Blog: Designer Missing Record Stores

I miss record stores. I know, that makes me old. And it’s not for the music since we know we can listen to music more than ever before on various steaming platforms. No, I miss the stores for the record or cd covers. As a graphic designer (who also loves music) I spent countless hours just flipping through the amazing array of covers gaining inspiration for my designs. Far more than graphic design magazines, I found inspiration in the covers. They were so varied and cool. I never got to design an album cover but it was a dream to do so.

Now, young designers and people in general are deprived of that amazing experience. The shops themselves were always awesome with great music blasting, concert posters all around and endless racks of crazily designed covers. Add to it the very cool, knowledgeable people behind the counter who could point you just in the right direction for whatever music you were looking for and the whole experience was exhilarating. Flipping through covers on Spotify on your phone, alone on your couch, simply is a sad substitute for what was a true immersive experience.

I appreciate technology and I do love having access to basically every album out there but like so many other things, with good comes bad. I, for one, miss the stores and the experience of saving up to get that one album you had been wanting for so long, and listening to it one, two, three times in a row before sleeping that night. I think we appreciated it more and listened to it longer given the rarity of having the album. Got to find the next immersive design inspiration experience!

— Hovie Hawk

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