Reid Miles’ cover designs for Blue Note set the gold standard not only for jazz albums, but possibly for all of graphic design in the 20th century. Miles created his artwork using muted primary colors, unique, often hand-lettered typography, and the expressive black & white photography of Francis Wolff. Between 1955 and 1967, he created hundreds of LP covers for Blue Note, limning a style that is now universally recognized and often imitated. His artwork for Freddie Hubbard’s 1962 album Hub-Tones is typically brilliant – simple black bars mimic the valves of a trumpet, while the depressed valve contains an eye-catching, red-tinted photo of Hubbard blowing his brains out on the instrument. Miles’ covers for Blue Note consistently crossed the threshold between graphic design and fine art…
