Chris Gorman & Chris Bigg

It might seem that I spend an inordinate amount of time talking about Belly record sleeves from 15 years ago. I don't know, maybe that's the case.

I'm just so impressed with the images that Chris Gorman & Chris Bigg created pre-King. It's just the perfect collaboration. Gorman's photos go along with Bigg's designs in a way that could not be improved. Each element alone would be fine, but together they make something special.

A good example would be the "Gepetto" cassette single back cover that I spotlighted a couple weeks ago. Gorman's wrench photo is bright & colorful and dark and mysterious at the same time. The reds & greens are striking. Bigg adds lettering-all in white- some small and formal, some even smaller, and on top there are the song titles big & bold with matching cursive attached. Just above that are the song titles repeated in tiny lettering to balance everything out. The result is supremely attractive.

This method of listing the song titles was used for all the Star-related releases, then abandoned with King, only to return, in part, with their final release, Sweet Ride: The Best of Belly. The combination of large lettering for song titles and the echo of the tiny lettering on top of a bright Gorman print was always interesting to look at.

The best image is probably the back cover of the Star LP. The photo of flowers and leaves with shifting shades of color matches perfectly the lines of song titles in orange. A blurry "Belly" logo superimposed towards the center matches the purple block that partially frames the photo. And again the tiny echo of song titles, numbered with red numbers in white cirles runs across the picture. "Belly" logos bookend the image and complete the effect. It is the perfect mix of photography and design.

The promo poster for Star is exciting to look at, at least, exciting for me, because it's a mix of so many Belly-related images; it's a collage of different sleeves and labels. Within nearly every circle there is a combination of striking photography and interesting design.

I'm not a big fan of artistic collaboration, especially not in the area of visual arts. Frankly, I'm against it. I think every image should be the work of one man or woman, and usually it is. In this case, though, the combination is so perfect, so right, it would be crazy to take one from the other.