THE GRAPHIC LANGUAGE OF VINYL LABELS

Record covers usually contain vinyl to listen to. And there is also something to see: labels. The big players, the majors, place their logo here alongside the band name, song title, and author lines. Their graphic design is corporate design. Independent companies, the indies, on the other hand, can do whatever they want: graphic design in the tension between mass marketing and subversion.

“DON’T SLEEP” samples a wild collection of over 200 house, hip hop, reggae, and punk vinyl labels with iconic logos, lettering, and figures. Once seen, they can hardly be separated from the music. They stick to it—like the label in the middle of the vinyl record.