A weekly look down into the mortal coil of music industry design.

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Artist: Journey
Release: Escape
Label: Columbia
Designer: Stanley Mouse (illustration), Jim Welch (photography, design)
Release Date: July 31, 1981

Throughout all these years (yes, I remember seeing vinyl this when I was younger), I still haven’t figure out why in the world the scarab caught on as their mascot of sorts. None of the other albums, except for Time³ and maybe-sorta Arrival. It even ended up in their arcade game that was fun to play, for the time. Yes, I’m remember that too.

This, interestingly enough, maybe be the prototype for the was-popular-a-few-years-ago-now-a-bit-silly 133t-speak maneuver of using numbers for letters. But since Steve Perry is a great vocalist I will choose to overlook this fact.