Sleeves
A square of card can suggest a sound before the record turns. The sleeve is both an introduction and a working piece of print.
A record sleeve has two jobs. It protects a disc, and it persuades someone to pick that disc up. For film music, the sleeve also had to connect a sound with a story the listener might not have seen yet. Image, title and information all compete for the same square.
The front: an image to carry home
The front of a sleeve is a small poster that can be held. Some fronts lean on a single strong image. Others are mostly lettering. Many sit between the two, with a picture framed by a band of colour and a title set where the eye lands first.
When we look at a front, we ask what is largest, what is brightest and what has been left out. A sleeve that leaves open space around its title is making a different promise from one that fills every corner.
The label and the number
A sleeve also carries the plain facts of publishing: the name of the record label, a catalogue number and a note of format or speed. These small details are easy to skip, yet they are how a shop ordered stock and how a listener found the same record again.
The reverse: room to explain
Turn a sleeve over and the tone often changes. The back can hold the order of songs, the credits for music, words and voices, and sometimes a short note about the film. It is where the sleeve stops performing and starts informing.
About the sleeve art on this site
The sleeve shown here, Plate 01, is an original abstract study in circles, colour and paper shapes. It is not an issued record and does not imitate any real cover. When we write about a real sleeve, we describe it, credit it and reproduce it only where we have a clear right to do so.