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Cover design and my portrait of David Byrne from What The Songs Look Like: Contemporary Artists Interpret Talking Heads Songs (1987). The book was my brainchild and I got to collaborate with my very favorite band, Talking Heads. I was able to obtain work from many incredible artists including: Jean-Michel Basquiat, David Byrne, Sue Coe, Keith Haring, Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger, Duane Michals, Jim Nutt, Nam June Paik, Gary Panter, Robert Rauschenberg, Ed Ruscha, William Wegman, Tadanori Yokoo and others.
"Nine David Byrne tracks including several songs from his 2008 collaboration with Brian Eno, 'Everything That Happens Will Happen Today' are featured in the film and on the soundtrack to Oliver Stone's much anticipated sequel to the 1987 Academy Award winning Wall Street. Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps starring Michael Douglas and Shia LaBeouf hits theaters September 24th." (Amazon.com)
I was asked by David's management to put together the CD package. It had been awhile since I worked on a project associated with David. Always an honor.
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.
Have a Smurfy day!
After a break, more dogs are finding their way to my Dogs Waiting for Their Humans site.
Rediscovered this piece I created for The Art of Micky Mouse: Artists Interpret The World's Most Famous Mouse edited by Craig Yoe and Janet Morra-Yoe (1991). I was truly flattered to be asked to contribute something to be included along with work by such noted artists as Andy Warhol, Charles M. Schulz, Peter Max, Keith Haring, R. Crumb, Milton Glaser, R.O. Blechman, Gary Panter, Gary Baseman, and Rick Griffin. The book might be a distant relative of What The Songs Look Like: Contemporary Artists Interpret Talking Heads Songs which I co-created with the band in 1987.
