I can still remember the day when Bill [Smith, of Bill Smith Studios] came into the studio fresh from a meeting with Steve Davis at EMI, (Steve was Marillion's Product Manager at the time) brandishing details of our first Marillion job - the album ‘Seasons End'.
A challenge.
Marillion, like their labelmates Iron Maiden, had a very distinct identity. Our mission was to reinvent the band's graphic image without alienating existing fans.
Another challenge.
It is only with the benefit of hindsight that we can see that ‘Seasons End' coverwise was a bridge between the strong illustrative work of Mark Wilkinson and the photographic approach preferred by the studio at the time. Bill thought that considering the album title, we should exploit the universal theme of the elements - land, water, air and fire. It was also a farewell to the previous incarnation of Marillion so we used clues from previous albums in combination with these elements. 1989 was a completely different time for graphic designers. It comprised of being a dab hand with a scalpel, Rotring pen and drawing board. Nowadays computers can do the lot (I'm using one right now) and very well too. As you can probably tell, the feather and the chameleon are Rotring pen jobs, the bell from the jester's hat and the clown painting were cut out (using a scalpel surprise surprise!) from earlier sleeves. When redoing the front cover art for this remaster I made one important change to one of the images, and that was adding a reflection to the clown picture in the water.
In many respects this album was the visual template for the three singles that came off it: ‘Hooks in You', ‘Uninvited Guest' and ‘Easter'. By this time Bill and myself had established a good relationship with the boys. It was when working on a limited edition 12” variant of the ‘Easter' sleeve that things started moving in a different direction. Bill had mentioned using a sack with the Marillion logo stencilled/burnt on as the cover image, we didn't really have much time on this one, so I used what I had to hand. Namely a yellow Post office bag for 50p pieces and some budgie seed. The trick was in the photography, using a very high contrast on the print and then adding colour at the repro stage (the stage before printing). The crucifix was also added at this point, the finished effect was quite dramatic and pointed the way towards ‘Holidays in Eden', ‘Six of One, Half a Dozen of the Other', ‘Brave' and ‘Afraid of Sunlight'.
What we were trying to achieve with Marillion's covers was an aura of mystery, of greater forces at work (not necessarily religious) whilst attempting the difficult brief of ‘trying to make it look like it sounded' and pleasing the chain of people from the record company through to the management and finally the band (sometimes the other way round).
Bill and myself always had a great time working with Marillion, who I've always found receptive to new and sometimes off the wall ideas.
May their tribe increase.
