Renaissance – Renaissance U.S. album art
Front cover.
After the demise of the Yardbirds, half of the final lineup—Keith Relf (vocals) and Jim McCarty (drums)—founded the proto-prog group Renaissance. The first album was released in the US by Elektra records, who elected to redesign the cover. The original UK cover featured a rendering of the band name in a distorted sans serif over a painting, The Downfall of Icarus by Genisson. The rest of Europe received this cover from Island Records, with sleeve design credit going to Jack Levy.
In the US and other territories where the album was released by Elektra (US, Canada, Japan, Peru), fans received packaging with art direction credit going to Elektra’s William S. Harvey, with credit for design going to Robert L. Heimall. The front cover illustration is by Peter Schaumann and the back cover features an illustration by Paul Whitehead.
On this version, the band name is rendered in near inch-high type in the style of Carlyle Roccoco. Featured in Photo-Lettering’s Alphabet Thesaurus Vol. 3 (1971), alongside Carlyle Quaint, which has been digitized by House Industries.
Inner sleeve.
Back cover with track listing and credits in Memphis.
Back cover of a different pressing, with small text set in an italic Caslon or similar,.
