In 1970, the Rolling Stones office contacted the Royal College Art
in London and asked if they could send a student to meet with Mick
Jagger to discuss the design of a poster for their forthcoming
European Tour. I was aged 25 and studying graphic design in my final
year and was the student who was sent along to meet with Mick. I was
particularly interested in poster design and had produced several at
the college. This was perhaps the reason why I was chosen. At our
first meeting in his office in Maddox Street we discussed the
project and found that we both liked retro travel posters from the
1930s and 1940s. So we decided on this theme. The first design for
the tour poster which I presented was turned down by Mick because he
thought I could do better and fortunately gave me a second chance to
go away and improve it. Thankfully he really liked my second design
for the Rolling Stones 1970 European Tour poster and it was used
successfully for the tour. At the same time that I was creating the
airbrushed artwork for the poster in the college studio, a fellow
student, George Hardie, was drawing up the sleeve cover artwork for
Pink Floyds ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’. A fellow photography student
Storm Thorgerson had the concept for the sleeve and George was
helping him out with the artwork.
I later went on to design the Rolling Stones 1972 American Tour
poster and the1973 European Tour poster as well as a poster and
label for the ‘Goats Head Soup’ album.
Later in 1970 Mick invited me to his home to talk about a logo design that he
had in mind to use on letterheads and the Rolling Stones own record label.
During the meeting, he explained that he wanted a logo design which would
stand alone as an image without using the Rolling Stones name or a photo of the
band. A bit like the Shell logo for the petroleum company. He showed me a
picture of the Hindu Goddess Kali which he had seen in his local corner shop and
asked to borrow it. He just said he liked the image without specifically
explaining why. I was conscious that there was a lot of interest in Indian
culture and religion at the time which explained his interest in it. At the time
I didn't know much about the Goddess Kali but discovered that in Hinduism she
was the Goddess of Time, Doomsday and Death, or the Black Goddess. I wouldn't be
surprised if Mick knew a lot more about this than I did and that is why he
chose to show her image to to me. For me it was the pointed tongue sticking out
of her mouth that was the spark of the concept of using a disembodied mouth
and tongue as the logo. It seemed to symbolize anti-establishment and rebellion
which was seen as the band’s ‘bad boy’ image at the time. A bit like kids
sticking their tongue out at someone. So I went away and worked on it for a
couple of weeks, producing three or four sketches of the Lips & Tongue logo as
seen from various angles. At the next meeting with Mick, we both agreed on one
of the sketches which is very much as the logo is now. He needed to show the
rest of the band who were happy for me to proceed to finished artwork. I have
often been asked by collectors of Rock & Roll memorabilia if I still have the
initial design sketches but I must have unfortunately thrown them away at the
time.
In creating the artwork I wanted to keep the image as simple as possible in
colour and shape as it was going initially to be used at a very small size. I
suppose I used female lips as they seemed more attractive and voluptuous to me.
The simplicity of the design made it possible to be used in many forms and sizes
of merchandising and was even used as stadium stage design. The first time the
logo was used to a larger size was as an insert in the album sleeve of ‘Sticky
Fingers’ in 1971. The outer sleeve design was designed by Andy Warhol and for
years many people thought he had also designed the logo. I was naturally
flattered but am happy to now have the recognition for my design.
I had no idea at the time that my logo design would be used for over
50 years but I put that down to the fact that the band have been
making music and touring all that time without wanting to change
their logo. I am obviously happy that the logo seems to be liked
by young and old. The interest in retro design and fashion has
certainly helped.
In 2022, I took part in a TV BBC 2 documentary ‘My Life as a Rolling
Stone Mick Jagger Episode’ in which he was asked why the logo had
been successful and he replied “It had a connection, colour, f**k
you, funkiness, originality and that’s why it stuck”.
I am still working on various design projects from my studio at home
and producing colour sketches of the original logo. From the day I
created the logo, I have always felt that it was the right image for
the Stones and am pleased that it has become a design known
worldwide.
My association with the Rolling Stones led to working on projects
for Paul McCartney, Debbie Harry, The Who, The Art of Noise and many
other artists over a period of about 25 years. There are a lot my
sleeve designs along with other work on my portefolio website for
those who are interested.
In 1978, I took a job as Art Director of Untited Artists Records UK.
After a couple of years I moved to Chrysalis Records as Creative
Director where I stayed for 10 years. I then became Creative
Director at the South Bank Centre lasting 11 years. Since then I
have been working from my studio at home as a freelancer up to the
present day.