inductees) in several significant album cover art-related annual polls, including those for The Grammy Awards, the Making Vinyl Packaging Awards, the Best Art Vinyl Awards and, my favorite, the Album Cover Hall of Fame. You’ll find this info in its own separate section, below.

ACHOF Breaking News Update for November 10th, 2021

Posted November 10^th, 2021 by Mike Goldstein

Bonham’s Head of Pop Culture Claire Tole-Mor recently shared an article of some of her favorite items going up for bid at their 11/11 “Pop X Culture” and 11/17 “Rock and Pop” auctions – https://www.bonhams.com/video/33186/?

The works of some of rock music’s best-known image-makers (Neal Preston, Gered Mankowitz, Bob Gruen, Jill Furmanovsky and many others) are represented in these collections, so please feel free to read Claire’s intro and then take a look at what’s available. Some pre-Holidays shopping, perhaps?

Link to Nov. 11 auction (in London) – https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/26828/

Link to Nov. 17 auction (in London) – https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/26822/

Bit of trivia – the Nov. 17^th auction includes items from the estate of the late actress Diana Rigg (The Avengers on TV, many musicals). What’s the ACHOF connection? She served as the cover model for The Cuff Links’ 1969 album Tracy that contained the hit single by the same name.

Album Cover Hall of Fame News Update and Link Summary for October, 2021

Album Cover Hall of Fame News Update and Link Summary for October, 2021

Posted October 1, 2021 by Mike Goldstein, AlbumCoverHallofFame.com

Now that Summer has ended and we’ve “officially” entered the Fall (or is it Autumn?) season, we can all celebrate the harvest, the changing colors of Fall foliage and the fact that the nominations and voting for this year’s class of inductees will begin in earnest during the month. More bios have been added to the site in preparation for this effort, so this prep works serves two good purposes (voting prep and more content on the site) at the same time.

While my work continues unabated, so do the efforts of the people responsible for packaging your favorite music products and so, to that end, this month’s edition of the ACHOF News Update and Summary is packed with more of the high-quality bits of album cover artist/art news and updates you’ve come to expect in these monthly summaries.  Read on to see this month’s summary of these articles, posts and announcements I’ve gathered recently regarding all things regarding album cover artists and the art they produce. Their work – and our interest in and excitement about their work – endures and so, without further delay, let’s dive into this month’s summary.

Album Cover Hall of Fame News Update and Link Summary for December, 2020

Posted December 1st, 2020 by Mike Goldstein, AlbumCoverHallofFame.com

Well, we made it to December first and, I have to tell you, part of me is much happier than the last time I was writing this intro for you, while the other part is still in a mild state of bewilderment, with a sizable number of my fellow countrymen (and countrywomen) refusing to believe in both the results of an election and the fact that there’s a pandemic still raging. How, then, am I finding the strength to sit at my desk and tap out a missive to a readership that might partly be suffering from either/both the effects of a nasty disease (that’s killed 260,000+ people her so far, and many thousands more world-wide) and/or the notion that their elected representatives might not have been fairly elected (a baseless theory supported by no actual evidence)? Perhaps it’s due to the fact that, in spite of whatever has brought us all to this point, art and music creators continue to transcend boundaries and inspire our lives and emotions with the pure power of their work. Or, it might be my ever-expanding gin and tonic recipe book – in any case, there continues to be a lot of interesting developments in the world of record album imagery…

Album Cover Hall of Fame News Update and Link Summary for November, 2020

 

 

 

 

 

Album Cover Hall of Fame’s News Update and Link Summary – November, 2020

Posted October 30th, 2020 by Mike Goldstein, AlbumCoverHallofFame.com

I realize that, for most of you, this summary is coming at a time of great emotional disturbance, having to deal with both an ongoing pandemic (and what it’s done to our “regular” lives) and an election here in the U.S. that will provide us all with a window into what America might look like going forward and so, keeping that in mind, I’m going to keep things really simple this month (quite honestly, I don’t currently have the mental bandwidth to do much more).

The nominating and voting process for this year’s class of inductees into the ACHOF has begun in earnest and, with any luck, I’ll be able to announce the list of top vote-getters just prior to the Thanksgiving holiday here, or around the 20^th of November (the 23^rd the absolute latest). Two other album cover-related award competitions – the Best Art Vinyl awards in the U.K. and the Making Vinyl Awards here in the U.S. – are also in-process and so it’ll be interesting to see who’s determined to be providing the most visual excitement in the recorded music business when all the votes are tallied…