BEST ART VINYL 2016: WINNERS ANNOUNCED

05 January 2017 - Press release

ICONIC TINA TURNER PHOTOGRAPHIC DESIGN SCOOPS FIRST PRIZE FOR THE LAST SHADOW PUPPETS
                                                                                                                                                                    
This evening, Art Vinyl together with The Hari Hotel, Belgravia, reveal the winners of Best Art Vinyl 2016, with the public vote placing The Last Shadow Puppets’ ‘Everything You’ve Come to Expect’ striking photographic album cover in first place, David Bowie’s parting gift ‘Black Star’ second and Mark Prichard’s otherworldly photo landscapes for ‘Under the Sun’ in third.

The 50 nominated records, chosen by a panel of highly respected music design experts and previous Best Art Vinyl Award winners, cover a complete range of creative disciplines, including traditional fine art, photography and computer graphics with some unique additions this year such as light reacting designs, scratch-off sleeves and Braille poetry. The top three winners display a diverse mix of techniques with die-cut gatefolds, laminated images and beautiful photographic and digitally enhanced designs.

The winning album cover design for The Last Shadow Puppets’ long-awaited 2nd album ‘Everything You’ve Come to Expect’ was created by Illustrator and designer, Matthew Cooper whose work has adorned the front covers for such luminaries as Franz Ferdinand, Arctic Monkeys, Noel Gallagher and Paul McCartney, to name just a few.

The ‘Everything You’ve Come to Expect’ cover features a studio portrait of Tina Turner taken by Vogue photographer, Jack Robinson in New York City on November 25th 1969. Cooper explains, “The idea was to move the artwork on from the '60s feel of the first The Last Shadow Puppets album artwork, so here is Tina on the very cusp of the 1970s. Originally shot in black and white, the tint was added to create an identifiable colour scheme and a warmer, more contemporary feel.”

Now in its 12th year, this unique award celebrating record cover art, compiles the global opinion on the best in art, photography and graphic design in modern music culture for each year.  This year’s 50 diverse nominations include cover art from the parting albums of legends, David Bowie and Leonard Cohen and prominent Roald Dahl illustrator Sir Quentin Blake.  The winners were decided by over 14,000 voting fans of contemporary sleeve design.

Last year’s winning design came from past masters of the art, the Hipgnosis design studio under the guidance of The Creative Corporation, art directed by Dave Stansbie, who took first prize for its dramatic bird landscape for David Gilmour’s ‘Rattle That Lock’.

Previous winners have included Klaxons’ ‘Surfing the Void’ with its playful image of a cat in a spacesuit, Thom Yorke’s ‘The Eraser’ from regular Radiohead contributor Stanley Donwood and even work from the sixteenth century for The Fleet Foxes eponymous LP, from Dutch artist Pieter Bruegel.

With 2016 sales of turn tables and vinyl records growing faster than ever before, the Best Art Vinyl Award continually demonstrates how this annual snapshot of record cover design has captured the imagination of the 10’s of thousands of vinyl loving voters expressing their views on the best vinyl artwork for the year.

Best Art Vinyl founder, Andrew Heeps explains, “It feels like a welcome return to the mainstream for the humble vinyl record, but for so many Art Vinyl enthusiasts the format has always been the natural partner to the music.”

He continues, “Each year we’re taken aback as to how creative the designers become using this ‘12” canvas’ to create their art. In a year which has seen so many household names now producing vinyl records, it feels like a true fan of the band would feel cheated if they didn’t get the full package in beautiful vinyl.”

In January 2017, the winners of the Best Art Vinyl 2016 award will feature in exhibitions in London, Barnsley, Finland, Italy and Germany and as well as on www.artvinyl.com. All of the designs will be displayed in the unique Art Vinyl Play & Display Flip Frame which allows instant access to the music and additional inner sleeve designs.

The Best Art Vinyl 2016 records will form a stunning window installation at the Hari Hotel, London Belgravia from 5th January 2017 till 31st March 2017

The 50 nominated Best Art Vinyl 2016 records with designer credits can be viewed at Artvinyl.com

A full list of winners from each year is also available from Wikipedia or on Artvinyl.com