Creative Review 2010 annual gives Pet Shop Boys’ Yes a big tick
by Stuart Clark
I’ll be honest with you. I don’t normally read the Creative Review. I always feel a bit out of my depth flicking through its pages, like the people who have contributed to it are somehow on a higher creative plane than I am.
One thing I do know a lot about though is the Pet Shop Boys. So when I saw that the special vinyl edition of their most recent album “Yes” – created in collaboration with Farrow and The Vinyl Factory – has made it into the 2010 Creative Review Annual I was delighted.
Finally there was a feature in the bible of design that I could relate to; that I could understand the concept behind and explain what’s so good about it.
Like all great design, its brilliance is its beautiful simplicity.
Those of you who haven’t heard the album, Yes is the PSBs most pop album since Very. So when it came to designing the cover, the initial brief was to create something very bright and very colourful. Taking inspiration from the Gerhard Richter 4900 exhibition, which had been on at the Serpentine, the early concepts featured panels of brightly coloured squares. Then came the flash of inspiration:
“The tick was obviously inspired by the album’s title,” says Farrow, “Reducing the title to a symbol that encompassed the other elements the band had requested just seemed to work; it’s instant and memorable and pop. The tick is made up of eleven coloured squares, one for each track on the album.”
The squares continue on the inside of the CD, where the tick deconstructs – merging and clashing with photographs of the band. A font made up of the same squares was also put together, helping to shape the identity for the band’s world tour.
The special edition is even better, expanding on the concept and revealing just strong and simple it is. The eleven tracks are split over eleven separate super-heavyweight 200-gram vinyl records – with exclusive instrumentals on the b-side - each slipped into its own coloured sleeve then housed in a handcrafted, smoked Perspex case – complete with gold-plated tick.
You can actually lay the eleven album sleeves out on the floor to make up your own tick that measures some 8 feet in length. Like this:
There’s even a final 12th sleeve, containing an original art print, hand signed and numbered by Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, plus a heavyweight information card containing full track list, credits and colour key.
Needless to say, I want one. But even at £300 a pop, the limited run of just 300 sold out in just a couple of weeks. Bummer.
Still, if you want to be really impressed, you could always check out the recently released tour DVD, which demonstrates how the coloured square concept evolved into a three dimensional stage show, featuring a disposable set fashioned entirely from cardboard boxes. Well worth a look…
Tags: Album Art, Album Cover Designs, Album Design, Art Direction, Creative Concepts, Creative Execution, Creative Review, Creativity, gerhard richter, graphic designs, Mark Farrow, packaging, Pet Shop Boys, serpentine gallery, Yes
