The Eagles

In 1975, rock band The Eagles released a new album entitled One Of These Nights. Designer and Art Director Gary Burden created the album cover art, based on the first trip the band and him took towards the desert for the first album he designed for them. Infusing the psychedelic elements, and the culture of the local American Indian shamans. Based on those standards, Gary Burden combined all those elements to create an album cover that resembles both the band and the emotions evoked on the first desert trip the band and Gary Burden took together.

During this time frame, most music was either found on the radio, or in album stores. There was no online database where you could look up any artist or song title. People actually had to go to stores and search for a particular artist. Cover art such as this is a quality of design that is somewhat lost. Now album covers are mostly seen on tiny screens, decreasing a person’s appreciation for all the time and effort a designer did in creating that album cover.

When this album was released its portability was rather limited, as with vinyl’s you have to be very careful not to scratch it, so carrying it around was rather difficult. Unlike today where everything we could ever really want can be found in our hand held technological devices. The Eagles album One of These Nights shows the remains of an animal heads that’s been painted on with wings of an owl behind it. The contrast between the light and dark is very powerful, and relay emphasizes the center image. Although the wings, ad title begin to disappear in the background, as the hue of the feathers, and the thinness of the typeface, are hard to make out. However with the dark background this can give the impression, of uncertainty, and an infinite amount of possibilities. This can also be seen in the colors chosen between the typeface, and the colors painted on the skull, as they are matching variations of two different hues. Representing the union between the bands image, and music with the history of the skull.