DAVID STOREY
POP ART
FROM OBSCURE UNDERGROUND ARTISTS TO WORLDWIDE POP LEGENDS, DAVID STOREY IS THE MAN BEHIND MORE THAN 40 YEARS OF RECORD SLEEVE DESIGN. WE CAUGHT UP WITH HIM AT HIS STUDIO IN HOVE TO EXPLORE HIS PORTFOLIO.
ANDREW DINELEY
Your first record sleeves were for some high-profile releases, but where did your design journey begin?
I got a job at Elton John’s Rocket Records when I left art college and the first LP I worked on was the second volume of his Greatest Hits. I also did a couple of his singles before that including Don’t Go Breaking My Heart which went to No.1, so it was a wonderful way to kick off my career. I was at Rocket for about nine months, which was a terrific stepping stone to get me into Chrysalis Records the following year – they signed The Specials and the 2 Tone label the week I started.
The art department was basically myself and my friend John ‘Teflon’ Sims. For the first 12 months we mostly worked on design for the 2 Tone artists – The Bodysnatchers Madness, The Beat, and others. It was a fantastically inspiring time to be involved.
The graphic identity for the 2 Tone label was very strong – the monochromatic design work and that iconic logo…
How did it all come together?
The ‘Walt Jabsco’ logo was based on a photograph of Peter Tosh, formerly of Bob Marley’s Wailers. All the 2 Tone graphics went through The Specials’ Jerry Dammers. We would execute what he had in his head so he might wander in with a photograph and some old albums that he’d found in a second-hand shop and we’d make it into a real thing. I remember John Sims physically drawing various design elements, but they were all based on Jerry’s sketches. Dammers would come down hard if we added design embellishments, which is why it all looked so gritty and consistent. Jerry was obsessed with getting everything right. I was mainly involved in the imagery so spent a lot of time at this crazy resource called Barnaby’s Picture Library. They had millions of photographs from the 50s to the 70s so a lot of the ideas we worked with used found bits and pieces. Ghost Town from 1981 is a good example of this – that was an old postcard that I found there. The doom-laden chords of the song really fitted the image.