When we think of a song or album, a vision often comes to mind alongside the sound. Album covers don’t just decorate music; they shape how we remember it and define its cultural footprint. While many designers have created iconic covers, like Stefan Sagmeister, Roger Dean, or Jonathan Barnbrook, these five gave music a visual voice that reshaped how it could be seen as well as heard.
 

1. DAVID STONE MARTIN

Born in 1913 in Chicago, David Stone Martin was one of the most prolific and instantly recognizable album cover designers of the 20th century. He created more than 400 album covers, primarily for jazz labels like Clef, Norgran, and Verve. Known for his fluid line drawings, often rendered with a crow quill pen, Martin brought a human, improvisational feel to his artwork that mirrored the spontaneity of jazz. His covers for artists like Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker, and Lester Young helped define the look of post-war jazz in America. Martin’s style, deeply rooted in illustration and storytelling, gave visual rhythm to a sound that was constantly reinventing itself.
 

2. NEIL FUJITA

Born in 1921 in Hawaii, Neil Fujita is often called the godfather of abstract graphic design. After winning an award for an ad at the Container Corporation of America, Fujita was recruited by William Golden to join Columbia Records. At Columbia, he introduced a new visual language for album covers, replacing literal imagery with abstract forms that captured jazz’s essence. He didn’t just shape the label’s look; as an art director at Columbia, he commissioned artists like Andy Warhol and Milton Glaser.
Fujita’s influence extended to book cover design, most famously with the hand-drawn cover for The Godfather, where his typography became iconic enough to be used in the film’s poster.

3. REID MILES

Born in 1927 in Chicago, Reid Miles revolutionized jazz album design with his bold, rhythmic covers. He became the defining designer of the well-known jazz label Blue Note Records, transforming Francis Wolff’s black-and-white photographs of jazz musicians into expressive artwork. In later works, Miles pushed typography to the forefront, shaping the visual language of jazz albums with over 500 covers to his name. His work became inseparable from the sound of classic jazz.

4. STORM THORGERSON

Born in 1944 in the UK, Storm Thorgerson is regarded as one of the most groundbreaking graphic designers in rock history, known for his surrealistic style. In 1968, he co-founded Hipgnosis, the studio behind iconic album covers. His collaboration with Pink Floyd was transformative, with covers like The Dark Side of the Moon becoming legendary. Thorgerson used photography and illustration to create surreal, dreamlike artwork. He and Aubrey Powell were also behind the Led Zeppelin logo and worked with artists like Muse, The Cranberries, and Syd Barrett.

5. PETER SAVILLE

Born in 1955 in the UK, Peter Saville is one of the most influential album cover designers of the post-punk and post-rock era. In 1978, Saville co-founded Factory Records, where he designed some of the most iconic album covers of all time. Known for his avant-garde, modernist style, Saville's designs for Joy Division, New Order and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark have become cultural landmarks. Saville’s minimalist, conceptual approach gave post-punk a bold, cerebral look and later extended into fashion and public design, from Calvin Klein and Burberry to the England football team kit and Manchester’s city branding.