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:

ACHOF Breaking News Update – 2023 Grammy Awards Winners

ACHOF BREAKING NEWS UPDATE for February 5, 2023 – posted by Mike Goldstein

The 2023 Grammy show – the 65^th annual show, just 10 months after the COVID-delayed 2022 Award Show and taking into account music/packages that were released between the first of October, 2021 and the last day September, 2022 – took place at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, CA on Sunday, February 5th, 2023.The Grammy Award Winners in the Packaging Categories were announced earlier today during the web-cast Grammy Awards “Premiere Ceremony”, and I’m now pleased to share the info on who the winners were below:

2023 Screen Image for “Best Recording Package” category

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

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

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

January was a busy month in the world of album cover art and artists and, to be honest with you, it was all a bit overwhelming as I’ve begun to do the work to re-organize ACHOF-related content into the various silos that will ultimately make up the two sites I’ll be maintaining going forward. I’ve spoken with several people whose experience and gut instincts I appreciate and have a pretty good idea as to how to best proceed so, with your support and patience, I think we’ll all be happy with the new/revised formats that will come out of these efforts.

February looks to be chock-full of exciting news to come, first with the announcement of the winners of this year’s Grammy Awards in the Packaging categories (to be posted here on February 5^th as soon as they’re announced), which closely follow the Best Art Vinyl Awards results that were posted in early January (click here to see the results, if you missed my original article) and which included some really great examples of human-generated art and design. Voting will also begin soon 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.

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

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

Posted New Year’s Day, January 1, 2023 by Mike Goldstein, AlbumCoverHallofFame.com

Greetings to you all, and a Happy New Year 2023 to you and yours!

Hope that you all enjoyed your Holidays and have much to look forward to this upcoming year. While we were all involved with our celebratory efforts, efforts continued on several fronts to help determine everyone’s favorite album cover/packaging work of the past 12 months, with voting taking place in several name-brand competitions. The results of those contests will be released in ceremonies taking place in January and February and you can be sure that they’ll be highlighted here on the ACHOF site.

2023 will also be one of change here on the ACHOF site. As you know, for the past 10+ years, we’ve involved both our readers and our anonymous panel of experts in our own nominating/voting efforts in order to select people – i.e., the designers, photographers, art directors, etc. working in the music business and creating retail album packaging – for special honors, and while those efforts have produced lists of artists who’ve all built impressive portfolios of work in their respective areas, it has been an effort that – at least to me, this site’s principal – has distracted me from the main focus of the site, that being to give my readers in-depth interviews, information and ongoing coverage of the output of these talented individuals and design teams. With that said, I am announcing that, going forward, I’ll be working on creating a new site where the general, artist-specific info (bios, interviews and news) will go, with the “hall of fame”-related materials remaining on the albumcoverhalloffame.com site. More details on that effort will be announced soon, but I thought it important to share my intentions with you now with the hope that you’ll provide me with some feedback and suggestions as to how best to move forward.

Anyway, this month’s newsletter is a simple summary of the news in all of the main topic areas, with updates and info about several museum/gallery exhibitions, new auctions and sales results from previous ones and a large number of art and artist-related articles, so I’d like to once again say “thanks” for your help, your support and your patience while I work to get this site set on its new track in the long and short-term. Let’s get started with some updates on the award shows currently in progress:

ACHOF BREAKING NEWS for April 3, 2022 – Grammy Awards Update

ACHOF BREAKING NEWS UPDATE for April 3, 2022 – posted by Mike Goldstein

The Grammy Award Winners in the Packaging Categories were announced today during the web-cast Grammy Awards “Premiere Ceremony”, and I’m now pleased to share the info on who the winners were below:

In the “Best Recording Package” category, the nominees were:

American Jackpot / American Girls for Reckless Kelly – Sarah Dodds & Shauna Dodds, art directors:

Carnage by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis – Nick Cave & Tom Hingston, art directors;

2nd Generation Falangao Singing Group & The Chairman Crossover Big Band’s Pakelang – Li Jheng Han & Yu, Wei, art directors;

Serpentine Prison by Matt Berninger – Dayle Doyle, art director, and

Zeta by Soul Of Ears – Xiao Qing Yang, art director

and the winner was 2nd Generation Falangao Singing Group & The Chairman Crossover Big Band – Pakelang – Li Jheng Han & Yu Wei, art directors

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

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

It’s been a busy month of March here in the sprawling ACHOF editorial offices, with your editorial team (me, myself and Mike G.) working hard to deliver the best and most up-to-date info and research/writing available on the subject of album cover artists and their work. I’m happy to report that Part 2 of the 2-part series on box sets/limited-edition packages has been posted – https://albumcoverhalloffame.wordpress.com/2022/03/27/achof-resources-box-sets-and-special-limited-edition-packages-an-overview-contd/ – and so now you can spend even more time boning up on the latest information, presented along with the opinions and experiences expressed by some of the best-equipped people in the business to offer these priceless items.

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

Album Cover Hall of Fame News Update and Link Summary for February, 2022, posted February 1, 2022 by Mike Goldstein, AlbumCoverHallofFame.com

Hello again from the frozen tundra we call home and you call Chicagoland. While Winter continues to make for somewhat scenic snowy images outside our windows and, at the same time, some very slippery walking/driving conditions, I am happy to be able to sit safely and comfortably in my office and, via the miracle of a medium-speed internet connection, research, organize and deliver my monthly ACHOF news summary. Having nothing to do with my New Year’s resolutions, I was also able to finally deliver (partially) on my promised article that summarized and presented more in-depth info on one section of the album cover art exhibition that was staged in Western Scotland last fall (https://albumcoverhalloffame.wordpress.com/2022/01/14/achof-presents-the-art-on-my-sleeves-series-episode-1-all-nerve-album-cover-graphic-design/), with another section summary from that show to be published ASAP.

I’m also working on completing a multi-part article on the history of what the record industry sells as “special products”, with a focus on the people and companies that produce and market the stunning box sets that have come to market over the past several years. From “enhanced” and “special-edition” album packages to the multi-disc (and, in some cases, multi-multi-multi disc) packages that include some wonderful things unearthed from the music and memorabilia archives of your favorite musical acts, this will also be a multi-act writing performance by yours truly, so stay tuned.

Album Cover Hall of Fame Breaking News for January 21st, 2022

Album Cover Hall of Fame Breaking News for January 21st, 2022 –

Posted 1/21/22 by Mike Goldstein, AlbumCoverHallofFame.com

Some things just can’t wait….

a) The accomplished and acclaimed album cover designer Ioannis is scheduled to participate in a series of two appearances in the Cape Cod area during which he’ll put on display the original art he created for two projects – one for Boston and one for the Allman Brothers Band – and will be sharing the stories behind these images with all those in attendance. Kicking the series off on Friday, January 28^th at The Music Room gallery and wine bar, Ioannis will show off the production artwork that was originally intended to be featured on the band’s third album (Third Stage) and which, after the powers that be decided to go with another artist’s imagery (with the album’s progress delayed a number of years due to personnel disputes and a lawsuit by the group’s label), this artwork was lost only to be found later by a fan, so this will be the first time that it’ll be on public display. Also on stage this first night will be the original Boston guitarist Barry Goudreau and his latest band – how’s that for a great tie-in?

Album Cover Hall of Fame Breaking News for January 14th, 2022

posted 1/14/22 by Mike Goldstein, AlbumCoverHallofFame

a) The long-promised first “episode” of the tour through the “Art On My Sleeves” exhibition is now up and available for viewing at your leisure. The focus of this article is on the covers featured in the section titled “All Nerve”, which shows a good number of examples of great graphic design produced over the past 50+ years and includes works by both very well-known designers/studios (George Hardie, Hipgnosis, Barney Bubbles, Vaughan Oliver and Chris Bigg of v23, etc) and some perhaps lesser-known talents whose work nonetheless is memorable and eye-catching. There’s a lot to see and learn, so why not just click on over to https://albumcoverhalloffame.wordpress.com/2022/01/14/achof-presents-the-art-on-my-sleeves-series-episode-1-all-nerve-album-cover-graphic-design/ to begin your journey?

Interview with Annie Stoll and Meghan Foley on the making of Squeeze Box for Weird Al Yankovic

Interview with Annie Stoll and Meghan Foley on the making of the Grammy-winning package for Weird Al Yankovic’s Squeeze Box box set

Squeeze Box by Weird Al Yankovic

By Mike Goldstein, AlbumCoverHallofFame.com

Posted July 28, 2021

For the past several years, I’ve served on the judging panel for the revitalized Making Vinyl Awards competition and, as part of that effort, I’ve had the chance to review hundreds of different entries in the various categories up for MVA consideration – a truly eyeball-testing experience. While I must admit that, after a while, I found myself glossing over a number of the entries (corrected, luckily, by coming back to the viewings after much rest and a commitment to limiting each session to about an hour’s time), there were a number of entries – particularly, in the box set-related categories – that were so ingeniously done that I knew that they’d be hits with both the other judges and the buying public. Back in early 2019, one of those nominees was a package put together by Sony Music built around the 40+ year output of the seemingly never-aging musical satirist “Weird Al” Yankovic and called, quite appropriately due to the accordion-focused nature of many of Weird Al’s performances, Squeeze Box.