Michael Muller shot Morrissey on the grave of Johnny Ramone for this cover.

The CD two inner bag carries a reproduction of the Camden Town engine house which eventually became the Roundhouse—where the Ramones first played the UK in 1976. There’s a great seven-minute long doco about this show you can watch here.

Pat Pope took these shots of Morrissey in front of the Alone in London hostel on the corner of Kings Cross and St. Pancras Pentonville road which were used for the Maladjusted reissue.

The hostel is still there and is still committed to helping homeless youth in London but the sign has since been replaced with one with a modern logo. More information about Alone in London can be found here.

As much as we wanted to stray from the School of “Go-To” Albion Typography nothing quite says London like Gill or Johnston do and why avoid clichés just for the sake of avoiding clichés?

We went with Farey and Dawson’s gorgeous re-imagining of Johnston’s original for its more modern take and for the italics that are available for it. Titling was done in a modified P22 Johnston Underground for its rawer character.

To further reinforce the London connection a vintage map was licensed for use on the end papers. The map is cropped to run from Fulham to beloved East London, albeit on the inner pocket of the wallet.

Linder Sterling took the shots of Morrissey in El Paso which we used for the Southpaw Grammar reissue.

Years of Refusal, Morrissey’s ninth studio album has been released on Attack / Lost Highway (USA) and Polydor (rest of the world).

Mexican folk art and vintage California drove the art direction of Years of Refusal. Working around a photograph taken by Jake Walters of M holding a plump, drooling baby, we echoed the subtle Mexican sounds in the music by using typography inspired by José Guadalupe Posada, one of Mexico’s most famous illustrators and printmakers to give everything a kitschy frontier feel.

To accentuate the chiaroscuro of the cover image and painting, the LP and special CD / DVD versions were run on fabric-textured stock which makes the record feel like an oil painting hanging in the Louvre that you shouldn’t have just touched. The CD / DVD version comes in a mini LP gatefold and was again made by the lovely people at London Fancy Box who did a fantastic job of putting together a solid, high quality package.

Band photography by Travis Shinn (not seen here). Bodegon Con Jarra de Vino, 1914 (oil on canvas) by A. Fuentes, photography by Arturo Osorno / INBA / The Bridgeman Art Library

The first single from Years of Refusal is “I’m Throwing My Arms Around Paris’. Shot by Jake Walters in Los Angeles.

The inner bags feature candid pics of the band shot by Travis Shinn and paintings of Paris by Jules Herve and Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre.

‘All You Need Is Me’ was the second release from Greatest Hits. The patterned paper on this was made of snakes, globes, eyes and stars.

Also released as two 7″s and a CD wallet.

See also Morrissey Greatest Hits and That’s How People Grow Up

Cover photography by Jake Walters.

A design for Morrissey’s show at the Paris Olympia in February 2008. Originally intended to be a limited edition poster, the merchandiser decided to not take a punt on a run of 100 posters for an individual show.

This design was run on T-shirts instead. Again in the Vienna Succession style, although this one features Nike holding a wreath surrounding a bomb—the figure of Nike was taken from a Vivat ribbon in the Imperial War Museum.

See also Morrissey Roundhouse Poster

A poster in the Vienna Succession style using the arches of the old Camden Roundhouse to make the “M” initial. Limited run of 100 posters, printed in gold by Lesley Sharpe. Posters were sold out during the show’s run.

See also Morrissey Paris Olympia

The back cover and inner bags were made to ape the Penguin Poets series with their Elizabeth Friedlander designed covers. The intent was to link Morrissey’s back catalogue with the classics of British poetry and literature, albeit with a modern spin. (Steve Hare has written a great article in August 2008’s Creative Review about these covers)

The design of the endpaper / cover is tailored to the repertoire represented on Greatest Hits. Each song on GH has a custom icon drawn for it, and each of these icons are patterned into the wallpaper in cells of a grid constructed by the bow of a violin (Ringleader of the Tormentors) and a Thompson sub-machine gun (You Are the Quarry).

A new crest was drawn for this release, with an Irish wolfhound (with incorrectly pointed ears) and a rampant lion holding up the ‘M’ initial in a shield with other elements from songs on GH incorporated.

The special edition was printed by London Fancy Box onto uncoated stock before being stuck onto heavy board (400gsm, from memory) giving it a fantastic quality and weight. As per Ringleader the CD onbodies mimicked that of a vinyl but due to cost constraints we didn’t get away with having black undersides on these ones.

See also That’s How People Grow Up and All You Need Is Me

The first single from Greatest Hits was the Jerry Finn (R.I.P.) produced ‘That’s How People Grow Up’. In keeping with the artwork for the album, a new endpaper directly relevant to the lyrics was designed for this in a powder blue.

The pattern features elements referenced by the lyrics such as scythes, hearts, hourglasses and tears.

This was released on CD in pochettes and spined 7″ wallets.

Cover photography by Jake Walters.

See also Greatest Hits and All You Need Is Me

Morrissey had been residing in Rome while writing and recording Ringleader and we wanted the design to echo the inspiration.The cover was shot by Fabio Lovino who also shot M on the streets of Rome with every allusion to Italian life and industry—on a Vespa, next to political graffiti eating gelato, in front of an old Fiat, playing football, under pizzeria signs and in between lines of linen hung out to dry. Some of these shots became the covers of the singles from Ringleader.

The branding focused around the cartouche and crest. The fleurons framing the cartouche were taken from triumphal arches found in books of Roman architecture. The “M” crest was aped from Rome’s official seal with his initial replacing “The Senate and the People of Rome” and we designed a monogramme in vein of an Italian high-fashion house to run on the inner bags. This monogramme carried into merchandising—silk scarves were printed with the pattern á la Louis Vuitton (a French fashion house to be sure). The crest featured on lapel pins, Tiffany-style keyrings, tie-pins, cufflinks and even girls’ pants.

This was done at Stylorouge. Mark Higenbottam at Stylorouge drew the typography for M’s name.