he never settled into a typeface or system. —felix cromey
he never settled into a typeface or system. —felix cromey
Reid Miles’ experimenting with photography was more than just an individual style. It was part of the larger thing happening in the New York design scene at the time.
The interplay of image and type became a recognized approach and was used for regular text, advertising and product packaging. To a large extent, it grew out of the intimate relationship among designers, photographers and artists. Miles occasionally invited Andy Warhol to help with illustrations for Blue Note covers and himself posed nude for a Warhol photo.
Before the corporate intrusion of the late ‘60s forever divided these two worlds, designers and artists coexisted in the same professional space and were practically one. Not сoincidentally, around the same time the original Blue Note Records came to an end. In 1966, the label was sold to giant Liberty Records and Miles moved to L.A. But, for hard bop, the canon had now been set for generations to come by musicians like Art Blakey and Clifford Brown and, of course, by their records’ covers, which still remain the face of the genre.
Thelonious Monk—Monk, 1954. Cover designed by Reid Miles and Andy Warhol.
1. Kenny Burrell—Blue Lights, 1958. Cover designed by Reid Miles and Andy Warhol.
2. Jay Jay Johnson, Kai Winding, Bennie Green—Trombone by Three, 1956. Cover designed by Reid Miles and Andy Warhol.
3. Kenny Burrell—Vol. 2, 1957. Cover designed by Reid Miles and Andy Warhol.
4. Johnny Griffin—The Congregation, 1958. Cover designed by Reid Miles and Andy Warhol.
it is interesting to see that a designer who really managed to capture the essence of his time was also, in a way, disconnected from that very essence... It is perhaps ‘distance,’ not ‘engagement,’ that makes the designer. —experimental jetset
