UK leading record cover designers curate the 20th best Art Vinyl award shortlist

09 December 2024 - Press release

 

Today, Art Vinyl announces the 50 shortlisted best album covers for the Best Art Vinyl Award – the annual Art Prize for the most creative and well-designed record cover of the year. The final 50 nominees were shortlisted by an expert panel, representing the world of vinyl sleeve art past and present, and collectively responsible for literally 10s of millions of iconic images found in households around the globe. The judges will also decide the ultimate winning artist to receive the prestigious award now in its 20th year.

 

This melting pot of creative talent gathered to inspect each of the submissions for this year's art prize to whittle down 100s of outstanding cover art submissions to just 50 final nominees.

With a Panel collectively representing decades of experience in the world of album art and credited with cover art for music artists including Kate Bush, Blur, Paul McCartney, Elton John and Michael Jackson, the shortlist was always in good hands.

The judges examined the records as an entire package down to the concept, print finish and even continuity of design through to the inner sleeves. For many of the panel, a well-tuned process of their day jobs within art and design.

The judging panel are:

• Alison Fielding - Head of Creative at Beggars Group
• Andrew Heeps - Founder of Art Vinyl
• Bill Smith - Sleeve Designer and Author of Cover Stories: Five decades of Album Art     – cover art credits include The Jam, Genesis and Kate Bush
• Gerard Saint - Senior Partner of Big Active – cover art credits include Michael Jackson, Goldfrapp and Elton John. Best Art Vinyl 2013 winner for White Lies – 'Big TV'
• Matthew Cooper - mrcooper – cover art credits include Arctic Monkeys, Franz Ferdinand, Noel Gallagher. Best Art Vinyl 2016 winner for Last Shadow Puppets – 'Everything You've Come to Expect'
• Michelle Henning - michellehenning.co.uk writer, visual artist and Professor of Photography and Media at University of Liverpool. Winner of Best Art Vinyl 2023 for PJ Harvey - 'I Inside the Old Year Dying'
• Paul Holbrook-Phillips - True Spilt Milk Designs – artwork credits include work for Lightning Bolt, Mastiff and Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys. Best Art Vinyl 2021 winner for Villagers 'Fever Dreams'
• Rob O'Connor - Stylorouge Creative Consultants – cover art credits include Blur, Squeeze and Morrissey
• Simon Monk - simonmonk.com – Artist and winner of Best Art Vinyl 2022 for Black Country New Road 'Ants From Up Here'

 

Final top 3 winners for 2024 will be revealed at an Awards event and unique art installation of all shortlisted records on 9 January 2025 at The Hari in Belgravia, London.

Art Vinyl Founder Andrew Heeps comments, "Now in our 20^th year, the Best Art Vinyl Award has truly matured and refined over the years. We're honoured and proud to continue to collaborate with outstanding talents on the judging panel, who have worked in the creative world of art and music and really understand better than most what constitutes an iconic album cover! With the luxury of their expertise over the years, we at Art Vinyl have now curated an archive of some of the most unique and striking record cover art from the last two decades. 2024 looks set to be one of our best yet and we eagerly anticipate the winners announcement in January."