Hasta La Ideas

This month’s cover features a detail from the poster for the 2011 by:Larm music festival designed by Rune Mortensen and illustrated by Frode Skaren, re-drawn for CR

The January issue of Creative Review is a music special with features on festivals, the future of the music video and much much more. Plus it comes with its very own soundtrack for you to listen to while reading the magazine

Do you remember the great days of record sleeve design? Of Barney Bubbles and Hipgnosis. Yes? So do we but for our music issue we were determined not to wallow in nostalgia. Enough moaning about the good old days – we wanted to focus on the great work being done for music today.

If you would like to buy this issue and are based in the UK, you can search for your nearest stockist here. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 292 3703 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30% on the printed magazine.

We kick off with a couple of pieces on vernacular design for music – the handpainted illustrations found on guitar effects pedals (above) and the design of plectrums – plectra?

Then we follow up on an idea we first started on Twitter. We asked our followers to nominate their favourite design-led small record labels – the more obscure the better. Emma Tucker has rounded up our pick of your nominations with interviews with each label. She also asked each of them to provide a track for our playlist which you can listen to while reading the issue.

Music videos have long been suffering from depleted budgets and a less prominent role in the music marketing mix but, as Eliza Williams reports, a new wave of interactive projects is breathing new life into the genre

Physical music sales have declined rapidly but, for the dedicated fan, lavishly packaged special editions can be a must-have, as Gavin Lucas explains

Bands now rely far more on earnings from live performances, helped by the huge growth in festivals, each with its own graphic identity and visual style. Mark Sinclair reports

In Crit, The Wire’s Jennifer Allan talks to the likes of Jon Wozencroft and Ian Anderson about the tendency for music’s more obscure genres to adopt distinctive, common visual styles

In his regular magazine column, Jeremy Leslie looks at the independent titles keeping music magazines alive

Stuart Baker looks back at the graphic design of Jamaica’s Studio One

And Michale Evamy uncovers the story behind the graphic identity of America’s oldest family-run company, Zildjian, cymbal-makers to the Ottoman Empire

And, finally, Gordon Comstock discusses the links between music and commercials and why Smiths’ fans outrage was just what John Lewis wanted to hear

The January 2012 issue of Creative Review is out now.

If you would like to buy this issue and are based in the UK, you can search for your nearest stockist here. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 292 3703 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30% on the printed magazine.