Studio - 6. Physical Graffiti : 3. Album sleeve design.

Studio - 6. Physical Graffiti

3. Album sleeve design.

Physical Graffiti album sleeve
	Inner disc cover 1 Inner disc cover 2
	Middle insert front Middle insert back

The album's sleeve design features a photograph of a New York City tenement block, with interchanging window illustrations. The album designer, Peter Corriston, was looking for a building that was symmetrical with interesting details, that was not obstructed by other objects and would fit the square album cover. He said:

We walked around the city for a few weeks looking for the right building. I had come up a concept for the band based on the tenement, people living there and moving in and out. The original album featured the building with the windows cut out on the cover and various sleeves that could be placed under the cover, filling the windows with the album title, track information or liner notes.^[10]

96 and 98 St. Mark's Place

The two five-story buildings photographed for the album cover are located at 96 and 98 St. Mark's Place in New York City.^[11][12] But to enable it to fit, the fourth floor (of five) had to be cropped out. So for the album cover it became a four-story building instead.^[10] The front cover is a daytime image, while the back cover is the same image but at nighttime.

Mike Doud is listed as the Cover Artist on the inner sleeve, and either the concept or design or both were his. He passed away in the early 1990s, and this album design was one of his crowning achievements in a lifetime of design - he was later to win a Grammy for best album cover of the year 1978.

The buildings on the album cover were the same Keith Richards and Mick Jagger were filmed in front of in the Rolling Stones music video "Waiting on a Friend".^[13] There is currently a used clothing store in the basement of 96 St. Mark's Place called Physical Graffiti. The building has been profiled on the television show, Rock Junket.^[14]

The original album jacket for the LP album included four covers made up of two inners (for each disc), a middle insert cover and an outer cover. The inner covers depict various objects and people (including photos of Robert Plant and Richard Cole in drag)^[2] on each window. The middle insert cover is white and details all the album track listings and recording information. The outer cover has die-cut windows on the building, so when the middle cover is wrapped around the inner covers and slid into the outer cover, the title of the album is shown on the front cover, spelling out the name "Physical Graffiti".

In 1976 the album was nominated for a Grammy Award in the category of best album package.

Philadelphia comedy-punk band the Dead Milkmen spoofed the album cover and title on their 1990 album Metaphysical Graffiti