A couple of spreads from the Good Evening Europe concert programme.

Continuing his Live ‘09 tour, Paul started August by playing a show at Washington D.C.’s FedEx Field with advertising material designed by No Allegiances.

A glowing review of the show can be read here.

Photography by Kevin Mazur.

Designed the tour programme for Paul McCartney’s 2009 US summer tour.

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

One of my favourite bands Thursday ran a T-shirt design comp towards the end of 2007. I submitted a couple of designs and while this one didn’t make the cut (the one that made it to the shortlist was this) I received an e-mail from their management asking if they could use it.

“Fuck yes”, was the reply. I don’t think they’ve printed it yet, I’m not sure if they ever will, but I’m just chuffed as all hell that they were even close to using this for merch.

‘Double Je’ was the first commercial single released from Inventaire. In continuing with the theme of duality and in keeping with the aesthetic established by the album cover, we set up a shot where Erica held the mirror for the showbiz Christophe to be looking into, with the normal Christophe staring contemptuously back at him. Some liberties had to be taken with the positioning of the two Christophes for a better overall shot.

The onbody was designed as a mirror, for uh, introspective purposes.

Photography by Sandrine and Michael.
Christophe styled by
Erica styled by Lou at Unconventional.

Christophe Willem was the winner of France’s Nouvelle Star in 2006. Sony BMG France (now Columbia) tasked Stylorouge with designing and art directing his debut album, Inventaire.

Christophe and the team at Sony BMG were heavily involved from the onset, as Christophe had a very strong idea of what image he wanted to give the public. Realising that most people think that Pop Idol winners are marionettes manipulated by the music machine, Christophe wanted to convey an idea of there being more to him than his showbusiness persona.

Based on this brief, we decided to go over the top with the cover, but to slowly reveal the true side of Christophe through a narrative that would be provided by the singles to follow.

Old Busby Berkeley references were passed around and they stuck—they were striking and spoke spades about show business and gave us enough material to manipulate for the singles.

As we were showing mockups Christophe wasn’t satisfied with the direction, thinking that it didn’t hint that there was something under the pomp and flamboyance. He came up with the idea of implying that the cover image was a screen which he was rolling up—and in doing so getting rid of his stage personality, something that is carried through to the back cover.

On the back cover, the false screen of fame is rolled up and all that is revealed is the real Christophe standing in an empty room which represented life without fame in contrast to the velvet and gold. This room is shown in the lyrics booklet, but as the album progresses feathers from the front cover fall in and eventually obscure the zen like peace of room.

The first commercial single, ‘Double Je’, carried this theme of duality further.

The type used is a custom Serif Gothic paired with one of my favourite faces, Andrejs Grinberg’s Brewery, a face I would use more often if it had an italic accompaniment.

Photography by the lovely Sandrine and Michael.
Christophe styled by
Erica styled by Lou at Unconventional.