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REFLECTION

This online dossier explores visual identity in pop music culture and the way in which graphic elements such as design and photography can help curate the way we artistically perceive music artists. In line with my own practice, I have particularly focused on graphic design and typefaces used for album covers, record sleeves and logos and the way they blend with photography to create a mood that can be associated with the artist. The critical framework I am researching is legacy, and the value of design in forming an image for musicians that audiences can connect to, build a persona around and inevitably hold onto as time passes. How does design contribute to the formulation of legacy, how does it carve out a unique identity for musicians in an already oversaturated market?

I have chosen to explore a collection of artists from the UK, predominantly from the 1990s (an interesting time in music and design, with the addition of digital technology) to form a case study in comparison - same place, similar time, and how does that make the designs creatively vary or overlap? Additionally, they are musicians that have a refined and curated aesthetic that has run through their career, using design as a strong signifier for their public identity. Another common thread that runs through the selections is a sense of community in regard to socio-economic background, these artists largely come from ‘working-class’ environments (particularly from Manchester) and use their lived experience as a prominent source of style inspiration, both sonically and aesthetically. This research allows me to see the value of representation, how artists find their audience, relate to them, create an immersive world and sense of character they can engage in.

To illustrate this point, I will examine two of the most successful artists mentioned in the dossier (albeit with very different target markets) Massive Attack and Blur. How does the visual identity of Massive Attack, in all their alternative trip-hop haze, brooding sensuality, ominous, urban imagery, both popular, yet sustaining an air of the underground, compare to that of Blur, art school indie-rock pretty-boys, London street style, cool, yet friendly and relatable, as if manufactured for teenage girls across England to fall in love with. Both bands overlap, reaching their peak in popularity in the mid to late 1990s, but cater to different crowds and present themselves opposingly. Much of this is owed to the way their album cover designs, their logo, their colour schemes etc refer to varying subcultures. Blur takes advantage of highly saturated colours, charming, ironic photography that alludes to everyday British-ness, their logo is bright yellow and rounded, it is approachable, light and fun and ties into their pop sensibilities. Whereas Massive Attack play in the realm of cyber-goth symbolism, think The Matrix meets graffiti, hard-edge fonts, sleek, dark images of insects and flames, abstract paintings often in place of photography, with the face of the band hidden behind their creative mask.

This is just one analysis that can be drawn from the dossier and applied to any other two artists presented. Point being, researching these artists and having them hold a digital space together has permitted me to appreciate and dissect their vision in contrast to one another. In my own practice, whether video work or graphic design, I have, and will be working with clients, these clients are mostly musicians and bands. It is crucial for me to apply this research, to understand the ethos of these artists, how do they want to be seen and who do they want to relate to? Is there a commentary in their work, does it tap into class, gender, sexuality, particular cultures or political statements? Who is their reference point and what inspires them? I need to understand the vision and provide practical visual outcomes that are an honest extension of the artist. Designs that will be recognisable and form solid associations in the minds of the audience, building a unique visual identity that can build into a memorable legacy.  

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Jill Furmanovsky, The Specials, 1981.

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Perry Neville and Jimmy Edgerton, The Two-Tone Book for Rude Boys, 1981

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David Storey, More Specials, 1980.

David Storey, The Best of The Specials, 2008.

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Morrissey, The Smiths 'Girlfirend in a Coma', 1987.

Morrissey, The Smiths 'Shoplifters of the World Unite', 1987.

Morrissey, The Smiths 'The World Wont Listen', 1987.

Evans, M (2010), The Art of British Rock, Frances Lincoln Limited Publishers, London.

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'Apart from the music, The Queen Is Dead has become iconic for another reason; the album cover. The art features French actor turned businessman, Alain Delon, in the 1964 noir film L’Insoumis (The Unvanquished). Delon had written to the Smiths and gave them the approval to use his image. However, the offer came with one condition, as he revealed in his autobiography: “I told them my parents were upset that anyone would call an album The Queen is Dead.”

In classic Smiths fashion, having already disparaged their label head, this request was clearly ignored. It was also typical of the Smiths to use actors and elements of popular culture for their sleeves. The sleeve for ‘Big Mouth Strikes Again’ pays homage to the actor James Dean, depicting him riding a motorbike, and for ‘Panic’, actor Richard Bradford appears in a scene from his cult television series Man in a Suitcase.

It is this convergence of the Smiths and images from pop culture that adds to the band’s iconic stature. Every Smiths single and album cover has its own interesting backstory.'

Starkey, A (May 2021) The Story Behind the Smiths' Iconic Album The Queen is Dead, https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/the-smiths-the-queen-is-dead-album-cover-story/

Morrissey, The Smiths 'Louder Than Bombs', 1987.

Morrissey, The Smiths 'Sheila Take a Bow', 1987.

Morrissey, self-title album The Smiths, 1984.

Morrissey, The Smiths 'Meat is Murder, 1985.

Morrissey, The Smiths 'Hatful of Hollow', 1984.

Morrissey, The Smiths 'The Queen is Dead', 1986.

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'It was the perfect one because when you listen to that album, you really have the sense of this guy living in a similar estate, in his bedroom, doing the music. There’s something quite intimate about [Mike Skinner’s] music because it suggests an interior place. Although it talks about the city, it comes from a private experience.

You have to understand that I [was] on another high-rise, photographing a high-rise. I [was] on the 16th floor. By photographing it so straight-on, it’s almost like a portrait. It’s respectful because I’m not overwhelmed by it, I’m not cowering under it — I’m actually face-to-face with it, so it’s more about a dialogue.'

Rut Blees Luxemburg, Original Pirate Material, 2002.

Simran, H (March 2017), How The Iconic Artwork Of Original Pirate Material Made A Subtle Statement About London Life, https://www.thefader.com/2017/03/23/original-pirate-material-cover-rut-blees-luxemburg-interview

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Sneaker Pimps, Becoming X, 1996. Sneaker Pimps, Bloodsport, 2002.

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'The careful curation of every detail of Pet Shop Boys’ career, from what’s released to where it’s released and how it’s packaged, is widely recognised. Whether it comes from Chris Lowe’s time spent studying architecture, or Neil Tennant’s first career as a senior editor on magazines like Smash Hits, the UK’s most successful musical duo have an almost unparalleled grip on their aesthetic. So strong is their approach to visual styling it rendered the more traditional practise of big headshots and band logos redundant, even at the beginning of their lengthy run; Pet Shop Boys believe the sum is unarguably greater than any component parts. Across 14 studio albums, many remix and hits collections, countless singles, videos and DVDs, and even the band’s legendary Christmas cards and (now annual) fan publications, a strong visual narrative threads all the way back to their initial breakthrough.'

Mark Farrow, Pet Shop Boys 'Actually', 1987.

Mark Farrow, Pet Shop Boys 'Please', 1986.

Farrow and Pentagram, Pet Shop Boys 'Very', 1993.

PSB and Mark Farrow, Pet Shop Boys 'Please', 1988.

Elliot, M (2021), PET SHOP BOYS ALBUM COVERS: ALL 14 STUDIO ARTWORKS, RANKED AND REVIEWED, https://www.thisisdig.com/feature/pet-shop-boys-album-covers/

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'The Pet Shop Boy's career can be seen as a multimedia art installation permanently on show at the heart of the merciless music industry machine; or it can be viewed as a high-camp exercise in mask-making as the duo flirt boldly with styles and shifting personas.

As co-author Philip Hoare notes in his introduction to Catalogue, "It would have been unconscionable, in 1983, to create a pop group and not have an image that could mediate your message — if you had a message, that is; and clearly the Pet Shop Boys did. Taking elements of English post-punk and i-D street fashion and melding them with the New York style that the pair had picked up during their initial work with producer Bobby 'O', the look of the Pet Shop Boys evolved in a manner quite as determined as the groups whom they would soon be regarding as their peers. Yet, crucially, the group was purposefully conceived as a 'self-conscious' reaction to those groups ..." It's this intelligent authoring and fastidious management of the PSB identity that marks them out from their less sure-footed pop rivals. The PSB are true pop auteurs.'

Shaughnessy, A (2006) Pet Shop Boys — A Flawless Vision, https://designobserver.com/article.php?id=5037

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Paul Cannell, don't fight it, feel it, 1991.

Paul Cannell, higher than the sun, 1991.

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'Primal Scream’s Screamadelica was released on 23 September 1991, an exhilarating fusion of dance, indie, dub, gospel and electronica, packaged in one of the most iconic sleeves of the 1990s.

To this day, the psychedelic sunburst that adorns the album’s sleeve has almost transcended the reputation of the band itself, featuring on countless t-shirts, posters and other memorabilia – a blissful reminder of the heady days when “music was music”, as the track Come Together preaches.

The artwork was developed by artist Paul Cannell, and according to legend was inspired by a damp patch that the artist had seen on the ceiling of the Creation Records offices after ingesting LSD.

“I gave Paul a space in the attic at the Creation offices in Westgate Street in London,” Creation Records’ boss Alan McGee told Scotland’s Daily Record newspaper in 2010. “He was hugely influenced by the US artists Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol but he became unique in his own way.”

Paul Cannell, Screamadelica, 1991.

909 Originals, (September 2021) The story behind the iconic cover art for Primal Scream’s ‘Screamadelica’, https://909originals.com/2021/09/20/the-story-behind-the-iconic-cover-art-for-primal-screams-screamadelica/

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Chris Gabren, Ian Dury and the Blockheads, 1974.

Steve Pyke, Ian Dury, 1976.

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Gijsbert Hanekroot, Ian Dury, 1977.

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Porky, Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, 1977.

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Ian Dury and The Blockheads, What a Waste!, 1978.

Ian Dury and The Blockheads, Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick (Japanese Edition), 1978.

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'Just as it appeared that Factory was inevitably bound for a cul-de-sac of its own making, a new band and posse of designers arrived to usher in a new revolution in British rock music and musical art. As the Happy Mondays emerged as the sound of Madchester, their sleeve designers, Central Station Design (CSD), provided the scene’s visual correlative.

In contrast to Peter Saville’s neo-classical imagistic brooding, CSD’s designs echoed from the dry wit of pop art, the hippy whimsy of ’60s psychedelia, and the unrestrained mayhem of their principle employers and inspiration, the Happy Mondays. Furthermore, the close association and like-minded strategies of CSD and the Happy Mondays were rooted in their common locality, as well as in their common family. Two of the three members of the design company, Matt and Paul Carroll, were cousins of the band’s Ryder brothers, Shaun and Paul; and not only had they all grown up together, but they did so in the midst of a Manchester music scene where the celebratory dance music of northern soul, New Order-inspired electronica, Chicago house, and Detroit techno dominated club culture.

Both the Carroll and Ryder brothers were drawn to the carnivalesque hedonism of this environment, such that they were on the same page and dancing to the same beat when it came to artistically representing the next Manchester dance generation.'

Ellis, I (2010), HAPPY MONDAYS, THE COURT JESTERS OF MADCHESTER, https://www.popmatters.com/125280-the-art-of-the-happy-mondays-2496196903.html