A appreciation for 80s & 90s cut n paste cover art

[controlthebleeding]

So I'm going through my 45's and such and was really appreciating the cover art used back in the 80's and early 90's. This doesn't pertain to just covers, but layouts and such. How many of you appreciate this form of artwork. I for one am a huge fan of stuff like Slap a Ham, cut n paste, or early lookout (kinkos photocopy) style covers and inlays. There is something aesthetically pleasing about that era of covers. maybe I'm just being a bit nostalgic or something, but do any of you agree with me. Or do you prefer the new fangled computer generated covers?

Examples of awesome stuff: Slap a Ham's Bllleeeaaauuuggghhh! 7"s, Despise You, or Charles Brownson artwork and inlays.

[kyle]

There really was something really cool about the old hand-drawn/cut-n-paste/photo copied stuff from the 80s/90s. However, I don't know if it was necessarily a concious decision to a create a certain aesthetic, rather it was bred out of necessity. Back in the day, there wasn't a lot of money to pay artists and printers so they made the art themselves and photocopied them. Nowadays, computers are so advanced and printing is so cheap that you can make full color 7" jackets for probably about as much as bands were paying for their DIY photocopied covers back in the 90s. Today if you were to make a cover look like that it's more of a personal choice to create a certain look than out of necessity to save money or whatever.

As an example, moxicopy.com will make 500 full color copies using 80lb 8x11.5" that you can use to make 7" jackets for less than $90. So yeah, nowadays doing that style is more of a choice than necessity.

[controlthebleeding]

oh i know about the whole necessity thing. that's how i made fliers in the 80's and 90s. the shit you can do with the sunday newspaper, scotch tape, a blade, and white out. i was just looking at my slap a ham stuff and thinking about it.

[flood]

i miss making flyers like that... now everything is half assed photoshop

[dynamitekid]

I love covers like this. It just....feels right.

[scotterson]

It was a great means to an end. Whoever started this created an interesting and lasting style out of nothing, without even knowing it. I'm honestly too young to have been exposed to a ton of stuff like this, but I definitely got plenty of flyers done this way. It's awesome that something so basic and "diy" has made such an impact, considering any stuff you see like that today is a straight throwback to when it was necessary.

Or do you prefer the new fangled computer generated covers?

With these new fangled computers comes the good and the bad. Of course there are some (lots) of terrible photoshop jobs out there, but there's plenty of beautiful design that wouldn't have been to easy 30 years ago.

[Guest]

Post some pictures, you dingbats.

[oakland]

I do appreciate it, I loved that stuff. But I also used to make newspapers by hand. It is seriously hard, time consuming work. Desktop publishing changed all that and made the job a lot easier.

As far as art is concerned, I enjoy the old style stuff, but I also like the news stuff. I could never have done this without a computer, and I think we are all pretty grateful that this got made.

[adamlikesmusic]

I wish you'd have posted the image of you hunting the mountain lion.

[oakland]

Ask and ye shall receive.

And as a bonus, here's one I did for my friend Casey (the robot) who was nearly paralyzed diving into a shallow pond while skinny dipping with two hot female lifeguards. They wound up saving his life, still nude.