Classic_Pop_Issue_30_July_2017

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of wordplay and never afraid to

embrace a cliché, the cover for

InCANdescence was a still life shot

by Gavin Cochrane, a photographer

I worked with many times. It featured

a can with a light inside, what else!

Unlike many designers of that

era, your sleeves had less

of a defi ned style, but you

helped to set the visual tone

of the period. Your hand-

rendering of the Japan logo

and the Vogue-referenced

sleeve designs for The Human

League remain classic pieces

of pop logo design.

Having been to art school at the

back end of the 60s/early-70s and

during my time at Farnham, I had

the pleasure of attending a lecture

by Bob Gill of Fletcher Forbes and

Gill. They were our role models and

the emphasis in graphic design was

on the ‘idea’ rather than purely style.

Consequently, treating every

sleeve as an individual project did

mean there was less opportunity to

be known for a particular ‘look’.

However, some of the sleeves I

worked on did develop into a style

of sorts. The work for Japan featured

my handwritten type and that did

give them a ‘look’ and meant that

the band kept asking me to do more

work, thankfully.

Your work with The

Human League varied from

photographic to typographic

and everything inbetween.

Were these your creative

decisions or were Virgin

and the band involved?

The album covers for Dare

and Hysteria were lavished

with particularly deluxe

gatefold treatments.

When electronic music started to

become popular I was already

trawling around Rough Trade in

Notting Hill picking up singles

including Being Boiled by The

Human League so I was a fan. Their

fi rst two albums were designed by

Malcolm Garrett (See Classic Pop

Issue 6), so I was surprised to be

asked to work on their new single,

Boys And Girls. I was unaware

that Martyn Ware and Ian Craig

Marsh had split to form BEF, leaving

Phil Oakey and Adrian Wright to

continue as The Human League. It is

always a nerve-racking experience,

meeting ‘pop stars’, I was relieved

to fi nd Phil and Adrian, now with

Joanne and Susan Ann, easy to work

with. So happy, in fact, that I was

asked to work on their next album,

Dare. Phil and Adrian came with the

Right, Japan’s

Ghosts 12” vinyl

single (1982),

Visions Of China

(1981), Nightporter

(1982) and, below,

Can’s InCANdescence

(1983)

“Out of all the bands I worked with, XTC were the most demanding and also the most rewarding.

Andy Partridge acted as Creative Director for almost every release... His ideas were almost always

challenging from a production cost perspective.”

KEN ANSELL

CP30.pop_art.print.indd 64 08/06/2017 09:10