Created on limited budgets but overflowing with imagination, Prestige album covers reflected the improvisational energy of the music itself. Young designers, including Andy Warhol and Reid Miles, experimented with typography, photography, and abstract visuals that gave modern jazz a modern look. These covers were more than packaging, they were part of the music’s cultural revolution. Inspired by contemporary European graphic design and typography movements, Prestige’s designers employed a range of radical techniques: at no other label were the visual artists given such wide creative berths.The book features more than a decade of research, hundreds of rare and meticulously photographed covers, and never-before-seen sketches and outtakes from album shoots. Each creator profile is illustrated with key visual examples, including unseen sketches, personal photographs, unpublished outtakes from album cover shoots, and design components, providing unique insight into the design process.With a foreword by Sonny Rollins and an introduction by design historian Steven Heller, WAIL captures how the sound of postwar jazz found its visual voice in 1950s New York.

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