Best Art Vinyl Explained

Best Art Vinyl is an annual award that began in 2005. It celebrates artists and designers of vinyl record cover art.^[1] The nomination process begins in November and the winners are announced in January,^[2] and are exhibited at venues across the United Kingdom and Europe.^[3] The favourites are voted for by the public from a selection of nominations by judges within the world of art and music and are displayed using Art Vinyl's unique Play & Display Flip Frame.^{[4] [5] [6] [7]}

2023 Winners

Rank	Musical artist	Album	Artist
1	PJ Harvey	I Inside the Old Year Dying	Art Director, Design and front cover photography by Michelle Henning. Additional design and typesetting by Rob Crane
2	Gabriels	Angels and Queens Part 2	Photography by Melodie McDaniel.
3	Sub Focus	Evolve	Art Direction by Mat Maitland from Big Active Design & Nicolaas DouwmaArtificial Intelligence by Claudia RafaelDesign by Mat Maitland - Big Active Design
4	Roisin Murphy	Hit Parade	Creative Direction by Róisín MurphyArt by Beth FreyDesign by Bráulio AmadoPhotography by Connor EganProduction by Object & Animal
5	Alison Goldfrapp	The Love Invention	Photography and Design by Mat Maitland - Big Active Design
6	Skrillex	Quest For Fire	Artwork by Alfred Pietroni
7	Orbital	Optical Delusion	Artwork by John Greenwood
8	Young Fathers	Heavy Heavy	Design by Hingston Studio
9	Lonely The Brave	What We Do To Feel	Artwork by True Spilt Milk Design
10	Oneohtrix Point Never	Again	Designed by @eccopn & @onlineceramicsSculpture by @ringlund_instat

2022 Winners

Rank	Musical artist	Album	Artist
1	Black Country, New Road	Ants From Up There	Artwork by Simon Monk. Design by Ninja Tune
2	Birds In Row	Gris Klein	Artwork by Bart Balboa.
3	Richard Dawson	The Ruby Cord	Artwork by Jake Blanchard Additional Design by Matthew Cooper
4	Arctic Monkeys	The Car	Photography by Matt Helders. Design by Matthew Cooper and Alex Turner
5	Black Midi	Hellfire	Design by David Rudnick
6	Bonobo	Fragments	Artwork by Neil Krug. Design by Mat Maitland at Big Active
7	Dry Cleaning	Stumpwork	Photography and design by Annie Collinge. Creative Direction and styling by Rottingdean Bazaar
8		Wow Machine	Artwork by Barbarian Flower
9		Zeit	Photography by Brian Adams
10	Malevolence	Malicious Intent	Artwork by Eliran Kantor

2021 Winners

Rank	Musical artist	Album	Artist
1	Villagers	Fever Dreams	Artwork by Paul Phillips at True Spilt Milk Designs. Design by Matthew Cooper, assisted by Paul J Street	^[8]	^[9]
2	Duran Duran	Future Past	Photography Daisuke Yokota. Art Direction Rory McCartney
3	Thunder	All the Right Noises	Cover photo by Jason Joyce. Design by Neel Panchal
4	Mogwai	As the Love Continues	Design by DLT
5	Gruff Rhys	Seeking New Gods	Design and Art Direction by Mark James
6	Shire T	Tomorrow's People	Artwork and Design by Alexander Brown
7		Comfort to Me	Artwork by Bráulio Amado
8	Lost Horizons	In Quiet Moments	Cover photography by Jacques-Henri Lartigue
9	Balthazar	Sand	Homunculus Loxodontus, a statue by Dutch artist Margriet Van Breevoort. Art Director Annelise Keestra
10	The Vaccines	Back in Love City	Artwork by Seerlight

2020 Winners

Rank	Musical artist	Album	Artist
1	IDLES	Ultra Mono	Painting by Russell Oliver
2	Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets	Live at the Roundhouse	Design by Chris Peyton for VVVOID
3	Doves	The Universal Want	Photography by Maria Lax
4	Tame Impala	The Slow Rush	Photography and design by Neil Krug. Art concept by Kevin Parker and Neil Krug
5	Courteeners	More. Again. Forever.	Cover art by Laura Fray
6	Bibio	Sleep On the Wing	Illustration and linocut print by Chris Wormell
7	Rick Wakeman (and the English Ensemble)	The Red Planet	Cover design by Martin Robert Cook
8	Oneohtrix Point Never	Magic	Design by Robert Beatty
9	Tenderlonious	Quarantena	Artwork and design by Theo Ackroyd
10	Taylor Swift	Folklore	Photography by Beth Garrabrant

2019 Winners

Rank	Musical artist	Album	Artist	Ref.
1	Klone	Le Grand Voyage	Artist and Photographer: Francesco Dell'Orto	^[10]
2	Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds	Ghosteen	Artist: Tom DuBois Designers: Hingston Studio and Nick Cave
3	Efterklang	Altid Sammen	Designers and Art Directors: Hvass&Hannibal
4	XOA	Way West		^[11]
5	Baroness	Gold & Grey	Artist: John Baizley
6	808 State	Transmission Suite	Artist: Vasim Bhatti Photographers: Michael England, Richard Brook, and Vasim Bhatti
7	Ultramarine	Meditations	Artist: Heretic and Spectral Nation
8	Vanishing Twin	The Age of Immunology	Artist: Alex Hornsby Photographer: Elliott Arndt
9	Stormzy	Heavy Is the Head	Designer: Hales Curtis
10	Wovoka Gentle	Start Clanging Cymbals	Artist: Olivia Norris

2018 Winners

Rank	Musical artist	Album	Artist	Ref.
1	Editors	Violence	Designer: Rahi Rezvani	^[12]
2	Young Fathers	Cocoa Sugar	Designer: Tom Hingston
3	Aphex Twin	Collapse EP	Designers: The Designers Republic
4	Sandra Kerr and John Faulkner	Music from Bagpuss OST.	Designer: Hannah Alice
5	Arctic Monkeys	Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino	Designer: Alex Turner
6	Let's Eat Grandma	I'm All Ears	Designer: Yanjun Cheng
7	Thom Yorke	Suspiria	Designers: Stanley Donwood and Dr Tchock
8	Janelle Monáe	Dirty Computer	Designer: Joe Perez
9	Low	Double Negative	Designer: Peter Liversidge
10	Peggy Gou	Once	Designer: Jee-ook Choi

2017 Winners

Rank	Artist	Name	Artist
1	Run the Jewels	Run the Jewels 3	Art Direction & Photography by Timothy SaccentiDrawing by Nick Gazin Layout by Troy Hahn
2	Father John Misty	Pure Comedy	Art Direction by Sasha BarrIllustrations by Ed Steed
3	Vessels	The Great Distraction	Design by Split
4	Hannah Peel	Mary Casio:Journey to Cassiopeia	Design by Jonathan Barnbrook
5	Lost Horizons	Ojala	Artwork by Marcus DaviesDesign by Luke Jarvis
6	Blanck Mass	World Eater	Photograph by Carli DavidsonLayout by Sacred Bones Design
7	Actress	AZD	Photography by Mehdi Lacoste/Jo Di StudioCreative Direction Darren J Cunnighham/Theresa Adebiyi
8	Gorillaz	Humanz	Design by Jamie Hewlett
9	Julien Baker	Turn Out the Lights	Design by Mike Zimmerman
10	Hater	Red Blinders	Photography by Niklas WennerstrandLayout by Alex Hornsby & Hater

2016 Winners

Rank	Artist	Name	Artist
1		Everything You've Come to Expect	Design by Matthew Cooper, photography by Jack Robinson
2		Blackstar	Design by Jonathan Barnbrook
3	Mark Prichard	Under the Sun	Design by Jonathan Zawada
4		Night Thoughts	Art Direction by Paul Khera, Brett Anderson, Mat Osman, Neil Codling and Didz Hammond. Photography by Lucy Ray
5		Friends	Art Direction & Design by Markus Bagå at Big Active Design
6		The Getaway	Artwork by Kevin Peterson
7		Nothing's Real	Art Direction and Design Mat Maitland at Big Active Photography by Andrew Whitton Illustration by Louise Pomeroy
8		K 2.0	Artwork by Kate Bayley. Design by Stylorouge
9	Leonard Cohen	You Want It Darker	Design by Sammy Slabbinck
10		The Colour in Anything	Design by Quentin Blake

^[13]

2015 Winners

Rank	Artist	Name	Artist
1		Rattle that Lock	Dave Stansbie and the Creative Corporation, photography by Rupert Truman
2		Undertow	Photography by Donald Milne, design by Matthew Cooper
3		Currents	Design by Robert Beatty
4		Get to Heaven	Illustrated by Andrew Archer. Design by Jonny Costello, Adult Art Club.
5		The Magic Whip	Design by Tony Hung
6	Linden	Rest and Be Thankful	Artwork by Jim Lambie
7		In Colour	Artwork by Jamie Smith & Phil Lee
8		Heirs	Artwork layout Sonny Kay
9	Blend Mishkin & Roots Evolution	Survival of the Fittest	Cover design by Ben Menter. Logo Design by QBMix
10		One Digital	3D Design by Lee Griggs

Some of the information in this table was obtained from the following referenced article:^[14]

2014 Winners

Rank	Artist	Name	Artist
1		Royal Blood	Dan Hillier and Richard Welland
2		LP1
3		Singles
4		Sonic Highways	Stephan Martinière
5			Kacper Kasprzyk, Sandberg and Timonen
6		Our Love	Matthew Cooper and Jason Evans
7		Trouble in Paradise	Alexander Brown, Elly Jackson, Louie Banks and Roger Deckker
8		Wonder Where We Land	SBTRKT & A Hidden Place
9		So Long, See You Tomorrow	La Boca
10		Tremors	Allison Fielding and Sohn

^[15]

2013 Winners

Rank	Artist	Name	Artist
1		Big TV	Michael Kagan, Gerard Saint and Markus Karlsson
2		Repent Replenish Repeat	Paul Jackson
3		The North Borders
4		Paracosm	Sara Cwynar
5		Flourish // Perish	Marc Rimmer
6		Judge, Jury and Executioner
7		Thr!!!er	Chase Jarvis, !	and James Burton
8		Get Lucky	Thomas Bangalter, Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, Cedric Hervet, Paul Hahn and Warren Fu
9		Tomorrow's Harvest	Boards of Canada
10		New	Rebecca and Mike, YES, Ben Ib.

^[16]

2012 Winners

Rank	Artist	Name	Artist
1		The Temper Trap	Alberto Seveso and Boat Studios
2		Strangeland	Alex Lake and Tourist
3		The 2nd Law	Laboratory of Neuro Imaging, UCLA and Travis Shinn
4		Blues Funeral	Alison Fielding
5	White Lung	Sorry	Justin Gradin
6		A Flash Flood of Colour	Ian Johnsen, Paul Blundell and Dave Thomas
7		Words and Music	Dorothy
8		Standing at the Sky's Edge	Nick Phillips and Richard Tailby
9		Blunderbuss	Animal Rummy and Jo McCaughey
10		Lex Hives	Henrik Walse

^[17]

2011 Winners

Rank	Artist	Name	Artist
1		The People's Key	Zack Nipper
2		Cults	Dave Bett and Jeannette Kaczorowski
3			Gregory Euclide
4		Within and Without	Ernest Greene, Jeff Kleinsmith and Martien Mulder
5		Velociraptor!	Aitor Throup at A.T. Studio
6		Angles	Guy Pouppez
7		Helplessness Blues	Toby Liebowitz, Sean Pecknold and Dusty Summers
8		Zonoscope	ALTER
9		Mylo Xyloto	Tappin Gofton
10		Belong	Winston Chmielinski

^[18]

2010 Winners

Rank	Artist	Name	Artist
1		Surfing the Void	Richard Robinson and Gareth Pritchard
2		Swim	Mathew Cooper and Jason Evans
3		Split EP	Amelie Nicolet
4		Fields	Fredrik Söderberg and Robert Samsonowitz
5		The Suburbs	Caroline Robert, Vincent Morriset and Gabriel Jones
6		Head First	Alison Goldfrapp, Mat Maitland and Serge Leblon
7		Congratulations	Anthony Ausgang
8		Losing Sleep	Edwyn Collins
9		Night Work	Robert Mapplethorpe
10		Pattern+Grid World	Theo Ellsworth

^[19]

2009 Winners

Rank	Artist	Name	Artist
1		The Resistance^[20]	La Boca
2		Journal for Plague Lovers	Jenny Saville
3		Fever Ray	Martin Ander
4		Splitting the Atom	Tom Hingston and Robert del Naja
5		21st Century Breakdown	Chris Bilheimer
6		Yes	Farrow Design
7		To Lose My Life...	Mat Maitland and Gerard Saint
8		In this Light and on this Evening	Liliane Lijn and Tom Simon Mills
9		La Roux	Alexander Brown and Traffic
10		Sounds of the Universe	Anton Corbijn

^[21]

2008 Winners

Rank	Artist	Name	Artist
1		Fleet Foxes^[22]	Pieter Brueghel the Elder
2		Slime & Reason	Oscar Bauer & Ewan Robertson
3		Viva la Vida	Eugène Delacroix
4		Seventh Tree	Alison Goldfrapp, Mat Maitland and Serge Leblon
5		The Seldom Seen Kid	Oliver East
6		Death Magnetic	Turner Duckworth
7		Intimacy	Rob Crane and Perry Curtis
8	Low Motion	Keep It Slow	Chris Bolton, Pascal Mira Tschäni and Michael Husmann Tschäni
9		Santogold	Isabelle Lumpkin
10		Dog Walker	Sylvestre Hovart

^[23]

2007 Winners

Rank	Artist	Name	Artist
1		Men's Needs, Women's Needs, Whatever	Rob Crane
2		An End Has a Start	Idris Khan at Tom Hingston Studio
3		Let it Roll 12" Single	Joe Pilbeam
4	Eva Be	No Memory of Time	Kathrin Jackmann, Boris Meinhold
5	Thurston Revival	Somewhere There's an Angel 12" Single	Julie Bennett
6	Various Artists	We Are Silver EP	John Gilsenan at iwant
7		Burn My Shadow 12"	Robert Del Naja
8		Ten New Messages	Rob Crane
9		Our Love to Admire	Seth Smoot
10		Caravan 12"	Kustaa Saksi

^[24]

2006 Winners

Rank	Artist	Name	Artist
1		The Eraser
2		We Are The Pipettes	Pete Hellicar
3		Over and Over	Darren Wall (Wallzo)
4		Under the Iron Sea	Sanna Annukka
5		The Fallen 12" single	Franz Ferdinand and Mathew Cooper
6		Costello Music	Sam Hadley and Mark James
7		Ringleader of the Tormentors	Morrissey, Antony Lui and Fabio Lavino
8		The Western Edits Pt. 2	Stefan Marx
9		The Outsider	Paul Insect
10		Stop the Clocks	Peter Blake

^[25]

2005 Winners

Rank	Artist	Name	Artist
1		Stars of CCTV	Albion
2		You Could Have It So Much Better	Mathew Cooper
3		Demon Days	Jamie Hewlett
4		Intensive Care	Grant Morrison, Frank Quitely and Hamish Brown
5		Confessions on a Dancefloor	Steven Klein and Giovanni Bianco
6		X&Y	Tappin Gofton
7		Destroy Rock & Roll	Phantom
8		Supernature	Mat Maitland and Gerard Saint
9		Employment	Cally
10		Late Registration	Morning Breath, Inc.

^[26]

External links

• Best Art Vinyl nominations
• Art Vinyls Sleeves of 2008
• Best Vinyl Cover Art of 2009
• Muse’s ‘The Resistance’ Wins Best Art Vinyl

Notes and References

1. News: Muse, Florence and the Machine and La Roux among best record sleeves of 2009, the Telegraph . Telegraph.co.uk . 2010-01-07 . 2010-09-06 . London . https://web.archive.org/web/20111116115454/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/music-news/6947489/Muse-Florence-and-the-Machine-and-Laroux-among-best-record-sleeves-of-2009.html . 2011-11-16 . live .
2. Web site: Fritz . Art vinyl launches 5th annual album art competition . Blog.albumartexchange.com . 2009-11-18 . 2010-09-06 . https://archive.today/20110211182719/http://blog.albumartexchange.com/2009/11/art-vinyl-launches-5th-annual-album-art-competition.html . 2011-02-11 . dead .
3. Web site: mono.bg article . mono.bg article . 2010-09-06 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110706143210/http://mono.bg/article-4574.html . 2011-07-06 . live .
4. Web site: Best art vinyl 2007 - The Winners, wichita-recordings.com news article . Wichita-recordings.com . 2008-01-08 . 2010-09-06 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110717095934/http://www.wichita-recordings.com/index.php/single/Best_Art_Vinyl_2007_-_The_Winners/ . 2011-07-17 . dead .
5. News: today article . BBC News . 2010-01-05 . 2010-09-06 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140401000431/http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8439000/8439483.stm . 2014-04-01 . live .
6. Web site: blog.eyemagazine.com article . blog.eyemagazine.com article . 2009-11-11 . 2010-09-06 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110710215437/http://blog.eyemagazine.com/?p=380 . 2011-07-10 . live .
7. Web site: news article . Digitalartsonline.co.uk . 2010-09-06 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110720062757/http://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/news/index.cfm?newsid=13308 . 2011-07-20 . live .
8. Web site: The best record cover artwork of 2021 has been revealed . designweek.co.uk . 2022-01-27.
9. Web site: 2021's best vinyl artwork revealed with London exhibition . londonlive.co.uk . 28 January 2022 . 2022-07-22.
10. Web site: These are the best album covers of 2019. Digital Arts Online. January 16, 2020. April 9, 2020. Neil. Bennett.
11. Web site: 2019 Archives. Art Vinyl. April 9, 2020.
12. Web site: Editors' intimate album artwork for Violence wins Best Art Vinyl Awards 2018. January 8, 2019. April 9, 2020. Digital Arts Online. Giacomo. Lee.
13. Some of the information in this table was obtained from Best album cover art 2016: see the Best Art Vinyl 2016 awards DigitalArtsOnline.co.uk.
14. News: Best album art 2015: see the winners of the Best Art Vinyl awards. DigitalArtsOnline.co.uk. January 7, 2016. January 26, 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160108192223/http://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/news/graphic-design/see-winners-of-best-art-vinyl-2015-awards/. January 8, 2016.
15. Some of the information in this table was obtained from News: Best album cover art: See the winners of the Best Art Vinyl 2014 awards . DigitalArtsOnline.co.uk. 2015-01-06. 2015-09-23.
16. Some of the information in this table was obtained from News: Best Art Vinyl 2013 Winners and Nominees. 2014-01-07. 2014-01-07 . London.
17. Some of the information in this table was obtained from News: Best Art Vinyl 2012 Winners and Nominees. 2013-01-21. 2013-01-21 . London.
18. Some of the information in this table was obtained from News: Best Art Vinyl Winners - 2011. 2011-01-11. 2011-01-11. London. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20110818223306/http://www.artvinyl.com/en/nominate/best_artvinyl.html. 2011-08-18.
19. Some of the information in this table was obtained from News: Best Art Vinyl Winners - 2010. 2010-01-04. 2010-01-05. London. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20100106094828/http://www.artvinyl.com/en/nominate/nominations.html. 2010-01-06.
20. News: Rockers Muse win 2009 record cover prize, BBC News, 5 January 2010 . BBC News . 2010-01-05 . 2010-09-06 . https://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20100309143206/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8439976.stm . 9 March 2010 . live .
21. Web site: January 5, 2010 . Best Art Vinyl 2009 Winners . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20100106094828/http://www.artvinyl.com/en/nominate/nominations.html . January 6, 2010 . September 7, 2010 . Art Vinyl.
22. Web site: Fleet Foxes win best art work award, the-fly.co.uk news article . The-fly.co.uk . 2009-01-05 . 2010-09-06 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110809082704/http://www.the-fly.co.uk/words/news/top-news-stories/3749/fleet-foxes-win-best-art-work-award . 2011-08-09 . dead .
23. Web site: January 5, 2010 . Best Art Vinyl 2008 Winners . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20100324032248/http://www.artvinyl.com/en/nominate/winners_08.html . March 24, 2010 . September 7, 2010 . Art Vinyl.
24. News: Byrne . Ciar . January 14, 2008 . Vinyl countdown: 2007 was a vintage year for album cover art . September 8, 2010 . . London.
25. Web site: January 5, 2010 . Best Art Vinyl 2006 . September 8, 2010 . Foro U2 East Link.
26. News: Byrne . Ciar . December 29, 2005 . Creative covers: Hard-Fi's stark image wins place in album art top 10 . September 7, 2010 . . London.