For the moment, I have been diving through my rather large music collection and looking for some material that runs in a series. I intend to cover other mediums as well, but for now I will indulge through what I have collected.

Continuing on to hard rock/metal band Def Leppard’s 1987 multi-platinum seller Hysteria, which was followed by no fewer than seven singles. The cover for the album and singles were designed by Andie Airfix of Satori, whom had designed previous covers for the band as well.

At first when you look at the album and singles, it appears the background of each single is a different crop of the main album art.





However, when I was browsing for album covers with CoverScout, I came across an interesting discovery that I never would have noticed on my own. I don’t think I’ve ever seen singles so painstakingly fit together design-wise with their parent album like puzzle pieces in this way. Kudos to whoever noticed this! I’ll be on the lookout for any other singles that do anything similar to this.



(image via here)

1987, Hysteria album
1987, “Women” single
1987, “Animal” single
1987, “Hysteria” single
1988, “Pour Some Sugar on Me” single
1988, “Armageddon It” single
1989, “Rocket” single

It has been brought to my attention the similarities of some of the album, EP, and single covers of the also Glasgow-based indie rock band Arab Strap that also formed in the mid 1990s to Belle and Sebastian’s. The look and feel bring an interesting question of how intentional was this resemblance. I have included here the Arab Strap covers that particularly bear the characteristics these similar bands share. So was it a matter of cultural influence or clear intention? You be the judge.



1998, “Here We Go/Trippy” single
1998, “(Afternoon) Soaps” single
1999, Elephant Shoe album
2003, Monday at the Hug & Pint album
2003, The Shy Retirer EP
2005, “Dream Sequence” single
2006, “Speed Date” single

Where to begin? There seems to be an endless amount of album covers that follow in a series. Taking a look first at the Scottish indie rock band Belle and Sebastian’s album covers, there appears to be no mistaking what is the norm. Moody, monotone photographs capturing fleeting emotions with a candid look of the persons depicted. Most of their EPs and singles also follow the same style.



1996, Tigermilk
1996, If You’re Feeling Sinister
1998, The Boy with the Arab Strap
2000, Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant
2002, Storytelling
2003, Dear Catastrophe Waitress
2006, The Life Pursuit

Welcome to Design in a Series. In this blog, I will be sharing my passion for looking at intentional and unintentional groups of related things that share a common visual or conceptual tie. I will try to cover as many applications of the designs as I can find and making an informative and meaningful discussion about the specific series of things. I hope this blog may serve as an inspiration for designers who may have a project that involves working in a series.

Disclaimer
I’m merely writing this blog for enjoyment and mistakes could be made by me. I will do what I can to the best of my ability to provide accurate information about things I write about in the Design in a Series blog. This includes if there might be information in these posts considered subjective in nature and therefore is the most accurate information I can gather that is of that nature.