10 Great Psychedelic Album Covers From the Late '60s

We look at the colorful and trippy cover art of influential rock albums from the decade of social and cultural revolution

Awarded illustrator and designer Steve Simpson (@stevesimpson) is a big fan of design from the 50s and 60s. In a period where illustrator and designer were usually the same person, the artwork created by a single mind resulted in a cohesive and organic design.

Steve has a particular fascination towards album covers of the late 60s. 'In the late 60s', he explains 'design was free from constraints.' The main features of cover art are 'the use of vivid colors, a combination of illustrations and photographs, organic use of typography, where hand lettering fits around the shapes of the drawings in the sleeve. The resulting art is a reflection of the sense of freedom prevailing in the subculture of those years: designs not restrained by rules, free from dictating design trends and induced by the use of psychedelics.'

We have compiled Steve's 10 favorite psychedelic record sleeves below:

1. Forever Changes, 1967, by Love

In the year of the summer of love, the band with the same name was one of the first racially-diverse bands in America and mixed a blend of folk-rock, hard rock, blues, jazz, flamenco, mariachi, and orchestral pop. The cover art is also a blend of faces in bright and vivid colors by acclaimed illustrator Bob Pepper.
It appears at number 40 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of all time.

2. The Psychedelic Sounds Of The 13th Floor Elevators, 1966, by The 13th Floor Elevators

This band put the word 'psychedelic rock' on the map, and even used it in their business card. Their experimental sounds included an electric jug, and they influenced bands in the 80s and 90s, such as Primal Scream, the Shamen, REM, and Spacemen 3. Its hallucinatory, acid-induced cover depicts an eye swimming in contrasting greens and reds, surrounded by a pool of radiant globular forms.

3. Axis: Bold As Love, 1967, The Jimi Hendrix Experience

Jimi Hendrix did not approve of the cover, which draws on Hindu religious iconography to represent Hendrix and his band, the Experience, and would have preferred it if his Native Indian ancestry had been highlighted. It also includes a painting of the group by Roger Law, from a photo portrait by Karl Ferris. Due to the religious connotation, the artwork of the cover has been banned in Malaysia since 2014.

4. Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake,1968, Small Faces

English rock band Small Faces, released this concept album in 1968 using a parody of a brand of tobacco produced in Liverpool from 1899. The packaging of the album was originally a novelty metal replica of a giant tobacco tin, which proved too expensive and tended to roll off the shelves.

5. Revolver, 1966, The Beatles

The Beatles' seventh studio album was produced at a time when the band had become interested in the drug LSD, Eastern philosophy, and avant-garde. The album cover, designed by Klaus Voormann, combined line drawing with photo collage, inspired by Aubrey Beardsley and won the 1967 Grammy Award for Best Album Cover, Graphic Arts.

6. Disraeli Gears, 1967, by Cream

A best seller all over the world. The cover art was created by artist Martin Sharp, who was Eric Clapton's neighbor. He created a psychedelic collage with the album title in the center and the name of the band below, surrounded by a floral arrangement. Martin Sharp described the sound of the music as a "warm fluorescent sound" and wanted to capture this in the artwork.

7. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, 1967, The Beatles

This cover was designed by pop artists Peter Blake and Jann Haworth. It is meant to depict the Fab Four as if they'd just completed a concert in the park, and took a picture with the crowd who'd just watched them. "If we did this by using cardboard cut-outs, it could be a magical crowd of whomever they wanted.", was Blake's idea behind the colorful collage that includes 57 photographs and nine waxworks of famous people, including actors, sportsmen, scientists, etc.,
(but rejected Lennon's request to include Hitler, Jesus, and Mahatma Gandhi). The cover art turned very expensive - costing nearly $4,000 - compared to the typical cost of about $60, as was the going rate at the time.

8. Skip Bifferty, 1968, by Skip Bifferty

A British psychedelic pop band, they are cheerfully spaced-out and offering trippy and experimental numbers in this self-titled album. The colorful album cover paintings are by R. Wagner.

9. Aoxomoxoa, 1969, by the Grateful Dead

One of the first albums to be recorded using a 16 track, it has a palindrome name. Urban legend has it that the words in the front cover spelling out the name of the band is an ambigram that reads 'We ate acid.' Death, rebirth, and the circle of life, with fertility symbols and Egyptian imagery, are shown on the lower part of the cover, with a sun/egg being fertilized on the top.

10. Odessey and Oracle, 1967, by the Zombies

This album was recorded at Abbey Road studios and became famous for the single 'Time of the Season', which was a surprise hit in the US in 1969. The same song features in the soundtrack of the 1988 movie drama '1969', starring Robert Downey Jr., Kiefer Sutherland, and Winona Ryder. The spelling Odessey was a mistake by the designer of the LP cover.

The theme of psychedelic hits from the late 60s is a high starting point for creating a personal, imaginative, and cohesive design. When dealing with print work, Steve finds that hand-lettering is also an excellent option to ensure it matches the rest of his work.

The idea that music and drawing are the oldest forms of human communication inspires his latest Domestika course, The Art of Record Covers: Illustration Meets Lettering. Turn on, tune in, and sign up!

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