At Newport album art, Verve Records

The Newport Jazz Festival was established by Elaine Lorillard in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1954. According to Wikipedia, “the 1957 festival was well documented by Verve Records, which released 12 albums of recorded performances.” Several of the recordings made in July 1957 were reissued six years later, in 1963, on two albums that follow the same basic cover design.

Designer John Murello had the titles set in four lines of all-caps Placard Bold Condensed, and then distorted them by photographic means. The result looks like a flag fluttering in the coastal wind. This association is underpinned on the back cover, where the lettering is repeated five times, complete with added flagpoles.

For the Oscar Peterson Trio and the Gerry Mulligan Quartet, Murello colored the lines in dark purple, green, blue, and red orange, against a white background. For the Count Basie Band with Joe Williams and the Dizzy Gillespie Band, he opted for a different palette with pink, two shades of orange, and yellow, against a black background.

The track list and liner notes (by Bob Rolontz) on the back are set in Bodoni.