Mechanical Separation for Nirvana's "Bleach" Album Cover

This object is the mechanical color separation guide for the printing of Nirvana's debut 1989 Bleach album layout. This mechanical separation specifies the dimensions, color scheme, and typefaces used in the design. The album cover was designed by Lisa Orth (b. 1967), who asked Grant Alden, typesetter and later co-editor at the local music magazine The Rocket, to produce the band and album title type. Using the typeface that was already in the typesetting machine, Bodoni Extra Bold Condensed, Alden accidentally created Nirvana's iconic logo. 

Designer Lisa Orth was Art Director for both Sub Pop Records and Seattle music magazine The Rocket, which explains why the publication’s name is printed at the top of the layout sheet. Even though Orth is credited for creating the Bleach cover, Kurt Cobain (1967-1994) disputes this in the book Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana (1993).  In an interview for the book, he told biographer Michael Azerrad (b. 1961) that “everyone thinks that Lisa Orth came up with … the [cover] idea and the way it was all set up. I came up with the whole idea and they got credit for it … I just want people to know that I can do other things than just the music.” Orth is now an accomplished tattoo artist working in the Los Angeles area. 

With the release of their sophomore album, Nevermind, on September 24, 1991, and the constant MTV rotation of the single “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” Nirvana became the face of the once underground genre of Grunge and suddenly made Seattle and the Pacific Northwest the epicenter of popular music culture in the early 1990s. By the end of 1991, Nevermind was selling over 400,000 copies per week and by January 1992, the album was number one on the Billboard 200 Top Albums chart. Nirvana’s success paved the way for bands like Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Screaming Trees, and others who soon followed. By all accounts, 1992 was the year of Grunge, and that year Nirvana undertook two tours; Cobain married Courtney Love (b. 1964) of the band Hole; Cobain’s and Love’s daughter, Frances Bean, was born; and the band headlined the Reading Festival.  Despite difficulties with drug use, Cobain continued to perform throughout 1993 and the beginning of 1994, when Nirvana had to cut their European tour short due to his overdose in Rome, Italy. On April 8, 1994, Kurt Cobain was found in his Seattle home, dead by suicide. He was 27 years old.  

Despite his tragic death which lead to Nirvana disbanding, Nirvana and the Grunge genre have made an indelible mark on popular music that resonates to this day.