From that point on all roads led to Polydor Records and the first Jam album cover in 1977.
During the 70's and 80's a number of new graphic designers found their way into the music business, Barney Bubbles' brilliant work for Stiff Records, Storm Thorgesen's Hipgnosis Pink Floyd covers, Malcolm Garrett's Buzzcocks sleeves, Stylorouge and Siouxsie and the Banshees, Form Design amongst many others, all helping to create a paradigm
of album cover design, I joined these serried ranks in 1976.
I had been at Polydor for a year or so as Art Director creating covers for artists as diverse as Peggy Lee, The Who and George Benson, I hadn't yet reached my nirvana but Nevermind... along came The Jam. A new
band with new music to share and me with a 12-inch blank canvas to fill with ideas. An Art Director is a really great job, you come up with ideas with an artist and then you find amazing people to collaborate with and in partnership you make those ideas come to life. I ended up doing 5 album covers and 16 single bags for The Jam between 1977 and 1980, 3 short years of joy.
I left Polydor in 1978 and set up my own studio in what was basically a corridor in a fashion house on Great Marlborough Street in London's West End. From that little cubby-hole I started working with many different record companies and many different bands and artists.
Album covers are permanent items, unlike much packaging which is thrown away once the product is removed, the album cover becomes a possession and has a value beyond just protection. They are a collaboration and a partnership between musician, designer and record company. There are arguments and compromises, certainly many fights but in the end, the cover wins out. There have been many great art directors and designers, artists, photographers and typographers all helping to create cardboard packaging for some black vinyl, creating great, mediocre or downright rubbish sleeves, but always interesting and exciting.
Between 1976 and 2019 we worked with over 200 different bands and artists, creating many hundreds of covers, all with a story... the book covers (sorry) just some of them.
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