Zooropa – album cover

The album was recorded while the band were on their European leg of the Zoo TV tour called Zooropa, from which the album took its name. The tour with its highly charged electronic TV images in all of their saturated colours and fizz gave us the notion of conjuring up the sleeve of Zooropa as a kind of electronic flag. It’s central motif of the Astrobaby surrounded by 12 stars in imitation of the European flag tied in strongly with the album’s European roots. The design, made quite quickly, is built up of a grid of images in the same manner of Achtung Baby over which layers of distressed, floating text are placed. This text was comprised of the upcoming album’s track titles provided to us as we were designing the sleeve. Somehow lost in the rush, we managed to not to update this track list so that several songs that didn’t make the final cut got left behind in the embedded piece, including Wake Up Dead Man, Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me and If You Wear That Velvet Dress!

ZooTV Tour – banknote

During U2′s Zooropa tour, Bono appeared as the MacPhisto character, a horned, gold lamé-clad washed up rock star who sang Daddy’s Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car while fake money in the shape of Zoo Ecu banknotes were cannoned into the audience by the thousands. We had good fun designing these notes. One side of the notes featured a cigar-smoking Bono give the peace sign, while the other side mimicked a real banknote with its filigree detailing, its Bank Of Zoo seal and its declaration to Watch More TV. An ‘Ecu’ was a precursor to the Euro, the shared single currency of the European Union’s member countries. No banknote would be complete without a serial number and the Zoo Ecu banknotes were no different. The serial number U21514201521R featured on one side of the note top left and top right, with each set of two numbers standing for a letter of the alphabet which spelled out ‘U2 on tour’.

Pop – album cover

Sometimes people read things into U2 covers that weren’t necessarily intentional. The Pop album features a track called The Playboy Mansion. After the Pop album came out we had a fax from the Playboy people who wanted to know why we’d used their logo and what we were trying to say. We weren’t aware that we’d used it at all but when we examined the cover it just so happened that if you look closely at the shot of Larry’s eye and turn the picture sideways the shadows make it look as if we’ve placed the Playboy logo over one eye! Brilliant but completely accidental!

All That You Can’t Leave Behind – album cover

The cover of the album features the band in the departures hall of 2F at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris photographed by Anton Corbijn. The band sometimes get in the act and enjoy a little hidden message as much as we do and so they asked us to revise the oval signage that appears on the left hand side of the album sleeve. The original image had F21-36 and indicated the direction to a series of check-in desks. The sleeve says J33-3 and is a biblical reference to Jeremiah 33.3, which reads “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and hidden things which you have not known.”

No Line On The Horizon – album sleeve

One of the themes within the album is that of universal balance and contrast, of night and day. It’s from this theme that we came up with the equals mark idiom as a form of title for the album, from the universal language of mathematics. The implication is of parallel force; of harmony and discord as in Matthew 6:10 …on earth as it is in heaven. To further the mathematical theme, in the digipak version of the album we put in a little hidden code – a piece of the Fibonacci sequence. Named after an Italian mathematician, the number sequence is related to the golden section, an ideal natural ratio as seen in art and architecture and in abundance in natural structures. It’s a numerical sequence that is a beautiful example of natural balance and equilibrium.

AMP Visual have recently found a box full of their of their long out of print 2003 book Stealing Hearts At A Traveling Show: The Graphic Design of U2. You can get this unique softback book for 29 Euros (and that includes postage worldwide), it’ll be signed by the team and 1 in ten of this beautifully printed book will also contain a hand-drawn postcard by the designers. Plus, all buyers will go into a draw to win a copy of the rare U2 Wide Awake In Europe on numbered 12″ vinyl. Go to ampvisual.com/shop

We drew some postcards to go into the first 60 orders and strangely, it’s these postcards that people have been really interested in! We have drawn some more, enough for every 1 in ten books, but we’ve even had people just asking us to send them the drawing… that’s not possible to accommodate… sorry!
In case people don’t know btw, everyone who buys the book goes into a draw to get a copy of the U2 Wide Awake In Europe limited 12 inch numbered vinyl.
So, thank you to the people who’ve bought the book. Do please ‘Like’ us on your Facebook page. We hope your book arrives to you shortly to enjoy.

Finally, there are still some copies left if you’d like to order one quickly before the end of the year.

Many thanks,
AMP Visual.

THE UNFORGETTABLE FIRE – Back Cover

All of the elements of this photograph from the back cover of U2′s 1984 album The Unforgettable Fire, go into making it a powerful and memorable image. The shattered dark ruin of the castle rising into the sky, the evidence of a prevailing windswept landscape with scrub growth and a leaning Hawthorn tree and finally the small figures of the band merging into the undulating form of the hillside. The infrared film stock lends a ghostly light to the scene, which is enhanced by the sepia tones of the print.

The castle featured on the back was located just outside of Limerick. It was chosen from several ruined castles visited on a 3-day location trip the weekend prior to the actual shoot. Many of the castles were unsuitable for a variety of reasons so a shortlist was drawn up and these were the focus of the shoot. The front cover is Moydrum Castle in County Westmeath.

THE JOSHUA TREE – Bono and Tree

The cinematic American desert landscape black and white photographs are hugely evocative of U2′s 1987 The Joshua Tree album. This solitary photograph of Bono infront of a Joshua tree taken at the same time as the band photograph on the inner gatefold and back cover with a panoramic camera has a lovely melancholic sentiment to it – whereby Bono becomes part of the landscape itself. Its deep contrast and haziness and sense of falling light lend to create an atmospheric tone. The photograph harks back to an earlier age of photography of the great American landscapes by the likes of Ansel Adams.

The actual location, off a highway on the way to Death Valley, California, was spotted by Anton Corbijn from the tour bus that the band were traveling in. As it was a single tree rather than a group of trees that were more normal. Anton had photographed these trees previously with Captain Beefheart and was on route to that location when he spotted the singular tree. It has since fallen down.

ACHTUNG BABY – Band in Trabant

There could be five photographs alone of just the Achtung Baby photography, the sessions were that good. To choose just one photograph that represents this incredible period of the band and Anton’s voluminous amount photography for them at this time is very difficult. But this shot of the band in the painted Trabant car by Thierry Noir – the artist well-known for his characters painted on the Berlin wall is exceptional. It is at once both serious and playful, beautifully colorful and iconic and this image spawned four of the five single covers that came from 1991′s Achtung Baby – with the image cut into quarters to form the image on each sleeve cover.

The photograph was taken in a photographic studio in Dublin in complete darkness using a simple handheld torchlight to “paint” the image through a long camera exposure. The process is difficult to judge at the time of taking as each exposure is different.

PASSENGERS – U2 and Brian Eno on Quayside

It’s little recognised as U2 playing parts rather than simply appearing in photographs. This photograph has a lovely comic quality; The Ship’s Kitchen Staff starring Larry as the disgruntled Commie chef, Bono looking suitably Head Chef-like, Brian Eno as the eager to please head waiter, Adam as the Sous-Chef and The Edge as the singlet-wearing Relief Cook. Anton Corbijn wonderfully posed this shot for Passengers on Dublin’s quay side and everything in the shot works great – the stances, the costumes, the angle of their hats all lend to to this rare portrait of U2 as not-U2. This session was originally intended to be used in the packaging for the Passengers album.

ALL THAT YOU CAN’T LEAVE BEHIND – Back Cover

There’s a heroic stillness to the silhouetted photograph of U2 and their baggage that features on the back of All That You Can’t Leave Behind from 2000. It tells the dual story of both looking to the future and to the past. The departures hall of 2F at Charles de Gaulle airport itself features large in the photograph with, as Bono described, it’s ‘velvet concrete’, wide open spaces and gently curved ceiling. The band themselves are beautifully shot so that even in just outline, Corbijn captures each band members individual profile.

To capture the band doing something that was an intrinsic part of their lives – traveling together was the brief. In order to document that the photography was taken as the band travelled on a normal flight from Dublin to the South of France. The photography began early in the morning in Dublin and the in Dublin Airport and at Charles de Gaulle Airport. It was photographed in real time so there was a small time frame between landing and boarding the next flight in Paris. So the photography has a documentary feel that made the end result all the more special.

AMP Visual work in a number of design disciplines in areas of cultural, entertainment, identity and corporate design and in assorted mediums and platforms from online to print, packaging to promotion. We work on projects both large and small and consistently strive to deliver original and clear communication solutions by working closely with our clients. Do contact us at info@ampvisual.com or call us on +353 1 633 7644. We’d love to do business with you.

A short time after working with U2 I was introduced to their friends and sometime touring partners the Virgin Prunes. In fact at the gig in Howth where U2 played two sets (one as The Hype, as a five piece band and the second as the four member U2) it was also the live debuts of the Virgin Prunes and my own (then) band The Modern Heirs – incidentally Adam Clayton played with all four bands that evening. That was the start of a long-time relationship that included the design of many of the covers for their recorded output.

The first piece was the cover for the 7″ EP Twenty Tens released on their own Baby Records in 1981 and was based on a found painting that was supplied by Gavin Friday and Guggi the two band members most interested and involved with the design process. They then signed to Rough Trade and the next series of releases was titled A New Form Of Beauty which consisted of  7″, 10″ and 12″ singles as well as a cassette. Guggi and Gavin worked closely on the simple packaging idea which included a script font over a photograph of crumbled paper. Each format used some of Guggi’s individualistic pen and ink illustrations on the back cover. Reproduced in monochrome it was minimal, not allowing any preconceptions of the band’s distinctive image to colour their music.

Later that same year (1982) Pagan Lovesong was also released. The photography was by Dublin based fashion photographer Ursula Steiger and was based on pictures of the make-up of tribesman from, I think, Papa New Guinea found in a photographic journal. Some striking images emerged from that session and one, of Guggi, became the front cover image for the 7″ and 12″ singles, the 12″ single version had contrasting black and white sides with monochrome pictures of Guggi on one and Gavin on the other. Both had a slightly disturbing quality well suited to the music. A cut up version of the Pagan Lovesong image of Guggi was used for the Sons Find Devils video release in 1985.

The debut album… If I Die, I Die was released later that year and continued the dual options for the cover, having essentially two front covers back to back. One was photographed in the band’s rehearsal studio in Temple Bar and the other at an outdoor session. A main feature of the indoor session was fire and the most effective way to capture it. Using it as  sword struck me as  good way to get an interesting picture. That indoor session also produced the picture used on the 7″ single Baby Turns Blue. The outdoor session had a elemental feel, of a lost tribe living life without the restraints of a restrictive society. The type on this side was hand drawn.The two pictures were again taken by Ursla Steiger.

To round off a productive year the band also released a 12″ single version of Baby Turns Blue under the title The Faculties of a Broken Heart. For this I found a royalty free illustration that seemed to meet the mood of the song.

The A New Form Of Beauty four part project was released as a double album through an Italian record company and it was something of a leap in the dark as this was produced pre-internet so it was produced as board artwork and instructions on how the cover should be printed were faxed to the label. That it came out so well is a wonder and it was a pleasant surprise that they mostly got it right. It would have been nice to have been paid too though.

Over the Rainbow was the next album, released on cassette and vinyl in 1985. This was directed by Gavin Friday who showed a reference of the overall mood he wanted to capture from a Judy Garland album. This was a collection of rarities and previously unavailable tracks. Another photographic session was set up with Ursla Steiger and a very stylized picture of Gavin and Guggi was used on the front cover. It focused on their red lips and made up eyes and was a homage to an earlier era of glamour. Another image of Guggi and Gavin also graced the inner sleeve as well as a set of band individual portraits. A stylized script was again used for the band’s name.

The following year  7″ and 12″ versions of the single Love Last Forever , this featured a photograph of a vintage photo album with a picture of Gavin in the picturesque frame page. The 12″ version was sparser with just the image of Gavin and the script centered below it. The pictures for this session were taken by Conor Horgan.

For the Moon Looked Down and Laughed cover (released in 1986) again drew from the photography and styling of earlier eras. Conor Horgan was the photographer and he and I worked closely on achieving the results in the studio. Internal frictions meant that neither Guggi nor guitarist Dik were a part of the photographic sessions. By now the Virgin Prunes has established their own visual look that, for such a cutting edge musical band, drew on earlier eras and more romantic times that contrasted with the band’s earlier image. However  as they toured in Europe they were exposed to a lot of new influences which were incorporated into the band’s ever evolving musical make-up.

The final Virgin Prunes album that I worked on was The Hidden Lie that was released in 1987. It was a live album recorded in Paris and used a visual blend of a photography of interference and an old engraving to act as a visual pun on the album title.

I was not involved with the later re-issue but went on to work with Gavin Friday on his album with the Man Seezer Each Man Kills The Thing He loves.

Stephen Averill
03/04/12

AMP Visual work in a number of design disciplines in areas of cultural, entertainment, identity and corporate design and in assorted mediums and platforms from online to print, packaging to promotion. We work on projects both large and small and consistently strive to deliver original and clear communication solutions by working closely with our clients. Do contact us at info@ampvisual.com or call us on +353 1 633 7644. We’d love to do business with you.

It’s always a very exciting time for AMP Visual when a big band we’re working with, release a big album. This is especially the case when it’s the essential, career defining second. The moment that makes or breaks a group.

From the inception of the album chart back in the 40′s and the decades that followed, music’s historical archives are filled to the brim with bands and acts who created that “one big album”, the one that took the world by storm, but then, disappeared from the public eye, forever. However, it’s not always a case of the second album being bad, but more often the public loose interest and commercially they’re deemed not to be a success, and that’s all it takes. Next public appearance… Never Mind The Buzzcocks.

Of course, all of these thoughts were on the back of my mind in June 2010, when myself and Steve Averill travelled to London to meet the band in their studio. This was the first time we worked with the guys and were probably as anxious as any member of the team that this second album became a success. We were very excited that this great new Irish band had taken the world by storm and we wanted to be a part of it.

When the unmastered “Science & Faith” blasted from the mixing desk, Glen’s pristine percussion snapping, all the suspense abated. To my left stood Mark playing his invisible ‘Les Paul’ air-guitar, whilst Danny stood near the door, baseball cap on, his voice booming over the track, trademark arm pointing to the sky. I looked to my right, where Martin – the band’s manager – sat, he gave me a knowing ‘yes, good isn’t it’ smile.

That chanting chorus remained in my head for a week. I couldn’t wait to hear it live.

Some time later, the all important tea and biscuits arrived and we got down to business and discussed the bands vision for the design.

The concept evolved from the fact that many of the songs dealt with human relationships and interactions on a very personal level. From that initial idea, the concept of using hands as a means of expression or aggression was developed. At the same time a new ‘The Script’ logo had been developed and this was an integral part of the overall look. A few weeks later a series of design concepts were presented and finally approved. That was followed by a photo shoot wherein a numerous amount of hands – male/female,  man/child, youth/age – were photographed and then manipulated to give the cover its strong graphic dynamic.

This small show and tell will visually give you a rough idea of how this iconic sleeve was achieved.

Gary Kelly
26/03/12

Stage 1: Original photograph of combined hands on simple neutral background for simple cropping.

Stage 2: Once hands have been neatly clipped, a neutral parchment paper effect is placed on to a new layer. On top of this I place a white circle with extreme Gaussian Blur and within the Layer Effect panel create a “Hard Light” filter.

Stage 3: On a new layer, overlay a rough distressed bitmap image.

Stage 4: Bring clipped hand layer to foreground. 

At this point the hands are key. Add more depth to the hands by slightly upping the overall ‘Levels’ balance. Once this is achieved the hands will contain more colour and shadowing. Because the definition between both wrists was too slight I needed to create a dark shadow between both to lift one off the other. Initially it looks quite crude but eventually everything will blend.

Using the ‘Burn Tool’ I create shadows around all areas which need most definition – knuckles, finger nails, wrinkles and folds.

Stage 5: Using the ‘Hue Saturation’ filter I remove most (but not all) of the colour, leaving a the hands quite pasty.

Stage 6: Build the colour and density back up using the ‘Overlay’ layer filter. Take hand layer, duplicate it and overlay it two more times. This will now leave you with 3 hand layers.

Stage 7: Create another new layer and place the manipulate image below, down over full image using an ‘Overlay’ filter at 30%. This will produce a nice grain sepia effect.

Stage 8: Pull down overall curves on image to deepen colour. Pop down a nice logo, and voila, you’ve got an album cover.

Stage 9: Head over to the Letterman show in New York and play to millions of viewers. Simple!

AMP Visual work in a number of design disciplines in areas of cultural, entertainment, identity and corporate design and in assorted mediums and platforms from online to print, packaging to promotion. We work on projects both large and small and consistently strive to deliver original and clear communication solutions by working closely with our clients. Do contact us at info@ampvisual.com or call us on +353 1 633 7644. We’d love to do business with you.

Logos, they’re absolutely all around us. They are the shorthand and visual idiom of our age. We have always enjoyed making these little marks and symbols for U2. We’ve picked just five logos out of the many we’ve made for the band and say a few words about each.

The Joshua Tree

The isolated silhouette drawing of the Joshua tree was the first U2 logo to appear that people recognised globally. It works both literally and figuratively and it is highly memorable. People connect it intrinsically with the U2 masterpiece album and as such the icon has inherited the characteristics of integrity and a certain kind of honesty and beauty. The tree itself has a lovely very individual shape with its unusual branches and leaves. The logo represents all that that album means to people, so much so that some people have it as a tattoo.

Zooropa – Astrobaby and ring of stars
The ZooTV tour had a fantastic hi-tech connection with satellite technology and the notion of being a TV station on the road. By the time of Zooropa’s outdoor shows, it was incredibly in your face. The icon drawing of the astrobaby surrounded by 12 stars in imitation of the European flag came to represent the tour and subsequently appeared on the cover of the Zooropa album. The logo has a whimsy and intrigue that is appealing. It can be understood without words and somehow its human smallness nicely represents the largesse and technicality of the Zooropa tour.

Pop – Lemon-planet logo
The PopMart tour had a multitude of references – a kind of celebration of 60s kitch and Americana, pop-art, and shopping were all in there. The stage featured an enormous yellow arch almost in homage to the golden arches of the McDonald’s restaurant sign and the band emerged out of a huge chrome lemon during the set. So somehow this logo – made for the tour merchandising – of a shopping trolley traveling around a lemon like a satellite made good sense.

How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb – Chevrons, target and blast
While the How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb warning chevrons, the target and the ‘blast’ shape isn’t just one visual icon, it is still a visual language that worked in the same way as a logo for the album and tour campaign. The icons worked especially well on the cover of the special edition ‘handbook’ version of the album. These black and red-coloured components featured heavily as the album’s identity in promotion and advertising and through the singles from the album and consequently in the tour stage and merchandise.

U2360 – Logo
This icon represented the U2360 tour and in much the same way as The Joshua Tree logo, it’s a literal interpretation, with the logo’s simple curvilinear lines conveying the stage’s iconic shape rather than the other featured logos, which are more about representing an idea. It works well perhaps as its shape is not dissimilar to the elegant streamlined logos as seen for the likes of 60s automobiles with their reminiscence to the golden age of rockets and spacecraft.

AMP Visual work in a number of design disciplines in areas of cultural, entertainment, identity and corporate design and in assorted mediums and platforms from online to print, packaging to promotion. We work on projects both large and small and consistently strive to deliver original and clear communication solutions by working closely with our clients. Do contact us at info@ampvisual.com or call us on +353 1 633 7644. We’d love to do business with you.

Rita Kirwan, Marketing Director Tayto and Hunky Dorys crisps.