Artwork and Branding with Vaughan Oliver

Our speakers discussed the use of design and artwork in recorded music and in broader applications, including: posters, t-shirts and overall branding. This was a rare opportunity to consider how artists and creative businesses are visually presented and branded plus network with other creatives including designers, musicians, artists, developers and more.

Speakers:

Vaughan Oliver (23 Envelope/v23)

Born in County Durham, Vaughan studied graphic design at Newcastle Polytechnic, in the late 1970s. Having moved to London in 1980, he began working with the 4AD label. Soon after this he became the label’s art director. Whilst carrying out this role, Vaughan set-up the design company 23 Envelope in 1983, producing sleeves for most of the label’s roster: The Pixies, Cocteau Twins, Throwing Muses etc…

Jonathon Cooke (Formerly with Blue Source, now director of Village Green)

Jonathon got his first taste of sleeve design when he joined the art department of Stiff Records in 1986. He worked their as a junior designer, on sleeves for: The Pogues, Madness and there Mod imprint label Countdown. In 1991 he became a director of the
design company Blue Source and, over a 10 year period, designed sleeves for a number of artists including: Leftfield, Placebo, Gomez, Tricky and Embrace. In 2000 he became art director of, the London based club and label, Fabric. Jonathon now runs the design
company Village Green, with partner Seb Marling. He still works with Fabric, but also has clients such as, Mark Ronson, Sky Sports and Becks Beer.