Best
Art Vinyl
The Best Art Vinyl Award is the annual search for the most creative and well-designed record cover of the year. These pages include an archive of past winners and all 50 nominations from each year.
Congratulations to the Best Art Vinyl 2024 Award Winners!
1st – Artwork by Rajni Perera for ‘Love Heart Cheat Code’ by Haitus Kaiyote
Creative Direction by Hiatus Kaiyote & Grey Ghost
Symbol art by Chloe Biocca
Product Design by Sean Preston
2nd – Artwork by Lulu Lin for ‘Romance’ by Fontaines D.C.
Design & Art Direction by Texas Maragh & Carlos O’Connell
Photography by Theo Cottle
3rd – Photography by Louis Browne for ‘Sentimental’ by Carlita
A big thank you goes out to our judging panel for another outstanding shortlist this year and three iconic winning covers.
The first place artwork by Rajni Perera is for the fourth studio album, ‘Love Heart Cheat Code’ by Australian jazz/funk band Hiatus Kaiyote, released by Brainfeeder.
Perera’s work explores issues of hybridity, futurity, ancestorship, migrant and marginalized identities/cultures within the symbolistic style of her painting. Perera explains that the work on the album cover is about, “acknowledging the sacred female energy that drives this universe and restores balance to it. Even by painting it I have been blessed.”
On hearing of her success Perera said, “Thank you so much for this award. I have so much love for Nai (Palm) and Hiatus Kaiyote, their skill as artists, their generosity in sharing their gifts, and their incredible work. Thank you for this honour.”
The band’s singer/guitarist Nai Palm explains further, “I found the illustrious work of Rajni Perera years ago and hit her up to ask permission to tattoo some of her work. It was for my mastectomy scar which was super important for me to challenge beauty standards, and I wanted imagery that was both powerful but effeminate. The art for Love Heart Cheat Code was a piece of hers that already existed and was to be the final piece in my tattoo, but ended being right for the album. It was sentimental to close that chapter of my life with this record and imagery. I love that the line work has strong design elements and the blue took many attempts with me working directly with the layout designer finding the right Pantone. I subsequently learnt A LOT about blue and how light affects how we perceive colour. The artwork is simple yet refined, and totally striking.”
Second place is the artwork for ‘Romance’, the fourth album by Dublin band and 2024 Glastonbury Park stage headliners, Fontaines D.C. and is released on XL Recordings. The band licensed a series of Taiwanese artist Lulu Lin’s work for use across their ‘Romance’ album campaign. Lin’s body of work uses bold colour, adopting a bright, electric palette dedicated to distorted, stretched and warped faces, producing visuals to become just as iconic as the album itself.
Lulu Lin took up drawing as a child, as an escape and to lift their spirits, and went on to gain their Batchelor’s degree in industrial design at Shih Chien University, Taiwan before completing a Masters in communication design at Designskolen Kolding, Denmark. During this time Lulu Lin officially launched their illustration career.
In third place is London born, now New York based, photographer and director, Louis Browne for his cover photography for Turkish-Italian DJ, producer and multi-instrumentalist Carlita (real name Carla Frayman) and her long-awaited debut album ‘Sentimental’, released on 15th November on Ninja Tune.
Louis Browne, known for his eclectic approach to visual storytelling, brings a unique sensitivity to the album artwork, which perfectly complements Carlita’s reflective vision. The cover image encapsulates Carlita’s musical shift, moving away from the high-energy aesthetics and instead, embracing a softer, more nuanced visual language. Carlita has described her debut album as “a reflection of my inner world” and the album artwork perfectly translates Carlita’s exploration of “the beauty found in the sentimental moments” of her life, into a visual experience.
Born in London, Louis Browne spent his teenage years chasing the music scene around England. Playing in bands, and then shifting to photographing them instead. Browne’s work has been celebrated in the music industry, having collaborated with artists including Billie Eilish, Mumford & Sons, Olivia Rodrigo and The 1975.
Best Art Vinyl founder, Andrew Heeps comments, “In our 20th year of the Best Art Vinyl Award, we’re proud to acknowledge the incredible art and design that looks so intriguing and different to any of its award-winning predecessors. Our Art Prize specific to vinyl records and the astonishing cultural phenomenon they have now become, explores the collaboration between musicians and visual artists and celebrates the renaissance in vinyl visual storytelling as an essential part of the listening experience. As vinyl continues to thrive, the art that adorns its covers continues to evolve, and we welcome the international contributors to this year’s shortlisted artworks to a fascinating ‘Best Art Vinyl’ archive of contemporary art and design, reflecting the continuous interplay between music, culture, and artistic expression.”
This is the 20th winner of the Best Art Vinyl Award, the unique contemporary art prize that celebrates record cover design by compiling the best in art, photography and graphic design in modern music culture. Best Art Vinyl 2024 winners join an impressive Art Vinyl archive of celebrated visual artists. Notably including the Hipgnosis design studio, legendary classical Dutch artist Pieter Bruegel, as well as the many unknown, unsung heroes of the music industry, who use design to create modern-day visual icons. Full Archives Here.
BEST ART VINYL 2024 SHORTLISTED RECORDS DETAILS AND DESIGN CREDITS
Sunday 5th January – Saturday 1st February 2025: Best Art Vinyl 2024 Nominations Installation at The Hari London, Belgravia
Thursday 9th January 2025: Best Art Vinyl 2024 Winners announced at The Hari London Belgravia
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