Album cover artist book project launches on Kickstarter

by Super User
in Latest

Chicago, IL area-based writer offers 500+ pages of interviews, quotes and related articles in new book, along with album art prints as rewards for supporters of his effort. 

Now available for your review via this link - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/232122114/unsung-heroes-stories-from-your-favorite-album-cov

Unsung Heroes Of The Music Business: Stories & Insights From Your Favorite Album Cover Creators

As any regular visitor to the AlbumCoverHallofFame.com site knows, Mike Goldstein has spent years researching and writing about the talented people who have contributed their skills to making great imagery and packages for their clients in the music industry, sharing these articles, interviews and monthly news recaps with readers from all over the world. Now, after a great deal of friendly prodding from his readers and fans of these works, hes finally decided to compile selections from his writing into a book.

While fans of music and art know that there have been a number of good books about album cover art written over the years, most all of them have focused on the images and the musical acts they've represented, rather than on the designers, directors, photographers, illustrators, and all the others that were actually tasked to produce these memorable works of art. With this new book, Goldstein looks to correct that oversight.

In preparation for this project, Mike talked to the writers, curators, gallery owners and music industry experts that make up the voting panel for the AlbumCoverHallofFame.com site and others about what he might do to create something new on the topic of album art and, as time went on, it became clear that he should focus his efforts on a couple of things that seem to have been somewhat-marginalized in the album cover art books that have been released up until this point:

One - introducing the people who've created your favorite covers and learning more about what makes them unique and compelling subjects - people you want to know  and providing the intimate details regarding the "hows" and "whys" and "whens" about their careers in this field and what it was that made album art production such an important focus of their work

and

Two - helping music and art fans understand what it takes to produce memorable album cover images, looking at the processes and tools that were used to create these works and at the relationships that formed between the project team members and their clients. Mikes research has revealed a lot about the pop culture influences that may have provided some of the motivation behind the designs that were ultimately produced and, as a result, hes come up with an approach to delivering this information in ways that will both inform and entertain the books readers. 

Over the past 10 years, Mike has interviewed over 100 of these talented individuals - Art and Creative Directors, Illustrators, Photographers, Designers and the other specialists that have contributed to the huge variety of designs used to package records over the years - and published some of these articles on the various blogs, web sites and magazines hes written for. In addition, since beginning the "planning and gathering" efforts for this new book project, hes worked to source even more content, adding new quotes, stories and information from two main groups - those being the people previously interviewed as well as people he hadn't had the pleasure of meeting before. With the launch of this new project, his focus now will be on completing the additional writing, editing and design (working with noted album cover/book designer Simon Robinson of ST33 fame) that will be required to produce a comprehensive-and-yet-entertaining book on the subject, bring it to supporters in finished form later this Summer.

In the book, you'll find interviews with a real "Who's Who" of trend-setting and often-lauded music packaging icons including Ernie Cefalu, David Larkham, Bill Levy, Storm Thorgerson, Nick Egan, Mick Haggerty, John Kosh, Tom Nickosey, John Pasche, Lee Conklin, James Marsh, Dave McMacken, Terry Pastor, Winston Smith, John Van Hamersveld, Edward Colver, George DuBose, Karl Ferris, Brian Griffin, Elliott Landy, Simon Larbalestier, Jerry Schatzberg, Spencer Drate/Judith Salavetz and many more.

Their client lists include almost every major name musical act who came to prominence during the past 60+ years of Rock/Pop music history - The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Alice Cooper, Elton John, James Brown, Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath, Supertramp, Eagles, Linda Ronstadt, Santana, Frank Zappa, David Bowie, Led Zeppelin, Green Day, KISS, Madonna, Ramones, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Talking Heads, Elvis Costello, Depeche Mode, Pixies, Talk Talk, Grateful Dead and so many others...

In addition to meeting these talented folks, youll also learn the stories about how they teamed with their clients to create the memorable album covers for records including Dark Side of the Moon, Breakfast In America, Ziggy Stardust&, Exile On Main Street, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Jesus Christ Superstar, Are You Experienced?, A Broken Frame, Fear Of Music, Lush Life and dozens more of your favorites.

To enhance his readers experience, Mike is also going to include pages of selected quotes from both those previously-mentioned craftspeople hes interviewed and from many other well-known-and-respected artists, designers, illustrators, photographers, music marketing execs, museum and gallery curators and other experts in their respective fields. These quotes will give you even more insight into what these people think about the importance of album cover art, who is making art today that they admire and their thoughts on topics ranging from creativity and process to the ongoing viability of the art form in todays world of digital delivery and copyright issues.

Finally, to round out the offering, youll also find articles about related topics such as Best Selling Albums (and who did their covers), films about album cover art, musicians who create their own covers and a comprehensive overview and timeline of album cover art exhibitions around the world. 

Kickstarter Supporters To Receive A Collectors Edition Of The Book AND The Opportunity To Buy Great Album Art Prints At Fantastic Prices

Click here to go to this projects Kickstarter page  - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/232122114/unsung-heroes-stories-from-your-favorite-album-cov

For the next 33 days (until May 8, 2018), Goldstein is looking for support from his fans and readers so he can produce a very special "collector's edition" of his book and offer it - along with some really desirable incentives at much-lower-than-retail prices - to collectors and lovers of great album art and the talented people that made it (you can take a look at these rewards on this special page - https://albumcoverhalloffame.wordpress.com/achof-mike-goldstein-unsung-heroes-book-project-reward-descriptions/ ).  

Based on his research, the recent successes of other artists and writers who've self-published some wonderful books on music industry-related topics and his background as a successful developer and producer of cutting-edge entertainment programming for TV and online distribution, Mike believes that he can produce a high-quality, beautifully-printed book and deliver it within 3-6 months after the conclusion of this Kickstarter program  something of a rarity in the world of self-publishing, as most have taken a year or more to deliver (he should know hes purchased a number of them for his own collection!).
 
Please contact Mike Goldstein, Curator, AlbumCoverHallofFame.com with any questions or comments. He can be reached by phone at 971-645-8958.