Best Art Vinyl Award 2023 28 Nov 2023
A Who’s Who Of Record Cover Design Experts To Decide The Best Album Covers Of The Year
Today, Art Vinyl announces the 50 shortlisted best album covers for the 19th Best Art Vinyl Award – theannual Art Prize for the most creative and well-designed record cover of the year. This year, for the first time, a melting pot of eight talented panelists, representing the world of record cover art past and present, have not only curated the 50-strong shortlist, but will also decide the ultimate top three winning artworks. The result, a prestigious award title for this year’s winning artist/designer and the respective music artist.
The shortlisted album artworks for 2023 will form an exhibition on 29th Nov – 1st Dec at The international art hub of The Quarterhouse, Folkestone alongside an archive of outstanding sleeve art from the past eighteen Best Art Vinyl winners.
Final winners for 2023 will be revealed at an Awards event and unique art installation on 11th January 2023 at The Hari in Belgravia, London.
Art Vinyl Founder Andrew Heeps comments, “After 18 years of hosting the Best Art Vinyl Awards, we felt it was time to give the final decision to the organisation’s growing network of experienced and highly talented artists and designers, whom amongst them have been responsible for some of the most memorable album covers of all time.The panel members in previous years narrowed down the shortlisted album artworks of the year, but the public vote would decide the winning record cover. Giving the final decision back to the experts was the natural progression for an Art Prize that has grown in status each year for the many creatives in the music industry.”
Last year Best Art Vinyl 2022 saw the public vote awarding first place to Simon Monk for his artwork on Black Country New Road’s album ‘Ants From Up Here’. The winning sleeve design was just one image from a series of still life paintings he calls the ‘plastic bag paintings’. Now, as has become a recent tradition, Simon joins the judging panel for this year’s Best Art Vinyl Award.
With thanks to our Best Art Vinyl 2023 Judging Panel:
- 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’
- 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, Morrissey.
- Simon Monk, simonmonk.com - Winner of Best Art Vinyl 2022 for Black Country New Road ‘Ants From Up Here’
KEY DATES
Tuesday 28th November: Full list of Nominated Records on www.artvinyl.com
Wednesday 29th Nov – Friday 1st Dec Best Art Vinyl 2023 Nominations Exhibition at The Quarterhouse,Folkestone
Saturday 6th January – Sunday 28th January 2023 Best Art Vinyl 2023 Nominations Installation at The Hari London, Belgravia
Thursday 11th January 2024: Best Art Vinyl 2023 Winners will be announced at the Hari London Belgravia
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THE HEADLINES
Is the Sabrina Carpenter album art really that offensive? (see Features)
Mid-year analysis of the live business (see Analysis)
Sony Music's Rob Stringer talks catalogues, free streaming, AI and more (see News)
Calls on the EC to conduct an investigation into proposed acquisition of Downtown by Universal (see Opinion)
Data (Use and Access) Bill passes without amendment (see News)
Has the time finally come for metered music experiences? (see Opinion)
What moves the needle for artists in 2025? (see Features)
Tributes pour in for Brian Wilson (see News, Features, Showbiz&News)
These touts made millions - and claimed staff at big ticketing firms helped (see Features)
Billboard names its Independent Power Players (see Features)
New report highlights emergence of a two-tier music streaming market favouring scale over diversity and flags need for urgent action (see Reports)
Ministers’ silence on threats to our creatives is bewildering (see News)
Sony Music Publishing set to acquire Hipgnosis Songs Group (see Business)
Manchester's Co-op Live to host the BRIT Awards (see News)
Elliot Grainge has breathed new life into Atlantic Records (see Features)
BPI CEO addressed the SXSW London conference (see News)
Elton John slams Labour over the AI act (see Opinion)
Jim King's 30-year reign (see Features)
TikTok launches TikTok for Artists (see Digital)
Culture secretary Lisa Nandy talks AI policies and regulation (see News)
A study from ICMP on music publishing revenues shows that digital now dominates (see Reports)