When is a Book not a Book?

Well? when it's a Cd Cover of course! Expanding the realms of what people expect from a product is something i'm more familiar with when talking about album covers, below are some great examples of how the physical experience of a product can be taken further than just a box for a Cd, which i feel could also be a applied to expanding the "book" format.

Before the age of Mp3's where you had to squint into your screen for album artwork, graphic designers had a full gatefold sleeve to play with. Using this to their advantage sleeve desginers became ever more inventive with the ways in which the music buying public could interact with their product with Andy Warhol famously adding peelable bannana's and unzippable jeans to his creations.

Below are a few notable examples of this craft:

Bright eyes casadagga:


Conor Oberst's Cassadaga featured a decodeable front cover complete with a free decoding tool which the viewer held to their eye in order to find symbols in the mysterious cover.

Here is a youtube link showing the decoder at work: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIp8OVbF7zU



Beck - The Information

Beck's 'The Information' features a blank graph papered front and comes complete with various sticker packs encouraging buyers to create their own album cover for it.
Some fan's interpretations can be found below:






Pixies - Minotaur - Box Set

Quite often when albums are reissued they are aimed specifically at the super-fans who view any item in their favourite artist's discography as a "must - have"
This one is to celebrate the 20th anniversary of "Pixies - Minotaur" album. Featuring a collaboration between the men behind the original albums art direction Vaughan Oliver and photographer Simon Labalestier.



Radiohead - In Rainbows

Again similar to the 'Pixies' box set is this collection from 'Radiohead' for the physical release of their album 'In Rainbows'. Famously a "pay what you want album" on it's original download release, the band had the liberty of create a package that only fans would be inclined to buy. Available on a number of format's, this deluxe addition features all the formats in one collection.



Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin III

Led Zeppelin's iconic 3rd album sleeve featured the artwork of Jimmy Page's college friend Zacron. Inspired by crop circles the Vinyl features a rotatable collection of images that can be seen through various windows on the cover.