For obvious reasons, the musicians get all the Grammy glory, but one category amid the dozens, recording package, celebrates the designers who set the visual tone of an album.
An impossible category to predict, the variety each year is notable. In the last five years, the winning designers got their trophies for albums by Asleep at the Wheel, Pearl Jam, Reckless Kelly, Bjork and Arcade Fire.
This year's nominees feature designs from albums that cross genre and pay-grade. Rihanna's striking red, white and black cover for "Anti," which features the work of Israeli-born artist Roy Nachum, is being honored alongside New York indie rock band Parquet Courts. The band didn't commission a fancy artist; rather Parquet Courts' singer-guitarist Andrew Gilbert did it himself.
Both will contend with Jonathan Barnbrook's already iconic cover for David Bowie's "Blackstar."
Since the album was released, the seemingly minimal album sleeve has revealed hidden images that only surface in particular circumstances _ through sunlight, under black light and elsewhere.
Also nominated is Bon Iver's mod-looking jacket for "22, A Million" (designed by Eric Timothy Carlson) and Sarah and Shauna Dodds' work on Reckless Kelly's "Sunset Motel."
