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Check out the article on the creation of Duran Duran's Notorious album. It includes bits from an interview I did about the design of the album package and related materials. Above is a package for the "Skin Trade" cassette single which was banned in most places because the plastic case and photo of a woman’s naked backside made it look like a miniature adult video. Read more. Click here.
I just learned that the Duran Duran Notorious album was being re-released later this month in various formats. I always liked that album and was proud to be asked to design the package. Here is a piece I wrote earlier this year about my Notorious experience:
NOTORIOUS (1986)
After the Power Station album, John Taylor asked if I would be interested in working on the package for the next Duran Duran album, Notorious. He also asked if I was available to fly to London on short notice to meet the rest of the band. Next thing I knew I was at Kennedy Airport waiting for my British Airways flight to London. A short time later I was informed there was mechanical problem with the plane. I was upgraded to the Concorde SST. Talk about jet set! That was an experience I will never forget. I ended up in London hours ahead of schedule. My meeting the rest of the band members went well and the project proceeded. The album package was built around a black-and-white wraparound photo of the then-current band members (John, Simon, and Nick) plus a very young Christy Turlington. Unlike the Power Station package, the Notorious package didn’t use any illustration, although the singles did feature some graphic elements. The “Notorious” single (1986) marked the first use of my “Pan-with-horn” icon. This icon first appeared in the lower right-hand corner of the cover and also appeared on the labels. The “Skin Trade” single (1987) had a red-tinted close-up photo of a woman’s rear on the cover. The cassette came in a small VHS-like plastic box with the photo insert and looked like a miniature adult video. There were also vinyl versions that did not feature the photo at all, and had solid red covers instead. The “Meet El Presidente” single (1987) featured a black-and-white photo of the band topped with a Soviet Socialist Realism-inspired graphic that was used on the band’s 1987 Strange Behaviour world tour book.
I received an email asking if I had any large poster proofs or original artwork from the Power Station project. Unfortunately I don't have anything saved from that project other than a few samples of the album and singles packages, the tour book and a platinum album. That was about 25 years ago and time has a way of consuming things. The email did remind me of something vaguely related -- and extremely obscure! In 1985, my studio Manhattan Design, art directed and designed a series of about 50 greeting cards called "Rock Collection" for a small card company in Virginia. These cards featured excerpts from lyrics mainly by musicians popular at the time, including: Sting, The B-52's, The Cars, Dire Straits, David Bowie, Madonna, Tears For Fears, Eurythmics, and Hall & Oates. The artwork was done by a range of illustrators and photographers hired or licensed by Manhattan Design. One of these cards featured lyrics from the Power Station song "Communication." I created a full-color illustration of the Power Station figure specifically to go with the lyric. Alas, as visually cool and timely as the cards were, they were unsuccessful and I doubt they were seen by more than a small number of people attending 1985 stationery trade shows -- and the artists involved.
I'm mostly awful at promoting myself. Here's an exception from the vault. A large promotional print piece (measuring 24 x 17 inches when folded open) for my good old studio Manhattan Design. Shown above is the fashionista cover photo of my partner Pat Gorman and myself taken by Caroline Greyshock and the inside spread, which required my extreme x-acto blade typography work. Can you believe the copy?!: "Billy Idol sums up their work as 'fuckin' brilliant" and "The whole world looks to Manhattan Design". Whoa!
La Dolce Vita was a limited edition Italian only release LP Duran Duran box set (1986). The box contained their first five albums on vinyl: Duran Duran, Rio, Seven and the Ragged Tiger, Arena, and Notorious. It also included a large poster of the Notorious cover. I created the design and Pan/angel character which was gold foil stamped on the box cover. The overall effect was like a large box of chocolates.
