“I remember the first time I saw it with all the type on it and everything … it was perfect. With the addition of the type and the band’s existing logo, the final cover was complete. But back in the day it was groundbreaking damnit!” Now you’d just go on a computer and use filters or whatever, and people say the wavy type is kinda cheesy. Then I scanned it again and wiggled it in another direction. As it was scanning I wiggled the image and it put waves through it. So I had the type printed out and I held it on a Xerox machine. “I wanted the word Nevermind to look kind of underwater and wavy. With the photo complete, it was time to add the other elements to the cover. Then I sent those photos to the colour separator and they scanned them and put them in.” I sent the photographer those with a couple of polaroids of how I wanted the dollar bill to look. “I went to the bait and tackle shop and got some fishhooks. And this one guy in there, one of his tag-lines was he specialised in ‘submerged humans’. “They used to have these things called work-books - big thick catalogues where photographers would buy a page or two and they’d send them out to creatives to try and get work. He soon found the perfect person: Kirk Weddle. Now that he had a concept, Fisher needed to find a photographer to execute it. It all kind of came together organically you know, it was like one step led to another step that led to another.” The thing with the whole process … Kurt didn’t come with like a grand plan or a message he wanted to get across. I don’t remember who said dollar bill but everyone was like ‘That’s pretty good,’ and that’s what it ended up being. We went to lunch and we were like ‘How about a burrito?’ ‘Oh there’s a dog, what about a dog?’ … it just went on for hours. Another was a CD or something to kind of symbolise music. One idea was a piece of meat, like a big raw steak. We spent the afternoon sitting around thinking of all the funny things we could put on the fishhook. So Kurt came up with the idea of adding a fishhook to make it more menacing. “We thought ‘Ok, we’ve gotta make it more than just a baby underwater’. But he realised the image needed something else. I couldn’t find any really good pictures and they were all way too graphic to use.”Īfter ruling out the childbirth idea, Fisher started exploring other options featuring babies underwater. But it was just like … there’s no way we can make an album cover out of this. Back then before the Internet you would have to go down to the local bookstore and go through child birthing books and try to find photos. “Kurt wanted a baby being born underwater. But once I got the advance cassette copy I was blown away.”Īfter meeting with the band, Fisher learned that Kurt Cobain already had a vision for the cover. Nobody at the label had any idea it was gonna be that big. I was excited when I heard that Geffen was going to sign Nirvana, so I went and asked if I could work on it. “I was hired as a designer out of art school and I worked my way up to an art director position. But before Nevermind’s release, Nirvana were an unknown band and Fisher was an equally unknown graduate working at Geffen. The cover now features in the Museum of Modern Art’s collection and is regarded as a design classic. Part of Nevermind’s success was almost certainly due to its incredible cover, created by Robert Fisher. The record went on to sell over 30 million copies and is widely considered to be one of the greatest albums of all time. It brought alternative rock to the mainstream and almost overnight made Nirvana the biggest band in the world. “Nevermind” celebrated its 30th anniversary last year and contained Nirvana’s enormous hit “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” The album has sold at least 30 million copies and is still available with the original cover image intact.When it was released in 1991, Nirvana’s Nevermind sent shockwaves through the music world. “Plaintiff is cautioned that failure to timely file a Second Amended Complaint shall result in this action being dismissed without prejudice for failure to prosecute and/or failure to comply with a court order,” Olguin’s order said. Another amended complaint would supersede Elden’s previous complaint, which apparently had “defects” outlined in the defendants’ December motion to dismiss. However, Olguin said that Elden could have “one last opportunity to amend his complaint” and refile the lawsuit by Jan. An in-depth look back tells another story. Legend has it that Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’ and the grunge boom ended hair-metal careers and dominated popular music. Music 30 years later, in search of the real impact of Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’