Jazz: The Smithsonian Anthology

Designed by Visual Dialogue, United States.

Problem: How do you put the history of jazz in a box? Not an easy task, but one Smithsonian Folkways Recordings was eager to take on. Using the historic compilation The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz as the starting point, a team of over 50 experts set about selecting 111 tracks tracing 100 years of jazz. In addition to the music, the set need to include liner notes by 30 leading writers and a treasury or rarely-seen jazz photographs.

Solution: Visual Dialogue referenced the graphics and color palette of original Folkways JAZZ LP covers in creating an entirely new design for Jazz: The Smithsonian Anthology. The package combines a 200-page book and 6 CDs inside a translucent slipcase, befitting what Time magazine reviewed as “the single best introduction to America’s great musical form.”