You can’t underestimate the impact of popular culture on young, receptive minds. I was never the same after having the sleeve of The Who’s Quadrophenia passed to me on the school bus. What is this? I managed to convince my mate to allow me to borrow his record and once home I must have sat and stared at it for hours.
I studied its provocative combination of black and white imagery and the odd choice of a traditional chiselled font spelling out the LP’s title. What exactly is going through the mind of this young mod sat on his GS scooter, why has he written ‘who’ in chalk on the back of his parka – more importantly where did he buy those trainers? I want a pair. For the first time, design was causing me to make crucial, fundamental choices on how to look and think.
Everything must have appeared black and white to me in 1979. I had discovered The Specials and the clean chequer of the Two Tone label, and once again I was hooked by the record covers. David Storey was credited with most of these designs, together with Two Tone mastermind Jerry Dammers, who had sketched the original illustration of a Jamaican rude boy from a 1960’s photo of Peter Tosh from The Wailer’s. This sassy, street wise figure became emblematic of the Two Tone movement, and appeared on its single bags and paper labels. I sketched it too, along with those bold condensed letter forms which were unmistakably Two Tone.
David Storey helped create a unifying house style, where each sleeve was the ideal visual of the music inside. This individual attitude is comparable with Reid Miles’ work for the Blue Note label in the 1950’s and 60’s, both possessing an economic, decisive approach to design which Iike Blue Note was characteristic of its era. This bold graphic style also successfully defined other pop groups of the eighties, such as The Housemartins and Billy Bragg who were signed to Go Discs, another independent label which defined the style of its artists.
Of course Two Tone and the aforementioned Go Discs artists were politically outspoken too, so there was plenty for this teenager to think about. And the sleeves obviously helped me make up my mind how to make a living. Today, David is the Creative Director of the brand communications agency SGH Legend developing brands such as Barclays and BT but it’s his work in the 80’s which will continue to inspire – whether it’s on school buses or in teenage bedrooms.