Led Zeppelin Covers
At the merch table of a live concert I saw in college the band was selling vinyl records of their latest album. From that point on I decided I would never buy a CD again, and started my record collection. However, at the expense of an empty wallet and risk of them shattering into pieces I decided not to ship them when I left for Japan. After four years and finally having them back in possession, I decided to recreate the records of my favorite band: Led Zeppelin, in a modern style that still fits their iconic sound.
The Challenge
Working in a perfect square proved to be more of a benefit that I first thought. Almost all of Led Zeppelin's music feels balanced between light verses and plucky acoustic guitar to heavy vocals and stomping drums. Using the square I tried to retain symmetry in the image to reflect this balance. The real difficulty was to encapsulate a sound so dynamic. Each album cover retains an element of the original, while being more focused on the content and history around its record. The first alludes to the joke and origin of their band name about their chances of being successful going down like a lead balloon. In contrast, their most famous fourth album is an odyssey I wanted to tell from the hunching black dog foreground, the stairway to heaven, and the final scene of California in the back.
As no album is complete without its back cover, I also tried to arrange a second half as compelling as the first. Here I also tried to play with the text or add subtle clues that only fans of the music might catch. For example, the first album song list is arranged as the smoke from the crashed zeppelin, or the back to Physical Graffiti is the front image in reverse, while the Radio City sign has been replaced with the band's name.