Backfill · 2022
#64 of 357Vinyl Record Jackets
Press shot: several vinyl record albums with their covers fanned out on a wooden floor, showing diverse album art styles including photography, illustration, and graphic design.
Vinyl record jackets are packaging that people frame and hang on walls, which isn't something anyone does with a Spotify playlist thumbnail. At 12 inches square, album art has enough space to function as a poster. Printing on heavyweight cardstock has a tactile quality that makes holding a record feel like holding a small book. I picked up a used copy of a jazz album last week mostly because the cover art was a painting I wanted to look at. Music turned out to be good too, which felt like a bonus. Cost was $8 and the cover has a small crease and a sticker residue mark that tell me someone else owned this for a while before I did, which is part of the appeal.