‘Cover To Cover’
The designs & photography of Simon Halfon
A 40 year dive into the work of revered graphic designer
A career spanning archive
The Jam, The Style Council, Paul Weller, Oasis, George Michael, The Who, Madness, Steve Winwood, David Bowie, Frank Sinatra & more
Out November 16th via Nemperor
Available to pre-order at nemperor.com
Award-winning graphic designer Simon Halfon, today announces the release of his debut book ‘Cover To Cover’ – to be published by Nemperor on November 16th.
Initially launched as a Kickstarter campaign, and meeting its target in less than six hours, this book includes 40 years of his record sleeves, design work and rarely – if ever – seen photography.
Simon Halfon is an award-winning graphic designer with a career spanning four decades in the music industry. He is most noted for his long standing collaborations with George Michael, Oasis and Paul Weller (with whom he worked for the best part of 30 years) designing some of their most iconic albums, from ‘Listen Without Prejudice’ to ‘Standing on the Shoulder of Giants’to ‘Stanley Road’, his first of three collaborations with Peter Blake.
Along with his designs, this beautifully presented hard back book also gives us the opportunity to see Simon’s rarely if ever seen photos of these iconic artists.
Alongside The Jam, The Style Council, Paul Weller, Oasis, George Michael, his design portfolio includes The Who, Madness, Steve Winwood, Nick Heyward, David Bowie, Frank Sinatra, John Lennon, James Brown, the Blue Note label and many more.
‘Cover To Cover’ also showcases Halfon’s production work for the feature films Sleuth, starring Michael Caine & Jude Law, as well as the Oasis feature length documentary Supersonic.
On the creation of the book, Halfon explains; “During lockdown I took the opportunity to reorganise my archives and began to look through boxes, many of which hadn’t been opened in over three decades. Sorting through thousands of personal photographs, negatives, artist’s proofs, sketches and notes, brought an overwhelming sense of nostalgia and a new-found pride for my body of work. Having never taken the time to look back, I hadn’t truly appreciated the journey. It now feels like the perfect time to create a retrospective book to celebrate the privilege of a career working with some of music’s most iconic artists. It will also give me the opportunity to share anecdotes & recollections – to tell the stories behind the artwork.”
His journey began in the post room at Stiff Records back in 1980, where with no formal training he ended up in their art department, before moving on to work for Neville Brody up at The Face magazine offices. Since that time Halfon has worked alongside many of the great artists and photographers, from Peter Blake to David Bailey.
Most recently Halfon created and produced the punchy comedy/drama series ‘All You Need Is Me’ for Canal Plus. Based on many of his own experiences living in Los Angeles, the series was shot entirely on location in LA and London. He garnered cameos from Fallout Boy’s Pete Wentz, the Libertines’ Carl Barat, Elvis Costello and James Corden.
As The Rolling Stones’ legendary manager and producer Andrew Loog Oldham saysof Halfon’s work – “the job of artwork on an LP cover is to explain the music, the artist and invite you in. Halfon does just that.”