Critical Diary Entry - Album Cover - Revolver

Cover Design - Klaus Voormann, 1966

Many critics often talk about and label the Beatles' "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album cover as the one that stands out as being the most innovative and ground breaking of its time. I agree that as a concept, it was well ahead of its time (the idea that The Beatles were as big and important as the significant world figures, political and celebrity that they pose amongst). It has definitely influenced others since then to present day to consider cover design as a meaningful design process and important selling point.

However I believe that the earlier album release "Revolver" in 1966 was the first record cover to really the break the mould. Prior to this album we would only see a plain photograph of band members such as shown below.

The Beatles' Rubber Soul showed signs of change with a more artistic and experimental approach to layout and typography but it was Revolver that broke the boundaries. The cover is composed from both hand drawings of John, Paul, George and Ringo and collaged photographs of the quartet. The way the photographs relate to the larger scale drawings is so interesting; you really have to look closely to capture the humour and originality that Klaus Voormann has created.

Voormann first met The Beatles during their tour of Hamburg back in the early days of 1960 - 1963. It was his girlfriend Astrid Kirchherr who inspired The Beatles to adopt the famous 'mop top' haircut and I think that Voormann's style of drawing on Revolver shows off their style perfectly.

I can definitley see a message or idea coming across through the layout and scale of the drawings and how the smaller collaged images interact with them. If you look closely you can see John peeking out from George's hair and Paul lying on Ringo's head. Perhaps this was their way of saying that they considered themselves to be the giants of the popular music industry and culture. They had strongly established themselves through their brilliant music and even more so by taking advantage of using their album cover to portray their message, which nobody had done before Revolver.

As a massive Beatles fan myself I think that the ambitious and innovative developments that the band made musically with this album goes hand in hand with the cover design and the message it conveys. I couldn't say which Beatles album is my favourite as they are all in my opinion, great for different reasons. As far as the album covers are concerned however, Revolver is top of my list.